The one thing Oscar Metford wished for above all else on his ninety-first birthday was the ability to fulfill his late wife’s last request.  That he be able to take her ashes alone, just the two of them, his last expression of his love for her, and deposit them along the Alpine lake the two of them so cherished in their youth.  But age and infirmity made the trek into the mountains and up to the lake on foot or even on horseback impossible for his arthritic body.  Then a contest drawing for a hot air balloon excursion that would fly over the very location he needed to go in order to honor his late wife’s request gave him an option in fulfilling the obligation.  The contest came to his attention in an ad in the local newspaper.  The event was an advertisement for a local radio station.  But when he made the request to his children that a balloon ride was what he wanted most of all for his ninety-first birthday, they rejected his request as too dangerous for a man of his advanced years and physical condition.  That’s when he entered his name in the radio station's drawing on a whim, and won the trip of a lifetime; a balloon ride that gave him more than he bargained for when it came to friendship and adventure.


To Purchase Click the Links:

Libby’s Ashes paperback:

http://www.amazon.com/Libbys-Ashes-Melva-Henderson/dp/1441454969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259866331&sr=1-1

Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Libbys-Ashes-ebook/dp/B0032AMA2G/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

or

http://www.createspace.com/3370364

 

Red Sky

The Sequel to Maggie:

Life isn’t the bright future Maggie imagined when she married Justin Bailey on the spur of the moment three years before.  His lack of integrity and ambition, and his frequent infidelities and physical abuse made the marriage impossible.  When Maggie follows her friend’s suggestion that she move onto her friend’s widowed brother’s ranch to work as his cook and housekeeper, Justin tracks her there.  With an infant and toddler she must raise on her own, Maggie finds herself suddenly a widow.  With an unexpected disclosure from her mother, when she goes to Oklahoma to care for her on her mother’s deathbed, she loses a sense of her own identity.  Falling in love with her employer brings its own problems when his loyalty to his lifelong friend, whom he discovers loves Maggie as well, produces a road block as far as a relationship between he and Maggie is concerned.  Her life appears on hold until an escaped convict comes into the picture and Maggie finds herself knocking at death’s door.  Although her life is filled with unexpected twists and turns, she continues to hope that the red sky in the Arizona sunset is an indication that there will be clear sailing ahead for her and her daughters.

Return of The Trogon

The Sequel to Red Sky

Maggie’s life has been filled with adventure and adversity, from nearly losing her husband to a cougar attack, to her hunting the cat down on the desert and killing it. Faced with an empty nest and besieged at an early age in her middle fifties by near blindness, the effects of cataracts, life’s surprises aren’t finished with her yet.  When Maggie witnesses the accident that claims her husband’s life, she is drawn into a self-protective state of hysterical amnesia.  When she regains her memory and eyesight in a cold, inhospitable city, she is unexpectedly reintroduced to her childhood sweetheart, but decides to return to her ranch in the Arizona desert, and takes the homeless woman with Tourettes, who took her under her protective wing throughout her ordeal with blindness and amnesia, home with her.  Once home again, Maggie is reunited with the man who has loved her for decades, her late husband’s best friend.  Her future appears on a brighter course with the planned wedding in the majestic canyons of the Chiricahua Mountains when the mystical bird, the Coppery Tailed Trogon, returns to nest in the month of April.

Return Of The Trogon: Sequel to Red Sky (Volume 3) by Melva J. Henderson (Paperback - Dec 1, 1994)

In The Path Of The Dragon

Doni Cassidy found herself caught in the path of the dragon, the worst wildfire to ravage her mountain retreat in local history.  Trapped in the chaos of the flaming maelstrom, she managed to find her way to her small cabin nestled higher up on the mountain, on a small alpine lake.  The harrowing experience is enough for an adult to contend with, but for Chelsea, a toddler left burned, disfigured, and orphaned by the flames, the experience proves the extent of human strength and perseverance.  Little do the local residents know about what is behind the devastating wildfires, and the hand the government may have played.  But Valerie Tamarian has a dark secret regarding the origin of the fires that took the life of her best friend; a secret that may not only put Valerie’s life at stake, but also the life of her unborn child.

To Purchase Click the Link: 

In The Path Of The Dragon

 In The Path Of The Dragon by Melva Henderson (Paperback - Jan. 4, 2010)

 

Maggie
The Early Years

At the turn of the nineteenth century a broad mix of nationalities had intermingled within the United States, creating a nation of cultures that were unique.  Sometimes the mixtures created personalities that exhibited indifference, coupled with the hardness of granite.  Due to the hardships encountered in an unforgiving environment, harshness of personality became common.  Especially on farms where families were intentionally large in order to insure that there would be enough hands within the household to handle the work involved in tilling the soil and harvesting the crops the fields hopefully would yield.

 In this environment, children were no more than a product and often treated no more humanely than the cattle.  Many times as one group of children was raised and approached adulthood, when they often left the farm, more children were born to take their place.  It wasn’t uncommon for a family to consist of nine to twelve children or more, whether by birth or by procurement through one sort or another.

This was the era of the Orphan Train.  A time when children who were placed in state custody because their parents were unable to support them, were shipped to all parts of the country to be adopted or placed into servitude as foster children.  Children were compelled to grow up fast as a result of the burden of work forced upon them at an early age.  In many families the natural born were treated no better than those procured.  That was the case for Maggie Blackford. 

To Purchase Click the Link:

Maggie

The Early Years

Maggie: The Early Years by Melva Henderson (Paperback - Mar. 10, 2008)