Texas

Life was mundane for Leona Templeton, her cookie-baking sister, Betty Drummond, and their long-term neighbor, Clarence Brown, until the day they come home from a funeral to find Leona’s house has been burglarized. The thieves destroyed many of her possessions, but most traumatic for Leona, they stole her mother’s ruby necklace and the gold wedding band of her late husband.

The highly educated Dr. Faye Davis isn’t satisfied. A member of the esteemed faculty at Cullen State University, life in academia has left her unfulfilled regarding what she wants most—a family. The bleak, dispirited region of West Texas presents the appropriate backdrop to Faye’s turbulent life within the toxic Davis family. At first, she longed for kinship and belonging within the Davis tribe, but certain members wouldn’t have it, not now . . . not ever. It left her desperate, fearful, and with blood on her hands.

Venomous vipers of the mind twist throughout the ventricular crevices of the innocent, and the not so innocent. They work down into the deepest recesses until those that are tormented…become the tormentors. Dr. Faye Davis’s mind is scientifically trained, but her hands are bloody, wringing with guilt. She’s killed her husband’s old flame, the mother of his illegitimate twin girls. One of them, Emma, suspects the step-mother, and her plan for revenge comes from a soulless place. Her mind is so devoured, no pure spirit can enter.

The Blow-Up Man is a psychological thriller that takes place in a dispirited region of West Texas. It is where pests, weeds, predators, and strong winds make living in the region a burden to most. West Texas is not a place for the weak ...or a naive, young woman with a head full of fantasy. Abandoned homesteads along the barren countryside represent the many dreams that didn't come true, but the nightmares that did. In the middle of the vast rural region is Ethanville, an agrarian town of 100,000. It is an unlikely place to find a university.

A young neurologist, Dr. Callie Wallace, returns to her hometown of Sperling, Texas, with business partner and friend Dr. Richard Cortez to set up their neurology practice. The unexpected death of one of Callie's patients throws the overachieving physician into a tailspin, and she begins to question her own sanity. Her mother wants to be there for her daughter, but a dark family secret keeps their relationship contentious and distant. A long-time boyfriend also wants to be there for Callie, but she keeps him at arm's length and repeatedly turns to Richard, causing strain.

Hope needs more hope. Faith needs more faith. They both need a whole lot of love. Younger sister Hope has lost her job, her car, and her boyfriend all in one day. Her well-laid plans for life have gone sideways, as has her hope in God. Older sister Faith is finally getting her dream-come-true after years of struggles and prayers. But when her mom talks her into letting Hope move in for the summer, will the stress turn her dream into a nightmare? Is her faith in God strong enough to handle everything?