Tag: montana history

At Outskirts Press, Inc., we take great pride in celebrating the work of our successful self-publishing authors, and we do so each week through our Self-Publishing Author Spotlight. This week we highlight self-publishing author L. F. Falconer, who has published an astounding 7 successful titles with Outskirts Press.

Learn more about L. F. Falconer, her interests and what inspires her to write her published works through this week’s Self-Publishing Author Spotlight.

Award-winning author, L.F. Falconer continues to deliver riveting adventures, keeping her readers on the edge of their seats while gently fusing make-believe with real-life experience.

About the Author:

A wife, a mother, and a grandmother, she resides in her home state of Nevada with her husband, Michael, where she enjoys exploring the roads less traveled, or simply lazing about with her two senior dogs.  Falconer enjoys gardening, oil painting, and exploring the Nevada Desert.

“I’ve always found magic in the written word. When I write, I don’t know that I embrace any particular genre. If I get caught in an inspiration, I tend to just run with it.” — L.F. Falconer

Hope Flies on Broken Wings

It is the final summer of Collie’s innocence when an ill-fated romance forces her into maturity. The very sight of Dugan has swept her away, but can her naive heart heal his crippled soul? From the mythical medieval seacoast realm of Donnel comes a tragic encounter of hope and loss when two young lovers attempt to cross socio-economic boundaries and religious differences in this borderline fantasy tale of young love.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 238 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jul 25, 2012)
ISBN10: 1432795775
ISBN13: 9781432795771
Genre: FICTION / Romance / Fantasy

Exit Strategy

Having little faith that his lawyer can get him acquitted of the murder charge he faces in Massachusetts, Jonas Dumar takes to the sea under an assumed identity to seek asylum with a past college chum who now lives in the Shetland Islands. Hoping to ease the loneliness of the voyage, at a quick stop in Newfoundland, he takes on board, Gabe and Izzy, a young couple trying to work their way back to Spain. Only when he’s back out on the open sea does Jonas begin to suspect his passengers are not what they appear to be. But then again, neither is Jonas Dumar. So begins a nightmarish voyage across the North Atlantic. After a failed attempt to abandon Gabe and Izzy in Greenland, Jonas awakes one morning to find himself sailing alone with nothing but a haunting dream and a resurrected childhood friend. Gabe and Izzy have vanished without a trace. But then they come back. Delving into the mind of a man in possession of too many secrets, Exit Strategy is a wild excursion into a realm of the fantastic, as Jonas Dumar comes to realize that some secrets are better left unknown. A man really can learn more about himself than he ever wants to know. Exit Strategy contains graphic material that might be unsuitable for some readers.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 5 x 8 paperback cream, 381 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jan 29, 2013)
ISBN10: 1478714581
ISBN13: 9781478714583
Genre: FICTION / Thrillers / General

Hope Rises from the Ashes

Collie’s journey into adulthood was met with tragic consequences when she defied society to follow her heart. In this sequel to “Hope Flies on Broken Wings,” Collie attempts to flee from the haunting memories of the worst night in her young life. Fearing a lifetime of heartbreak and shame, she leaves her seaside homeland of Donnel to seek refuge in the Tillaman Realm beyond the mountains. But she soon finds herself hopelessly entangled in a dangerous game of possession and jealousy. Now all she wants is to go home, but first, she must escape the clutches of the cruel man who has laid his claim upon her.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 278 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jul 19, 2013)
ISBN10: 147870246X
ISBN13: 9781478702467
Genre: FICTION / Fantasy / Historical

