Sometimes the desert holds something more dangerous than scorpions and rattlesnakes …
It's the summer of 1962, middle of the Cold War, and the O'Brien family has moved off-grid to the Mojave Desert in Southern California. After all, the desert has to be a safer place to raise a family than the crime-ridden city, and there they can build a new future. But evil also stalks dusty desert roads, and eight-year-old Nonni finds herself harboring a terrible secret: Only she can identify the predator who has been terrorizing the community. And he knows where she lives.
Nancy Brashear, Ph.D., wrote her first poem (about sitting in the fog on a bench with magical creatures swirling around her) when she was eight years old. As an adult, she has published short stories and poems. Recently, she won first place in the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens 2020 First Annual Poetry Contest with a mermaid poem. Her psychological thriller, Gunnysack Hell, was released on Feb. 10, 2020. Intrigued by difficult issues in life, she released Ready or Not (a creepy, retold adult Hansel and Gretel tale) in October 2020. Additionally, she has written articles and chapters for academic books, blog reviews for The International Literacy Association, and content for educational publishers. She is Professor Emeritus from Azusa Pacific University where she was the Chair of Teacher Education for more than a decade and also taught abroad in a Leadership Studies program in Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan before she moving to the English Department for the next decade. A retired k-12 teacher, she has specialties in English, Reading, and Teaching English as a Second Language. She and her husband live at the beach in Southern California with their yellow dog, Goldie Licks, and is encouraged by her grown children and seven young granddaughters. She finds inspiration for writing in her gazebo “office” with a perfect view of Catalina Island.
