In this coming-of-age story set in Kansas Territory, 1855, thirteen-year-old Cordelia puts up with her stepfather's abuse until she learns her ailing mother is pregnant again. Afraid her mother will die in childbirth, Cordelia runs away, heading for Westport, Missouri, and her aunt, the only person who might be able to save her mother. Disguising herself as a boy, she sets out on foot to make the 150-mile trip down the Kansas River. She hitches rides with a variety of travelers going east, facing setbacks along the way while learning lessons about the world and her place in it. Cordelia's Journey is the first book in the Pierce Family Saga, a series of historical novels that follow Cordelia and her family through the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Fathers, Daughters, and Expectations In 1859, half-sisters Lucy and Cordelia travel by stagecoach from Westport, Missouri to Kansas Territory. Since their mother’s death four years ago, both have lived with their aunt. Now Lucy’s father wants her home. For Lucy, 13, it is a dream come true. Cordelia, 17, chaperones Lucy on the trip home, then continues on the stage to Denver to search for the father she has never met. Her expectations are low, but she can’t stop the occasional dream. Will either father live up to his daughter’s expectations, or will each break his daughter’s heart?

A boy’s search for truth and what it means to be a man. Kansas Territory, 1859 Ambrose Pierce has been doing a man’s work in his father’s blacksmith shop since he was ten. At fifteen, he is tired of being seen as a boy. As he struggles toward manhood, his new stepmother’s lies about inappropriate actions toward her result in Ambrose being beaten and disowned by his father. While recovering from his injuries, Ambrose overhears a brief mention of something scandalous in his stepmother’s past. With little beyond a place, New York City, and a name, Gerald Ward, Ambrose and half-sister Cordelia travel cross country in search of the truth. Ambrose hopes the truth will free his father from his stepmother’s influence and they can be father and son again. Before embarking on his journey, Ambrose visits his mother’s grave to say goodbye. Throughout his travels, he consults the book of Aesop’s fables she made for him, remembering her love and being guided by the life lessons she taught him. Hiram’s Boy is the third book in the Pierce Family Saga series. Visit piercefamilysaga.com for updates on book four, a novel set during the Civil War.

October 1864: A family and a nation divided. Kansan Hiram Pierce is a stubborn, opinionated man who has alienated his family and local community, but he is also a patriot, a man loyal to his state. When Governor Carney calls on every man between 18 and 60 to join the Kansas State Militia and stop Confederate General Price and his rebel horde from laying waste to Kansas, Hiram immediately signs up. Hiram’s regiment is ordered to the Kansas/Missouri state line where he is wounded in battle and taken prisoner. As Confederate guards drive him and his fellow prisoners south, Hiram faces physical and emotional challenges that make him question the rightness of his past decisions. Meanwhile, his estranged children gather in Westport, home of two of the sisters. The youngest, twelve-year-old Jennie has visions of her father as a wounded prisoner. Fearing he will die without her help, she must convince her older brother and sisters to put aside their grudges and rescue him. Can she overcome their resistance, and if she does, will her dream of a reunited family be realized?