Handsome Rob Baron had a keen eye for business, yet maintained a conservative approach to life. His wife, Julia, with her fiery red hair and emerald green eyes possessed a marketing mind and a writer's sense of creativity, which caused her to view life from a different perspective. They pooled their resources and entered a new chapter of their lives as owners of The Madera Market. The pair soon discovered that their dream of business ownership had turned into a nightmare so powerful it kept drawing Julia deeper and deeper towards its vortex, one horrific dream sequence at a time. There were singular events in Julia Baron's life that seemed innocuous, leaving little cause for her personal concern. But little did Julia realize that collectively these events could and would alter her life and disrupt the usual, customary and orderly existence she shared with her husband and family. Most people think they live uneventful, average lives. They think nothing out-of-the-ordinary could ever happen to them. Julia Baron was like everyone else. She was just an ordinary person with one exception her life just happened to take some extraordinary turns leading her on a journey far removed from her sheltered world into a dark underworld of secrets and perversions far beyond her wildest imagination. Julia Baron found herself amidst the underbelly of society where subcultures thrived on drugs, promoted prostitution and pornography and were capable of many things even murder. She had become an unwilling player in a game that had no rules and knew no boundaries and her only way to gain back control of her life was to find the "Pieces of the Puzzle".

Harmony Rae... With her long, blonde hair, body made for sin, and the voice of a mythical siren; Harmony is the epitome of a ROCK STAR. The mother of two beautiful sons, the wife of a supportive, handsome man. It would seem that the world is her's for the taking...that is until her past comes crashing back in the form of a brooding, sexy ROCK STAR... Adrian Gillette... Leaving the love of his life behind to become a ROCK GOD...he can't take watching Harmony from a far anymore. So moving back to The City of Angels, he plans to win back her heart...and to finally find out what's hiding behind her eyes...

Joanna Brooks reveals the harsh realities behind seventeenth- and eighteenth-century working-class English emigration--and dismantles the idea that these immigrants were drawn to America as a land of opportunity. Brooks follows American folk ballads back across the Atlantic, uncovering an archaeology of the worldviews of America's earliest immigrants and a haunting historical perspective on the ancestors we thought we knew.

Three days before Christmas in 1831, Frankie Silver killed her husband, Charles Silver, with an axe and burned his body in the fireplace. Author Perry Deane Young, whose ancestors were involved in the case, began collecting material about it as a teenager. As a college student, he was astounded to learn that most of what he had been told was actually false. Abused by her husband, Frankie killed in self defense. The laws of that time would not allow her to take the stand and explain what happened. She was unjustly hanged in July of 1833. Young proves the real crime is the way this poor woman has been misrepresented by balladeers and historians all these years. Perry Deane Young provides important historical background to this fascinating story Young is able to build suspense, even for a story many of his readers may already knowBy personalizing both Frankie Silvers story and his own search for it, Young has given readers an interesting and well-written book about history and the way it is created. --Lynn Moss Sanders in Appalachian Journal Most of my life Ive heard stories about a pretty mountain lady who was hanged for nothing more serious than murdering her husband. Here, and I can say at last after one and a half centuries, is the true account, thoroughly researched and beautifully presented. Its a highroad journey into this Appalachian mystery. --John Ehle, author of The Land Breakers, The Road, The Journey of August King

The ballad "John Henry" is the most recorded folk song in American history and John Henry--the mighty railroad man who could blast through rock faster than a steam drill--is a towering figure in our culture. In Steel Drivin' Man, Scott Reynolds Nelson recounts the true story of the man behind the iconic American hero, telling the poignant tale of a young Virginia convict who died working on one of the most dangerous enterprises of the time, the first rail route through the Appalachian Mountains. Using census data, penitentiary reports, and railroad company reports, Nelson reveals how John Henry, victimized by Virginia's notorious Black Codes, was shipped to the infamous Richmond Penitentiary to become prisoner number 497, and was forced to labor on the mile-long Lewis Tunnel for the C&O railroad. Equally important, Nelson masterfully captures the life of the ballad of John Henry, tracing the song's evolution from the first printed score by blues legend W. C. Handy, to Carl Sandburg's use of the ballad to become the first "folk singer," to the upbeat version by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Attractively illustrated with numerous images, Steel Drivin' Man offers a marvelous portrait of a beloved folk song--and a true American legend.