Literary fiction
The Burning Yard
The Burning Yard takes place on a bucolic, parklike property in Arizona in the 1950s. Three siblings—Megan, Cynthia Jane and Jamie navigate their way through the labyrinth of their mother’s struggle with terminal cancer and their father’s alcohol-fueled violence however they can—together and separately—successful, and not, while trying to stay clear of the various impingements forced on them by these circumstances. A brutal life. Cynthia Jane is committed to a mental institution, leaving her brother Jamie and their little sister Megan to tend to their mother and to fend off their father’s advances. One place on the property is their sacred spot—the burning yard—where they can escape the world. Megan and Jamie dig a tunnel and an underground fort, and Megan hatches a plan to finally be rid of their father’s impugnations. Jamie is terrified—he has suffered the worst of their father’s attacks—but follows his sister’s orders, and they create a trap that if successful will set them free. When the moment arrives to act, they throw themselves into it, and what they do with what they’ve put into place changes their lives forever.
All the Darkness Holds
“ALL THE DARKNESS HOLDS a novel by JOHN LANG”
A gripping 20th-century historical fiction novel of survival, sacrifice, and the search for redemption
In 1916, Clessie Bonaparte knows only a life of suffering on her father’s Midwest farm. Following the mysterious death of her Ojibwe mother and enduring her white father’s brutality, a pregnant Clessie makes a fateful decision: she must flee to save herself and her unborn child.
A Journey from the Midwest to the Rugged West
Her escape takes her to the untamed landscape of northern Arizona. Haunted by the terrors of her past, Clessie makes a choice she believes is the only way to protect her baby from a similar fate. Retreating into the forest with the intention to vanish forever, her path eventually crosses with Isaac McCaslin, the foreman of a cattle ranch.
Healing and Reckoning
As Isaac’s protective nature frightens and beguiles her, Clessie begins the hard work of reclaiming her life and reckoning with the father she left behind and the secrets of her past.
Perfect for fans of:
· Historical fiction and 20th-century family sagas.
· Native American stories and Ojibwe heritage.
· Inspiring stories of survival and female resilience.
· Western landscapes and Arizona history.
The West Coast Music Land Adventures of Bub Stanfield
Bub, an old man now, writes a series of letters to his son whom he hasn’t seen since the boy was an infant, trying to make up for all the years they’ve lost. The old man’s life has diminished, as has his income from the halcyon days of his youth as a young songwriter in the 1970s and 80s whose music and lyrics helped create a new genre of music called The West Coast Sound. In his letters, Bub regales his son with tales of derring-do, of heroic and tragic moments, of his own rise to the pinnacle of the music business in spite of and because of his brushing up against so many famous artists and A-list players and musicians, experiences that could only be found in the world of rock & roll, recording studios, drug dealers’ cribs and Hollywood night clubs. And of course the managers, lawyers, agents and publishers, all eager to make their mark on that short period of time that felt like it was going to last forever. He’s hoping his son will once again become enamored of him as he seemed to have been when he was a baby. “The way you used to look at me,” the old man writes. “It was everything.”
The West Coast Music Land Adventures of Bub Stanfield is the first novel in a series of three which will tell the entirety of Bub’s story.