By the time Albert and Saskatchewan achieved provincial status in 1905, settlers by the hundreds of thousands flocked to the free homesteads of the western prairie. In the Palliser Triangle, on a veneer of topsoil, they faces choking drought, incessant winds, unrelenting winters, and plagues of pests. Only a fraction survived the hardships of the unforgiving prairie. Tom Reardon and his bride Hannorah settled a marginal quarter north of the fictional town of Henley Junction.

The story follows their lives, loves and tragedies through three generations as they interact, inter-marry and feud with neighbors and towsfolk. Their lives become entangled in intrigue, including rape, murder, political blackmail and eco terror. Fundamental to their existence is an endless campaign to stabilze the region with a small share of Red Deer River water. In the end, love conquers all except the futile quest for a secure supply of water.

The DeWitt genealogy is a fascinating study of 26 generations of the family from 1293 to the present. This work is the collaboration of descendants of the three children of Leucas, ninth child of Tierck Clafsen DeWitt. American Ambassador Lester DeWitt Ballor of UEL descent obtained a copy from The Royal Library of the Hague of Beschayving DerStad Dordrecht by Mattys Balen, Jans Zoon published in 1677. This information provided the first thirteen generations in Holland.

He also received a 32-page copy of a lawsuit in 1684 by Jan DeWitt on behalf of his brother Tierck for rent owned by Pieter Janz, their sister Faelde's husband. The property was land inherited by Tierck from his father Nicholaas. It provided information on her mother Taetje Cornelisz, her father, brothers and their shipyard.

Wander back through the pages of history to a time when the world was a lot slower, when there was time to enjoy the fullness of life and surroundings of the glorious country side that God had created.

Follow the Lundquist and Johnson families and their children through the early part of 1900. They are typical Iowa farmers, fighting the storms, droughts, and the harshness of the cold winters. Doing what it took to survive and care for their children.

Share these times with Leslie and Esther as they merge these two families together and reach out to create a family of their own. A union built on hard work and the sacrifices they endured; in order to give this family the love and guidance that was needed to succeed in life.

A love they shared not only with their family, but the love of the land they toiled. They carried a fear for the elements of nature, which could wipe out their crops in a wink of the eye.

But above all the beliefs and faith they had, seldom spoke but always shone in acts and deeds for family and friends. Watch their children grow and create their own paths, following in the footsteps of their parent's, loving the land and gaining the respect of the world around them. Living by the words they had heard from their grandfather many times, "We Are Surely Blessed."

We all have them in our families. Some are worst than others. Fayetta Peters has inherited her brother's children on default. Father is dead and mother is forever in a mental institution. Problem is, Fayetta has fallen for her oldest nephew, JJ, and is determined to seduce him into her bed. She's got a plan, and if all else fails, she's got an ace in the bush. She pulls out all stops and flourishes for a while, but the dirt she dishes out sometimes comes back to haunt her, even down to the niece she boards out for monetary gain, and that niece, Elizabeth, is the one who is most like her Aunt Faye.

Elizabeth Peters is a thirty-year old wrapped up in a sixteen-year-old body. She has designs on her foster father and will have her way, one way or another, no matter who gets in her way. What life's years have not experienced her to are the consequences of what we do.

JJ, tall, good looking, stable and wants all of his younger brothers and sisters to have the best that life has to offer, but he has troubles of his own. He's fallen for a married woman; has a girlfriend that's in love with him and an unmanageable sister who's determined to ruin a marriage. To complicate the matter, an aunt who has the hots for you, and a mother with a secret kept far too long.

If you think you've got problems in your family, they'll seem insignificant when you read about the Peters, Swansons, and a few other intriguing people.

Lorenzo's Legacy is a work of fiction. Most of the characters, incidents and dialogues are products of the author's imagination. Lucky Luciano was a real person and the world's number one mobster. It was true that he was serving a 30-50 year jail sentence when the USA government released him and exiled him for life to his homeland of Italy in 1946. History does not record that the Mafia's boss of bosses ever spawned a bastard son by the name of Lorenzo while in exile. If he had this is the legacy he might have left his unfortunate offspring.

