Bighorn Book Club

About the Book: 1917: In a world at war, three young Irish-Americans grapple with questions of love, faith, and the very nature of the human heart. Trapped in a meaningless job, Kathleen O’Doherty volunteers as a Red Cross relief worker to pursue her passion: sketching. In France, her vision is shaped by the two men who love her—and by the knowledge of how easily love can be lost in a dangerous and violent world. Kathleen’s cousin, Sean Sullivan, enlists in the American Expeditionary Force to escape from his father’s tyranny. Doubted by his comrades, he struggles to balance his deep faith with the horrors he encounters as a soldier in the trenches near Verdun. At home in Colorado, Sean’s sister, Maggie, marries the man she has always loved. Yet his resistance to the war effort threatens to take from Maggie everything she has ever wanted. Rich in period detail, this first book in the White Winter Trilogy chronicles the beginning of a journey through a ravaged and fear-filled world toward hope, tolerance, and an understanding of the human condition. On August 27, 2016 I had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Marr Wasmund, author of My Heart Lies Here, Clean Cut […]

About the Book: 1918: At a time when it takes courage to love, hope, or have faith, three young Irish-Americans dare to believe in themselves and in America. As a Red Cross relief worker, Kathleen O’Doherty offers hope to the wounded and comfort to the dying. Yet, as conditions near the Western Front grow more perilous, her dedication to her work is tested by her love for a man whose duty puts him in constant danger. Kathleen’s cousin, Corporal Sean Sullivan of the American Expeditionary Force, proves his valor during fierce fighting in the trenches near Verdun. Soon, he fears that he will never escape from the brutality he has witnessed and—worse—the violent deeds he has done. In Colorado, Sean’s sister, Maggie, finds herself shunned by neighbors and friends because of her husband’s opposition to the war. While juggling the responsibilities of family and home, she struggles to keep her love for her husband alive and to find her own destiny. Meticulously researched, this second book in the White Winter Trilogy explores how hope is shattered and rekindled, hearts are broken and mended, and faith is lost and found in a world in which nothing is certain. About the Author: […]

About the Book: 1923: The Great War has ended, but for three young Irish-Americans, the fight at home has just begun with a daunting foe: the Ku Klux Klan. As America returns to peace and prosperity, the Ku Klux Klan arrives in Colorado. As its membership grows, the Klan rises to political power through intimidation of its enemies and violence. For Kathleen O’Doherty, the Klan threatens what she values most: family and faith. Still grieving for those she lost during the war, she must make a choice that she never thought possible. Her cousin, Sean Sullivan, comes home from France a war hero—a distinction he would rather forget. Yet his newly-found status as enemy of the Klan upends his determination to live peacefully and purposefully. Meanwhile, his sister, Maggie struggles to maintain the secret life that she chose before the war. Wife, mother, caregiver, writer—she finds herself longing for escape and a new romance. Love comes to all of them in unexpected ways, only to be imperiled by secrets and scandal. Set amid the glamor of the Roaring Twenties and chronicling an unforgettable era in Colorado’s history, To Walk Humbly brings the characters of the White Winter Trilogy to their […]

About the Book: Life in Pindall, Wyoming, population 658, is tough. Tourists rush through town to the gates of Yellowstone National Park, only an hour up the road, and the town’s sole industry, a sawmill, has been taken over by a multinational corporation.  For Shari Brock, who loses her on-again-off-again husband, Brad Brock, in a tragic accident, it’s tough to listen to the stories that the townspeople tell about him. It’s even harder when his illegitimate daughter, Erica, arrives in town. Meanwhile, Shari’s son, Jason, embarks on a cockeyed crime spree that makes him the laughingstock of the town. But that isn’t all: Erica fully expects to be welcomed into the family, a wolf appears out of nowhere, and the yearly town celebration becomes a battlefield. Add a cast of colorful characters for a true romance of the western heart. On August 27, 2016 I had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Marr Wasmund, author of My Heart Lies Here, Clean Cut and White Winter Trilogy: To do Justice. About the Author: LAURIE MARR WASMUND holds an M.A. in literature from the University of Denver. She has worked as an editor, community college instructor, and writing workshop presenter. Her short stories […]

About the Book: In 1913, the United Mine Workers of America led a strike against John D. Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel & Iron Company that would end in war. In this novel of the Ludlow Massacre, a young woman learns the true value of love and sacrifice and what it means to be an American. Coming of age in the hardscrabble coal camp of Berwind, Colorado, Christian Scott is caught in a web of divided loyalties. Torn between her dedication to her brother, Alex, who stubbornly clings to his proud Scottish heritage, and her love of Pearl, a spirited and irreverent orphan whose flight from abuse and poverty lands her on the Scotts’ doorstep, she experiences heartbreak when the two become enemies. At the same time, she secretly joins with a passionate Greek man on a dangerous course of resistance against the coal company and the brutal Colorado National Guard that threatens to destroy everything–and everyone–she loves. On August 27, 2016 I had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Marr Wasmund, author of My Heart Lies Here, Clean Cut and White Winter Trilogy: To do Justice. About the Author: LAURIE MARR WASMUND holds an M.A. in literature from the University of Denver. […]

