Slave traders capture 13 yr.old Anta Majigeen Ndiaye,a village princess. Anta's family dies on a slave ship and Anta begins her quest for freedom. The road to freedom takes her from Africa to Spanish East Florida-from village to plantation--from a blanket on a dirt floor of a thatched hut to her master's bed. Inspired by the life of Anna Kingsley. Kingsley Plantation is now a National Park in Florida.
I have been writing for years, and my experience includes four published books, numerous magazine articles for Christian magazines, all the scripts for a puppet ministry group I organized, and a program in the United Methodist Women's Program Book, among miscellaneous writings of devotionals, women's group programs, etc.
My first book, MY VERY OWN BOOK OF THE LORD'S PRAYER, was published by Abingdon Press, and is presently out of print after several printings. This non-fiction book explainsthe Lord's Prayer to children.
GOING TO THE MOUNTAIN: LESSONS FOR LIFE'S JOURNEY was my next non-fiction book, published by WinePress. It is a book of inspiration that can be used as a small-group study book. It is used by the Stephen Ministry in Texas as a resource book.
FREEDOM BOUND (www.freedombound.net) marked my switch to historical fiction, and was published by Seasons of Harvest, a now-retired small press in Texas. This award-winning novel is based on the amazing life of Anna Kingsley, born of royal blood in Senegal in 1793, captured during a tribal raid at the age of thirteen, and brought as a slave to Spanish East Florida. Because of this book I have been invited to speak at the Birmingham, AL Civil Rights Museum, at UNC-Chapel Hill at a forum on Race and Gender, and at Texas Tech University, among other places. FREEDOM BOUND is required reading for a history course at Texas Tech.
Memorial Day, 2009 at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Angel Fire, NM, my next historical fiction, SISTERS OF VALOR (www.sistersofvalor.com), was released, published by Cypress Creek Publishing, a small press in Alabama. This tells the story of four wives whose husbands are serving in Vietnam at the same time in 1967-'68 (as mine did). SISTERS OF VALOR brings those turbulent times to the reader from the unusual viewpoint of the service wife. It is a book club selection for Army Wife Network, and is on the suggested reading list for the Vietnam War course taught at Texas Tech University, where the largest archives of the Vietnam War are held.
I am a graduate of Mary Washington College, which at that time was the women's college of UVA. I have worked as a juvenile probation officer and as a Director of Christian Education. I was fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom, but kept my hand in through volunteer activities, including Headstart Program, Habitat for Humanity, a jail ministry, teaching adult literacy and English as a Second Language, tutoring in the inner city, etc. In Jacksonville, FL, I received the JC Penney Award for establishing a summer reading program in the inner city. I have always been very active in our church wherever we lived - we have moved seventeen times due to my husband's career. I am married to Frank Turner, and we have celebrated our 46th anniversary. We have two sons, Kile who with his wife Sara (both attorneys) have five children, and Joel, a former Marine now a policeman, who lives in North Carolina. We lost a third son to leukemia when he was ten years old.