It is a tale of gory gang murders, drug trafficking, brothel keeping, smuggling, bank heists and child abuse at an orphanage run by Franciscan monks. Lorenzo became a hoodlum just like the notorious father who disowned him - Lucky Luciano.

The story begins on the Caribbean island of Grenada. Jessica Farrow is a hardworking and intelligent student, bringing great pride to her grandmother, Hilda Thorne, who is the only mother she has ever known. Her own mother died when Jessica was three years old. The Bailey family next door is like her"extended family".

While attending high school, Jessica lives in town with her father and stepmother, Ian and Albertine Farrow. Albertine's aversion to Jessica erupts when Jessica becomes pregnant. Through thick and thin her grandmother stands by her. She helps with the twins when they are born. She encourages Jessica to follow her friend, Madge Bailey, and emigrate to Canada.

In Canada, Jessica faces many challenges. Life seems to be improving when that"little lie" told to immigraton authorities years ago comes back to haunt her. Will she ever reunite with her children? Does she ever see her grandmother agan? This books reveals the obstacles that confront this family. It shows the necessity of a support group and the capacity of a determined spirit.

In Gazzaniga's first novel, "Seeds For All Seasons", Timothy Graves, while a student at Harvard Medical School, donates his sperm in an effort to supplement his meager income. after completing his training he stays on at Harvard and becomes a world-reknown neurosurgeon. After his only son dies of a cerebral aneurysm, Tim learns that his sperm was used without his permission for artificial insemination. As he tries to track down his offspring, he discovers that they all have died of cerebral aneurysms, all of them, that is, except the son of the notorious Boston organized crime leader Tony Santori. Tim operates on the gangster's son and saves his life, but subsequently Dr. Timothy Graves and his girlfriend are killed in a car crash.

"The Seeds We Sow" is a follow-up to "Seeds For All Seasons" and explores the complexities of the ethnic groups that are so much a part of Boston. Sean Connors, a Southie crook, wants to wipe out the Italian gangsters, especially Tony Santori and his brother Gianni. To this end he is willing to act as an FBI informant. As the Boston Police Department and various government agencies close in on the Santori empire, the threat of Sean Connors in addition to the Santoris' nephew, who has become a government witness against his uncles, brings things to a head. "The Seeds We Sow" uses familiar characters and introduces new faces to continue the saga of betrayal and corruption within and outside of organized crime.

This is the story of Brennan Mór Chief of the Brennan Clan - set in 17th century Ireland. Tragedy and suffering was commonplace and the old Gaelic order was being replaced by the New English System of Administration. One feudal form of landlord was being replaced by another.

Forced through hunger and privation the Chief and his followers trespassed on forbidden ground and were outlawed. Their only recourse was to turn to pillage and plunder. One of the chief's sons Conal raped the Squires daughter the beautiful Jane Bowyer and as a result a child was born. Hidden away in a convent in France the boy was brought up and educated in the manner befitting a gentleman, unaware of his illegitimate background. Now by chance the young lawyer met up with his fugitive father on a business trip to Paris, and the long held secret was revealed. Faced with difficult decision whether to acknowledge his true identity or go on with the masquerade he choose the latter.

The story tells of his woes and fears, his indecision and his courage. A dilemma that blighted his life and ended in tragedy on Lake Geneva.

Lady Regina, widow of a British embassy attaché, fancies herself royalty. Daughters, proper Elizabeth and free spirited Victoria, teach at Chateau De Grace, their small "school of finesse and creativity." Victoria presents boyfriend Grady Carson as a college professor, rather than a common mechanic. Thanks to Phipps, family lawyer and guardian of their finances, and to nine year old exasperating neighbor, Delcie Perkins, the truth is revealed. Lady Regina assigns Grady Carson to low grade tasks, hoping to showcase his common "grease monkey" status to Victoria. The plan backfires when Victoria joins Grady in the menial activities.