Racing With the Wind is a memoir about old cars and racing. But it’s more than that – it’s a story about growing up, our connection to cars, our fascination with speed, excitement and taking things to the limit –sometimes finding ourselves on the brink of death. The book is also about learning to handle the highs and lows of life with an “Attitude Is Everything” mindset. The story begins in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the late 1950s with a 1939 Plymouth, and concludes in the Front Range of Colorado with a 2015 Corvette Stingray. In between are stories about a score of cars the author drove – like the wind. The stories are funny; even nostalgic. Above all, they are highly relatable to those who grew up in the golden age of cars and drag racing – and everyone else, regardless of age or gender – who appreciate fun times and fast cars. About the Author: Tim served with the Marines in Vietnam in the 1960s, which became a basis for his first book, the award-winning Marines Never Cry: Becoming a Man When it Mattered, published in 2017. Post-Marine Corps, Tim earned a master’s degree from the University of Memphis […]

About the Book: Flying Upside Down in the context of this book is an intentional double-entendre. It means literally flying a plane upside down acrobatically. It also means turning fear upside down by engaging and controlling it rather than succumbing to it and letting it control your life. As a kid, the author was involved in a terrible car accident – a near-death experience – which made him deathly afraid of heights, so much so that he couldn’t even ride in an elevator, had anxiety about riding too fast in cars, and could hardly bear to fly.  But later in life, determined to conquer his fears, he overcame this dysfunctional mindset by facing them directly, by mastering the art and science of flying – that is, by turning his fears upside down and becoming a pilot. Flying Upside Down relates the author’s thrills, chills, ups and downs (literally), and his successes and screw-ups as he evolves into an experienced flyer who tests the limits of himself and his aircraft in some of the most challenging planes and situations imaginable – from a barely airworthy Cessna in Guam to aerobatics, parachuting, and some of the toughest mountain flying the Colorado Rockies […]

About the Book: This is the story of Zeke Hammond, a baby boomer, who joined the Marine Corps and drove a 26-wheeler in the DaNang area and on convoys into “Indian Country” where danger lurked around every corner. Truck drivers in Vietnam, regardless of their branch of service, were the unsung heroes of the war. They risked life and limb in support of American and allied operations against Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese Army regulars, bringing food, water, ammo and supplies, often under fire, to far-flung base camps and skirmish lines. Marines Never Cry also gives the reader a tragicomic glimpse of what it was like for rank-and-file Marines behind the scenes and off-camera, so to speak, both in Vietnam and on the home front. While in Vietnam, the people closest to him either died or were killed. Hammond has countless brushes with death in Vietnam and extraordinary life-changing moments after he came home and confronted his fiance’s killer and a gang of vandals that ravaged the family farm. Marines Never Cry is a work of fiction but is inspired by true events and crafted to portray the thoughts, emotions and actions of real people in the context of the Vietnam […]

About the Book: No one ever told Deston the fae were real. He never imagined King Arthur was a real person, either, or that Excalibur had a twin brother sword. Those were just a couple of the secrets his mother had kept from him. But after Deston’s mother mysteriously vanishes and he is shipped to France to live with a distant relative he’s never heard of before, he and a tenacious French girl, Margaux, get lured into the fae realm of Tir na-nÓg where he learns everything he believed to be true was a lie. For as it turns out, his mother did not just vanish, she was kidnapped by an evil solitary faerie and is being held prisoner in the lower realm. And if Deston can’t bring her and the king of the fae back to Tir na-nÓg before the full moon rises, darkness will reign over the realm and his family and the entire fae race will be destroyed. As Deston and Margaux race through a strange new world filled with giant wolves, six-foot tall bats, and other mystical creatures, one question nags at him—how is a fourteen-year-old kid with no magic supposed to defeat true evil when […]

The battle for Earth between the Anunnaki and the Pleiadians continues in this thrilling SciFi thriller… After years of bouncing between foster homes, unwanted and unloved, eighteen-year-old Sofia Kaye is determined to shake the “loser” foster kid stigma that has shrouded her most of her life. And she believes she can do that by getting a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She’s passed the first hurdle of being accepted, but there’s still one more hurdle to clear—coming up with the twenty-five thousand dollars her scholarship is short. And being that she’s on her own, that might as well be a million dollars. In a desperate attempt to fulfil her dreams, Sofia goes against her better judgement and accepts an invitation to compete on a new TV reality show, which promises a prize equal to what she needs to make her tuition for the first year. However, as Sofia and two fellow contestants, Zach and Liv, race to the finish line, it becomes clear the game is rigged and the billionaire tycoon behind the show only wants Liv. Before the three realize what’s going on, Liv is whisked away to Egypt, and a mysterious man, who claims to […]