Through A Broken Window: Ten Dark Tales of the Strange and Deranged

“Take a peek, if you dare, through this broken pane of glass. Tell me what it is you see and maybe I will disagree. What you perceive may not be, or too, may come to pass.” Step into another world with these short, dark tales of the strange and deranged. Meet seven-year-old Ronnie, who desperately hungers for the taste of cranberries; or Andre Dubois, a traveler who ignores the gypsy’s warning and ventures into the wrong neck of the woods. What happens to Nexie Wells when she’s confronted with the yesterdays that bleed into the present? And glimpse the events that led to the Mad Scotsman’s curse upon the town of Seven Troughs. This collection of ten short stories by L.F. Falconer is sure to appeal to your darker side, so come take a look. Don’t be shy. Discover for yourself what lies in wait behind the broken window.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 5 x 8 paperback cream, 182 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Mar 10, 2014)
ISBN10: 1478730692
ISBN13: 9781478730699
Genre: FICTION / Horror

The Vagabond’s Son: Prelude to a Legacy

The ogres call them pixies, and who in their right mind is going to argue with an ogre? Certainly not Laramato when he sells them his wife. This is the story of the child left behind. Born to an outlaw, he rises to power only to betray his kingdom in the end. Six months shy of the age of two when his mother disappears, Adalanto is left in the insular care of a drunken brute. But his most difficult battle for survival doesn’t begin until he leaves home. Suddenly thrust into society, the emerging demons he carries within threaten every aspect of his young life—from his stormy temperament, his view of women, the moral choices he makes, to the all-consuming thirst for the love he never knew. Join Adalanto on a challenging adventure through the Black Wood as he seeks the key that will finally free his spirit in this fresh, dramatic prequel.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream, 316 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Sep 11, 2014)
ISBN10: 1478742755
ISBN13: 9781478742753
Genre: FICTION / Fantasy / Epic

The Legacy of Skur: Volume One

No one has ever returned from Skur. “It’s a death quest,” Fane is told, but this altruistic, starry-eyed young man chooses to ignore the legends, for according to the wizard Fith, hidden among the wealth of treasure atop the mountain of Skur is the key to eternal life. Can Fane hope to steal it from under the nose of its guardian dragon? Armed with little more than a sword and a magical talisman, Fane’s misadventures upon the mist-enshrouded mountain begin. In this epic saga of love, betrayal, war, vengeance, and friendship, we follow the pawns who are shrewdly manipulated in an attempt to save a dying race within a celestial game of dominance. It’s survival of the fittest as the players are mercilessly maneuvered across the field, and these are their stories. Fane, the wizard’s apprentice. Kael, the warrior. And Elva, the legacy.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream, 417 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Aug 13, 2015)
ISBN10: 1478761911
ISBN13: 9781478761914
Genre: FICTION / Fantasy / Epic

The Legacy of Skur: Volume Two

Abducted by Piskies while crossing the moor, Elva is whisked off to their war-divided kingdom in the Black Wood where she is hailed as their queen and savior. But is she truly the bringer of peace the desperate Piskies believe her to be? Torn between love, loyalty, and duty, she longs to fulfill her vow made to Gwin of Lorane. After she weds, a fierce and deadly battle forces her to return to her homeland, accompanied by a small following of devoted Piskies. Yet a siren call soon beckons her back to the ancient realm of the dragon. She ascends the mountain of Skur with a lone guard—a journey which not only brings her to the edge of the netherworld, but into possession of a gift with the power to change one life forever. Whose life will it be?

“An intriguing and well-crafted fantasy” —Blue Ink Review
“Definitely a thrilling read … Five stars!” —Rabia Tanveer for Readers’ Favorite
“Intricate, beguiling, and promising” —Foreword/Clarion Review

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream, 507 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Mar 10, 2016)
ISBN10: 1478722800
ISBN13: 9781478722809
Genre: FICTION / Fantasy / Epic

Ready share your inspirations and stories? Get published with Outskirts Press!

t Outskirts Press, Inc., we take great pride in celebrating the work of our successful self-publishing authors, and we do so each week through our Self-Publishing Author Spotlight. This week we highlight self-publishing author Gene Krenz, who has published an astounding 11 successful titles with Outskirts Press.

Learn more about Gene Krenz, his background and passion for the history of eastern Montana and western North Dakota, and how it is reflected within his published works through this week’s Self-Publishing Author Spotlight.