At Phipps urging, the ladies rent rooms to Professor Reynard Duvier, wealthy, Oxford educated eccentric from Vienna, assigned to work with Colonel Perkins on a highly classified American project. Lady Regina, thrilled with the Professor's elitist background, approves Elizabeth's acceptance of an expensive engagement ring. An intelligent and practical Grady finally charms Lady Regina, endearing her further by arranging outings in her prized, ancient Rolls Royce, chauffered by his employee, handsome, dimpled Gideon, who is captivated with Elizabeth. Grady and Victoria are now secretly engaged.

Grady notifies authorities of a skulking stranger and is ignored. Later, Elsa and Otis, cook and gardener, observe the stranger with binoculars surveying the Château. Grady and Gideon attempt a citizen's arrest, and are soundly trounced and incarcerated, discovering the Professor is under government surveillance as a spy. The Professor, pleading "persecution" to Elizabeth, pawns her ring to purchase two tickets to Vienna. As Elizabeth packs, he buys one ticket to Argentina, abandoning her. Devastated by the loss of the ring, a materialistic Elizabeth secretly admires handsome Gideon. Grady buys disgraced Colonel Perkins' house nearby, pleasing Lady Regina, who is now being courted by family lawyer, Phipps.

Following the battle of Culloden (1746), many Scots were captured and enslaved to work the mines of northern England. It took our family, a splinter of the Thompson clan, five generations to find freedom by fleeing to America and continuing west. This story, based on the memories of a family member, is a cohesive collage of literay non-fiction that picks up the journey in Western Canada during the First World War.

To Shadow the Sun follows the trials and tribulations of four children from a pioneering family, as told in the narrative of the third child whose memoirs inspired this novel. The book opens in medias res and finds two family members in an intriguing predicament before readers are taken back to witness the unfolding story. After their mother dies, and with their father overseas fighting in the war, the children are sent to an Edmonton orphanage to fend for themselves. From the comfort of the family home to the bleak institutional life of the orphanage, they struggle to uphold their dying mother's request to look aftr each other and keep the family together.

The contrast between the innocence of childhood and those that feed upon it, results in an emotional roller coaster ranging from heart-warming humour to heart-pounding suspense. It is a true drama that will appeal to fiction and non-fiction fans alike. It also provides an articulate glimpse of Canadian pioneering history, adding another brick to the great North American mosaic.

A second novel, carrying the 'teen years' of the family, describes the continuing Thompson Saga and the hardships of prairie farming in the 1920s, as the boys are forced to flee their abusive father and seek thier own way to adulthood.

The principal characters reveal themselves in their brushes with everyday living - friendship, sexuality, passion, loss, loneliness and a melancholy that seems derived from family and Maureen's death - all of them forces that signify the power of past deeds to justify present behaviors. It is a story driven more by character revelation than by plot.

The story of the Reilly family begins in Dublin, Ireland, and introduces sketches that trace the character of Maureen Reilly throughout a determined adolescence and a disastrous marriage. When she recovers she marries Jack Francis, and moves to a small town in Ontario, Canada, where she lives out her brief life.

Twenty years after her death, her daughter Jacqueline experiences a psychotic episode that makes her the central character in a psychiatric treatment that in turn involves uncle Max Reilly, and father Jack Francis. Flash backs, triggered by psychiatrist Michael Regan, and his colleague Jodi Heatherington, challenged this family's accomodations to living, and helps to peel back layers of haunting memories of how life was, how each got to be the way they are.

The minor characters in the story offer either comic relief, or life's darker side, all of them susceptible to failed experiments in their efforts to be appreciated if not loved. It is therefore a redemptive story of ordinary people who confront their personal ghosts with heart and humor.