As a winter storm bears down on the Texas Panhandle in December, 2004, Willa Jackson embarks on a plan to maintain her independence and fully realize her artistic talent. Her first encounter on this course, with her daughter, Melanie Banks, proves that accomplishing those ends as she ages past her present seventy-four years will be fraught with obstacles. Melanie’s determined to take care of her mother although she has her hands full navigating her own problems with a demanding job as a school administrator and her secret affair with the ex-husband she divorced ten years ago. Willa’s past, and that of Jackson’s Pond, Texas, the dying town named for their ranch, provide a backdrop for the long-widowed Willa’s determination to set a course of progress for her grandson, Chris, and her granddaughter, Claire, and their families to secure their future. Meanwhile Jackson’s Pond, Texas and the ranch waterhole for which it is named decline steadily as the Ogallala Aquifer depletes. Willa overcomes resistance from several directions, including from her own doubts, and emerges by 2013 into a new life as a prize-winning painter living in Taos, NM, even in the face of advancing age and a degenerative illness.

Teddy Jones earlier novel, J ackson's Pond, Texas, began the saga of the Jackson family. Now, Slanted Light continues their tale. Claire Havlicek's late night call brings her brother Chris Banks from his home in New Mexico back to the town that bears their family name, Jackson's Pond. She's collapsed under the weight of threats to her thirteen year marriage that have undermined her confidence and her will. Her husband, J.D., responds to seduction by a woman in need; theft and the threat of a forced buyout jeopardize Claire's two clinics; drought imperils their ranch and cattle business; a teenage daughter turns to bulimia. When Claire admits her limits, her grandmother, Willa Jackson, and the other members of her family help her learn that being human, weaknesses and all, can be the source of strength and joy.

In Making It Home, the third novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas series, Melanie Jackson is haunted by learning of the Ku Klux Klan murder of an African American man on Jackson Ranch in 1920. Now, in 2014, a modern-day Klan group led by Justin Reese, a neighboring rancher, builds a center for racist and criminal activity on his property. Danger in the area escalates from vandalism to cross-burning; slaughter of prime livestock; homophobic threats against Melanie and Ray’s son, Chris Banks, and his partner, Andrew Mullins; domestic violence and a subsequent rescue of Justin Reese’s wife and children; and kidnapping of the Havlicek and Montoya children. In the midst of this stormy period, Melanie accedes to her mother, Willa Jackson’s, wishes and gives her away in marriage to her long-time companion, Robert Stanley, who has become Melanie’s ally as she forges a path to reconciliation with the family of Lincoln Berryhill, the man killed in 1920. She finds strength and resolve as she enlists her mother; her daughter, Claire Havlicek; her African American friend and colleague, Dolores Montoya; and others to atone for the near-century-old murder and assure safety and harmony in present day Jackson’s Pond.

Marva Cope, the fourth novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas Series, brings new elements to the story of the small town in the Texas Panhandle. Marva arrives as the new postmaster in 2017. She brings with her a lifetime of hesitancy to open herself to others. It is here, while living with her elder Aunt Violet, that she comes to appreciate the value of true friendships. With new relationships, long walks, and conversations with herself, she comes to terms with her difficult past . . .the loss of a beloved teenaged brother in a tragic farm accident, her father’s death from a broken heart, and a distant mother who had no love for the young teenager. Troubled teenage years followed as a flawed young man lures her to New Mexico, then leaves her alone with their newborn daughter. With her newfound courage of trusting others as friends, she reconnects with her daughter, and a college dorm-mate she had deserted in years past. In Jackson’s Pond, she finds the ability to consider what to do with the rest of her life.