Faye Roberts started her writing career after winning a contest through Guideposts Magazine in 1988. She wrote for various inspirational magazines and published a book of devotionals for working women. Her first novel, Fragile Treaties, was a finalist for a Willa Award in 2002. Since then, Faye has worked on a historical fiction series, weaving actual historical events into the lives of four mothers and daughters that run the Silver Cross Ranch from 1897 to 2010.
As a writer, I bring the lessons of history to the modern world searching for true heroes. It is said that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Although times have changed, our deepest desires remain the same as those of the generations before us. We all long for a better life for ourselves and our children. We seek a place where we belong, where our lives matter, and where we can make a lasting difference. No matter the era or the circumstances we are born in, we want strength, acceptance and peace. The intention of my books is to bring that kind of hope to my readers.
“It’s your mother. I’ve had a bit of an accident. Call when you can.”
When Annie Duncan returns to the old farmhouse in the middle of a peach orchard, she steps back into the home she left thirty years ago. There, she faces the hardest decision of her life. Her mother, Katie McKenzie, escaped serious injury after a fall from a ladder. But the cancer diagnosis changes everything.
Should Annie quit her job, her only source of income since her divorce? If she does, she could lose her home—the last bit of security she has. Can she stay and watch her mother slowly slip away? Isn’t that what hospice is for?
Then Joe, an orchard biologist, knocks on the kitchen door. His business card carries a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson that speaks directly to Annie’s heart:
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”
“Do you believe in providence?” Joe asks.
“I’m not sure what it means,” Annie replies.
“Providence is like the seed inside a peach,” Joe explains. “The golden kernel of life rests safely inside a protective pit. In the same way, God surrounds us with His care. Like a mother protecting her child, He nurtures the seed of hope until it bears fruit.”
As spring approaches, Katie knows she has one final promise to keep before her journey ends. Before she can reap her heavenly harvest, she must plant one last seed—the seed of providence called hope.
Was Louisa Cody the nagging shrew Buffalo Bill Cody described when he twice sought a divorce? Or was she a devoted wife who patiently endured his long absences, reckless spending, heavy drinking, and relationships with other women?
Louisa Frederici grew up in a secure family in St. Louis and received her education from nuns. Nothing prepared her for life on the American frontier. The Civil War had left her with few opportunities for romance, so she quickly fell in love with the rugged army scout William F. Cody. Just weeks after they met, she accepted his proposal. Only hours after their wedding, the newlyweds boarded a steamer and headed west. There, Louisa followed her husband from one military post to another as he chased new adventures and bigger dreams.
While Willie perfected the art of entertaining dignitaries on buffalo hunts, Louisa mastered frontier life. She learned to skin sage grouse, shoot from horseback while carrying a child, and prepare antelope for a Russian grand duke. At the same time, she cared for young children and kept Pawnee visitors out of the tiny kitchen in their rough cabin. Despite the hardships, Louisa later called those years the happiest of her marriage.
As Buffalo Bill’s fame grew, so did the conflicts between them. Their troubled marriage became national news when Louisa refused to grant him a divorce. Newspapers across the country followed the courtroom drama.
In 1910, advancing age finally brought a fragile truce after the couple spent time alone together. Their fifty-year marriage ended only with William’s death in 1917.
One fact remains clear. Without Louisa Cody’s strength, talent, and business sense, Buffalo Bill might never have become the legendary figure the world remembers today. Their marriage weathered hardship, heartbreak, and public scandal. Yet like many marriages, it proved that love is rarely perfect.
Shrew or saint? I’ll let you the reader decide. AMAZON
Imagine for a moment, being gifted old journals written by your foremothers. Four generations of thoughts, heartaches, challenges and triumphs. What secrets did they keep inside? What lessons could they give you now?
Marina Townsend is given such a gift after the death of her mother, with a stipulation attached. She must put the old diaries into books to be passed down to future generations. In other words, she must first accept and inherit her heritage before she can inherit the land. What starts as a simple narration, ends up changing Marina’s life in ways she could never imagine.