About the Author:

Gene Krenz is a native of the country about which he writes. His research over the past two decades reveals a fictional void with regard to the history of eastern Montana and western North Dakota for the period about which he writes.

“So, with my brain cells stampeding toward my already crowded brain cell cemetery at an alarming rate, I decided to try and tell that story now. My books may not sell but my family will be proud of me, I’ll feel better about myself, and that empty niche will have been partially filled.”

Through his published titles, he helps fill that void.

Amidon

No one living today was alive when the terrible winter of 1886-1887 swept across eastern Montana and western Dakota Territories. Hardest hit were the Little Missouri River and Beaver Creek watersheds. Newspapers of the day reported livestock losses of up to as much as 90 percent. Hardest hit was Pierre Wibaux, whose herd was slashed by 30,000 to 40,000 head. Ranchers and settlers without a friendly banker or savings abandoned their ranches and farms in droves. But some there were who absolutely refused to quit. Amidon is the story of how AJ Roller and Luther Cross fought to stay afloat economically, to preserve their way of and, of how, in spite of everything, they managed to find love.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 303 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Feb 29, 2012)
ISBN10: 1432788035
ISBN13: 9781432788032
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure

Back to Never Been

A career, making money, being somebody, that’s where his head had been, and now it was over. An important part of his life had ended, and the road back was blocked with anger, harsh words, guilt and infidelity. It was a road he dared not travel. There would certainly be no welcoming committee at the other end, for he had paved a good-sized segment of his path through life as an adult with a litany of mistakes and bad decisions. What guarantee was there that in starting over he would not make the same bad choices and decisions? Still, he could not know what the future held. Time was what he needed. He needed to clear his head of cobwebs, faulty connections and squandered linkages. That process had to begin in Montana, close to where his value system and beliefs had been forged. It was the only way, the only place. He had come home to his prairies and mountains, and it was here he hoped to regain a modicum of self-confidence and self-esteem.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6.14 x 9.21 paperback, 382 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Aug 31, 2009)
ISBN10: 1432739174
ISBN13: 9781432739171
Genre: FICTION / General

Beyond the Blackfoot

An undeserved reputation. A search for love. He hungered for anonymity and a new beginning with love, but his head and his heart told him that both were impossible. Sherryn Elvers saw both as not only possible but inevitable. “I’ve thought about Jimmy and the sparkle you put in his eyes in one afternoon, Ben,” she told him. “I’ve seen the respect people have for you. They’re good folks, and they don’t respect you for your reputation or the power of your fists. If you would step back once and take a good look at yourself, what you’d see is an honest-to-god person, weak like we all are at times, but a man of honor and conscience. That’s all that counts. I’ve thought about me as well. I told myself I love you, and I’ve looked at you from a distance…as coldly calculating as I could…at the best and the worst in you. I’ve wondered if you might be that one special man I have been waiting for since Jimmy lost his father. I’ve thought about all of these things, and your leaving here is out of the question, because I have chosen you, and I have made you mine no matter what!”

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 354 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Mar 11, 2011)
ISBN10: 1432768743
ISBN13: 9781432768744
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure

Darby’s Dream

She never asked and I never told her how I came by the chunk of lead she had fished out of my leg. Figured if I did, she’d think I was one of those outlaws and she’d quit taking care of me. I did tell her, though, that I wasn’t on the run from the law. What I was running from was a ma and pa impatient to see their youngest boy become a man. Mostly, it was my pa. Another hired man is what he wanted. I didn’t cotton to the idea, so one night when they thought I was sleeping I left. I’ve been working my way north ever since, lookin’ to cut them apron strings my ma and pa had got me all tangled up in – before they made a girl or a preacher out of me. My dream included a place of my own, a nice bunch of cows, a handful of really good horses, tall grass, friends, warm winters, cool water, coins jingling in my pocket and – well, yes, a pretty girl at my side – not necessarily in that order. Anyone curious as to what the future holds for me will have to saddle up and follow my trail!

