TALISMAN Two families, searching for wealth, adventure, and a new way of life are thrown together in the California goldfields of the 1850s. This is a story of their journeys to this wild frontier and their struggles for survival against bandits, animal attacks, harsh winters, natural disasters and their own personal demons. Whoever possesses the gold nugget talisman has their life influenced by the power of this mysterious stone. Tenny Woods' experience of a religious epiphany coincident with the discovery of a rich gold deposit convinces him that he is God's chosen messenger. Obsessed by a...

"Showing the Story" collects nonfiction by new writers: clear voices, fresh content, engaging storytelling.

This collection shows what people new to writing, given opportunity and support and guidance, can accomplish.

These new authors write with economy, grace, precision, courage. Their stories pull us into spaces unfamiliar to us, and yet in the things that happen in those spaces, things we may not have known about, we recognize pieces of ourselves.

The brutality inflicted on his fiancee was the last straw. Dusty had expected most of the problems of winter drilling in Northern Canada, but he did not anticipate being suspected as Elena's attacker. Against his better judgment, he had contracted the geological supervision of the Amyot Project. From the start, the operation was plagued with the efforts of hostile villagers and environmentalists, rig accidents, an assistant with a hidden agenda, and an attempt on his life. As the Project descended into financial uncertainty, Dusty realized that in order to clear his name, it was up to him to...