Her first challenge is Great-Great Grandma Rose Bodeen, born in 1877. A hard-living kind of girl, Rose can out-ride and out-cuss any hand on the Silver Cross. After being jilted, she finds adventure waiting beyond the boundaries of the ranch: Buffalo Bill and his Wild West, and love with all its joys and heartaches. But just as her wise Mama said, the land draws her back like the sun draws flowers from the ground in spring.
Rose’s writings detail matter-of-fact conviction and bull-headed tenacity, as she strives to survive and prosper during the many changes of her time: the Great War, the fight for a woman’s right to vote, the Industrial Revolution and replacing horses with machines, the high-kicking 1920’s and the Great Depression. She lives thrilling triumphs, and suffers deep despair that tests her faith and fortitude. Through it all, she comes to accept the ‘anvil time’ that comes with being the proud caretaker of the Silver Cross Ranch. AMAZON
THE LEGACY OF BIRDIE BASSETT is the second novel of a four book Silver Cross Ranch series written in diary format. The series details the one hundred year history of the ranch, and the women who become caretakers of the land. The family saga is appealing to those who enjoy United States history, the western lifestyle, and to readers that love lessons taught by women of grit, who with faith and tenacity, convey hope for the future, the power of forgiveness, and the grace of knowing that each step taken during life’s sometimes rugged journey, leads to a bright coming home. AMAZON
Imagine for a moment, being gifted old journals written by your foremothers. Four generations of crushing sorrows, difficult challenges and wild triumphs. What lessons did they keep inside? What lessons could they give you now?
Marina Townsend is given such a gift after the death of her mother, with a stipulation attached. She must put the old diaries into books to be passed down to future generations—
The Legacy of the Silver Cross Ranch.
Marina must first accept her heritage before she can inherit the land. What starts as a simple narration, ends up changing Marina’s life in ways she could never imagine. After completing Book One—The Legacy of Rose Bodeen, her great-great grandmother, Marina’s second challenge is Rose’s daughter—Book Two, The Legacy of Birdie Bassett, her great-grandmother.
Third in line of the Legacy is Mavis Bassett McCall. Gramma Mavis as Marina knew her. What she finds inside the covers of her grandmother’s journals is shocking, heart-wrenching and life-changing. How could she have been so wrong about her grandmother, the woman she thought she knew?
A country girl, Mavis Bassett is more at home on a horse than in a dress. All she wants after graduating from Union High School is a grand palomino and tuition to the Colorado College of Agriculture, but father Marshall has other ideas of what a lady, and his daughter, needs.
In Mavis’s lifetime, the world shifts on its very foundation, as does she. The Great Depression rocks her family, as does World War II and its tremendous challenges and loss. She enlists in the Women’s Army Corp, determined not to let evil win. And though the Allies win the war, Mavis comes home tired, defeated and carrying heavy secrets. Only after returning to her beloved land does she finally, truly heal. With hard work and keen foresight, she moves the ranch, and herself, into a bold new era.
THE LEGACY OF MAVIS McCALL is the third novel of a four book Silver Cross Ranch series written in diary format. The series details the one-hundred-year history of the ranch, and the women caretakers of the land. The family saga is appealing to those who enjoy United States history, the western lifestyle, and to readers that love lessons taught by women of grit, who with faith and tenacity, convey hope for the future, the power of forgiveness, and the grace of knowing that each step taken during life’s sometimes rugged journey, leads to a bright coming home. AMAZON
Imagine for a moment, being gifted journals written over the past one hundred years. Four generations of thoughts, heartaches, challenges and triumphs. What secrets did your ancestral mothers keep? What lessons could they teach you now?
Marina Townsend receives such a gift with a stipulation attached—put the diaries into books to create The Silver Cross Legacy. What starts as a simple narration of the lives of Rose, Birdie and Mavis, changes Marina in ways she could never imagine. The fourth and final book is the hardest of all for her to write—that of her mother, Claire Delany. Written during the final year of Claire’s battle with cancer, her mother reveals deep secrets, along with kernels of wisdom that lead Marina to make hard choices about the ranch, her marriage, and the way she’s leading her life.
A lady rancher is a rare breed of woman with a spirit of survival branded into her soul—an enduring legacy passed from one generation to the next. AMAZON