Product details..
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 377 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Nov 15, 2010)
ISBN10: 1432765108
ISBN13: 9781432765101
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure

God’s Own Heaven

On a dust covered hill overlooking Buckskin Draw, a small group of family and friends tearfully laid Matty Roller to rest. Taken suddenly by a heart that failed her as she rested in her rocking chair, she had simply sighed and slumped forward as if she had fallen asleep after another busy day. Now, standing next to the pine coffin that would embrace her body for eternity, a family said its goodbyes in a state of disbelief and sorrow. She was their strength, their fountain of love, and the source of their vitality. She was their everything, and she was gone.

Matty would not make the trip she had dreamed about as the drought tightened its grip on the country. Would any of them be willing to leave her behind? Had their enthusiasm for pursuing a new life in the north slipped away with each shovel of dirt? Where was the imperative? Could they dash the dream, her dream? Or would they leave because they knew she was right? Could they do it?

In the end, it was the withering grass of Buckskin Draw that made the decision for them. They would make the trip. They would live Matty’s Dream.

Two months later when Walt Roller raised his arm to signal the beginning of the last leg of their perilous journey, they rode away from their camp next to the Little Missouri River feeling like intruders trampling on God’s own Heaven. With grass sweeping like waves before a light breeze, a towering blue sky for a lid, horizons that tiptoed teasingly away from them, and air that tasted like cold spring water, where else, they asked, could they be?

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback cream, 385 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Mar 28, 2010)
ISBN10: 1432749714
ISBN13: 9781432749712
Genre: FICTION / General

Honyock

Janos Lakatos fit the mold perfectly. Where most young men his age were looking for steady jobs and a pretty wife, he hungered for more, for something different. From the window of the Northern Pacific train that carried him across Dakota Territory to visit a cousin living in Miles City, Montana Territory, he marveled at the sea of grass that surrounded him. Waiting for him 30 miles northwest of Dickinson were 160 acres of rolling prairie. Waiting for him as well were cattlemen who saw him and his neighbors as little more than destroyers of their range. There too, he soon learned of a nearby rancher who hinted that his chances for success as a farmer would be better elsewhere, and of his pretty daughter who would settle for nothing less than his staying.

Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 318 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Sep 28, 2012)
ISBN10: 1478720182
ISBN13: 9781478720188
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure

Kid Trailer: The One We Loved

Lunker
Distant relatives of the great Arctic Wolf, Malamutes are the largest of the Arctic dogs. Solidly built with large padded feet and a double layer of thick hair, they are designed by breeding and time to be dependable and hardworking in the harness. In the beginning, the pup that wandered on to the Alaska homestead of Will Holter and his wife was considered a nuisance with few manners and a gigantic appetite. A small boy by the name of Jimmy changed all of that. Lunker is not simply the story of an adopted dog; it is the story of how a family came together and fell in love with their life on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. If you can read their story and manage not to cry, it can only be that you have a hard heart.Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 231 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (May 22, 2014)
ISBN10: 1478732067
ISBN13: 9781478732068
Genre: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General

A Matter of Owing
A Matter of Owing is the story of the Roller family as they confront frontier hardships induced by disheartening drought, killing blizzards, foolish greed, the dishonesty of others, and the times. The setting is eastern Montana and western North Dakota Territories in the years just before statehood. The Rollers are dues payers. The family patriarch, Walt, instinctively recognizes the good in a person often overlooked by others. He is known for his generosity and for giving others a second chance. A Matter of Owing is a story about payback and, in the larger sense, it is a story of love. “The stories Gene Krenz has written about the settlement of eastern Montana and western North Dakota tug at my heartstrings. They reach into the courage and spirit of the hardy folks who settled there. I grew up on those prairies, and I still love them.” Dale Hinsverk, Wahpeton, North Dakota.Product details…
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 paperback white, 297 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jul 19, 2011)
ISBN10: 143277378X
ISBN13: 9781432773786
Genre: FICTION / Action & Adventure

Ready share your inspirations and stories? Get published with Outskirts Press!