The action and adventure continues in Book II of the award-winning fantasy trilogy the Chronicles of the Secret Prince from author, M.J. Bell. Deston Lespérance assumed that once he defied the odds and bested Grossard, the malicious solitary faerie who imprisoned his parents, he and his family would live happily-ever-after in the land of Tir na-nÓg. He wanted it so badly it never occurred to him that dreams like that only happen in the movies and fairy tales. In the real world, the villain doesn’t always die. Knowing he barely made it out alive the last time he faced Grossard, Deston isn’t overly anxious to do it all again so soon. But evil and destiny waits for no one. So ready or not, Deston heads out on another epic adventure to locate and destroy the Shard of Erebus before Grossard and his new partner, Mordred, can find it. With only his dreams to guide him and Margaux to help figure out the clues, his challenge is extra daunting and the stakes are higher than ever. But he has no clue as to the sacrifices he will be required to make. As Deston’s world crumbles around him and his friends fall, […]

The third book of the Chronicles of the Secret Prince trilogy. About the Book: Long before Deston was born, the gods chose him to be the match that drives the darkness from the planet. But he has no desire to be a hero. All he wants is to fit in and live happily-ever-after with his parents and Margaux. There’s one problem with that dream, though—it can’t happen as long as Grossard has the Shard of Erebus. For months Deston tries hiding out in the Great Bear Rainforest, denying who he is, but it eventually becomes obvious that no place will ever be far enough away for him to escape his destiny. When he is finally forced into realizing his delays are only putting his loved ones in greater danger, he pushes aside his own wishes and accepts the mantle the gods have laid out for him; for he has a human side he can draw on to kill Grossard. No other fae has that. This is Deston’s last epic journey—the final showdown between light and dark, good and evil, and he knows the risks are high. But what he doesn’t know is that even if he wins, it could very […]

Perfect for homeschooling, this Language Arts series is entertaining and engaging for readers in middle through high school. Educators will find helpful questions for discussion and synonym glossaries in the back of each book for designing lessons on the following topics: – Coming of age- The Hero’s Journey- Communication skills- Symbolism and themes- Human nature- Vocabulary development- Foreshadowing- The environment- Good versus Evil- Mystery. In a post-cataclysmic world threatened by stinking ooze, a brave girl searches for her missing parents with the help of talking animals and evolving powers. When a mountain spirit challenges her to save the planet, she and a flying frog must overcome a magical, malicious castle of sand and a shapeshifter who wants her dead.“Mustn’t. Just mustn’t. Now run along and be a good girl like the others . . .”But the protagonist in Waterwight isn’t like the others. She’s done with being shunned by those who refuse to discuss “The Event,” the global catastrophe that changed the planet, left them orphans, and continues to pose a threat to frightened survivors. Celeste has been troubled by bizarre dreams and nightmares while living in the children’s home, and shortly after running away one night in search of […]

Waterwight Flux begins where Book I ends, with Celeste transformed and on her way to an ethereal world in the heavens, home of Odin, god of the sky. There she learns many things about the planet, its survivors, and the lonesome god. Although she is more than ready to return to Nick in the village, a mysterious newcomer tells her she still has much to learn. And learn, she does, in the realm of the sea god Kumugwe.Join her as she continues her quest to find home . . . and answers. Book II of the Waterwight Trilogy! Perfect for homeschooling, this Language Arts series is entertaining and engaging for readers in middle through high school. Educators will find helpful questions for discussion and synonym glossaries in the back of each book for designing lessons on the following topics: – Coming of age- The Hero’s Journey- Communication skills- Symbolism and themes- Human nature- Vocabulary development- Foreshadowing- The environment- Good versus Evil- Mystery- Mythology- Celeste is confident she has cured the chaos in a world shattered by The Event. Sharon and her misshapen sister discover their nefarious parents are still alive. Nick and the villagers must defend themselves in an altered […]

Book III is the last book in the Waterwight series. Perfect for homeschooling, this Language Arts series is entertaining and engaging for readers in middle through high school. Educators will find helpful questions for discussion and synonym glossaries in the back of each book for designing lessons on the following topics: – Coming of age- The Hero’s Journey- Communication skills- Symbolism and themes- Human nature- Vocabulary development- Foreshadowing- The environment- Good versus Evil- Mystery- Mythology. After Celeste regains consciousness in a mysterious cave, she discovers powerful new abilities—skills she will need for the challenges that continue to demand her attention. This time, the gods are in trouble, and Celeste must decide how, or if, she will help them. With insane scientists plotting to subjugate her village, she and her friends rally for a final confrontation that will change everything. “…Imaginative characters that powerfully tap into myth.” – Kirkus Reviews on Waterwight Flux