Although generations of readers of the Little House books are familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's early life up through her first years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, few know about her adult years. Going beyond previous studies, Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder focuses upon Wilder's years in Missouri from 1894 to 1957. Utilizing her unpublished autobiography, letters, newspaper stories, and other documentary evidence, John E. Miller fills the gaps in Wilder's autobiographical novels and describes her sixty-three years of living in Mansfield, Missouri. As a result, the process of...

Bones of the Woods is a collection of 8 short stories that will make your skin crawl, even as you ponder the power of the forces around us, both natural and supernatural. The stories included in the book are:

• The Bones of the Forest -- A young girl leaves the safety net that was erected around the cities after an uprising. She finds a journal and discovers not only what happened in the past, but also raises fears about the present.
• The Hangman's Tree -- Bill has been Death for many years. During that time, he's judged people the best way he knew how. Now he's...

Dive into the darkest recess of madness and experience the facets of fear reflected in the seven stories of Mind of a Mad Man. The Dance is a modern day ghost story, a tale of possessive love and religious intolerance. When a young novelists' grandmother dies, she inherits the house. Her first night there, she is visited by a lady in an old-fashioned ballgown who invites her to dance. In The Bar a young bartender weaves a tale about the night his life was changed forever. Did you ever pick up the phone and there was only static? What if you heard a faint voice in the static? Reading Shadow...

"Something strange happened down in the Louisiana bayou and it didn't involve banjoes." Nothing aggravates the earthbound goddess Agatha more than intruders in her swamp. Fortunately she's a shapeshifter and in her alligator form, she has more than one way to get rid of trespassers. Unfortunately, on February 14, 1900, she gets rid of one, only to have the girl he was with give birth right there in her swamp. The odd thing is, the baby disappears. She has a strong suspicion that Caprice, the goddess of chaos, is involved. But why should some mortal child concern her? Swampy knows nothing...

"When a god gives you rainbows, should you trust him? " In the summer of 1897, Delilah Cats is over-the-moon about her engagement to Laurent. However, her sister Sassafras remembers Laurent as the kid who was all-too-obsessed with pain. When Delilah does not return after going off to New Orleans with Laurent, Sassafras worries. However, she has much more to worry about than her willful sister's sadistic beau. There is war brewing in other realms and the weave that separates the realms is tearing. The spiders spin furiously to try to close it, even as the God of Pain prepares for his assault...

"Sometimes what looks like an angel really is one. Sometimes it's not." As a teenage boy, Duncan O'Malley moved from Ireland to New York, looking for a new start. As an adult in the 1890s, he believes he's accomplished it. What Irish immigrant could want more than to own a boxing gym with his charming, and only somewhat annoying brother? But one sweltering day in Hell's Kitchen, all of that changes when an old acquaintance shows up and informs him he is now a cop. Maggie Bloom is a young, fiery red head. She is also engaged to a man with money, the drive to succeed, and a temper. He also has...

"When mortals war, gods might watch. When gods war, mortals bleed." Delilah Cats believes that when a god demands something, it's usually best to give him what he wants. So when Lord Psyche brings a few New Orleans courtesans to the rooftop of his mansion, she sees no reason not to entertain them with a rainbow. Besides, the storm god promised he'd help her find Jesse. Her brother is overprotective, but she does miss his voice. Will her offering assuage the dragon? Sassafras Cats has never felt a wind as hot and dry as the one brushing her face. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she...

"Rite of passage. Passage of rights. Both are dangerous." In 1900, Mama Cats gave birth to a daughter and named her Toledo. Now Toledo is 21 and Mama Cats has done all she can to raise her to be a good woman and a midwife. On a clear night in March 1921, Mama Cats decides it's time to tell Toledo the truth about her birth and reveal her plan to join Toledo's father. Her mama's confession and the events that follow leave Toledo with more questions than answers; more grief than joy. But just as she is worrying about how to tell her long-time soul mate, Hanover Fist, about what happened, a knock...

South Dakota is often thought of as a conservative or "red" state, but its political culture is much more variegated and unpredictable than such colour-coded references might imply. Just as the nation as a whole consists of diverse regions and subcultures that manifest fairly wide swings of opinion and voting patterns over time, South Dakota contains its own geographic variations and political subcultures. The first volume illustrated the complex nature of state politics and cyclical change over time, and this new group of essays concentrates on some of the unpredictability and...

The mother-daughter partnership that produced the Little House books has fascinated scholars and readers alike. Now, John E. Miller, one of America's leading authorities on Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, combines analyses of both women to explore this collaborative process and shows how their books reflect the authors' distinctive views of place, time, and culture. Along the way, he addresses the two most controversial issues for Wilder/Lane aficionados: how much did Lane actually contribute to the writing of the Little House books, and what was Wilder's real attitude toward...