Orphan Moon

Thought-provoking and fun to read, Orphan Moon confirms humility as both attainable and revelatory while pride, humility¿s antagonist, breeds ignorance. The book allows bloodlines and family traits spanning six generations to touch in the persons of Joseph Beaumont and Willie Earl Jeffers. Joseph is a self- described Texan, keeper of treasures, and reader of books. He has a rare listening ear and quiet wisdom and becomes a mentor of sorts to the inquisitive adolescent. The awakening of the boy¿s consciousness of heritage while remaining unsure of its relevance or worth provides the backdrop to challenges and adventures of the 1960¿s family clan. Willie Earl is to learn that life, legacy, and spirituality blend together nicely in accord, even as his unlikely Texas tutor, the eccentric Joseph, realizes his own healing.

The brilliantly conceived historical mystery will forever change the way you look at those who endured and survived hard times when the discovery of oil breathed hope into communities that were dying from burnt crops and wilted cotton stalks. As one reviewer said the award-winning Boomtown Saga, “Combine The Grapes of Wrath and maybe a little Huck Finn and perhaps you will understand the magnitude of this story set in a small town in East Texas in the Great Depression. It should go down as a classic in American literature.” An oil boom has broken the back of the Great Depression. A small East Texas town is awash with new names and new faces, and no one knows whose eyes belong to the man who carried a lovely fancy dancer from the ballroom of a Sporting House into the darkness of a rainy night and killed her. Was it a crime of passion? Did she reject him? Was it someone from her past? Or was he as unfamiliar as the next roustabout or drifter walking the streets? A preacher has set up the tent for his traveling Love and Salvation Show on the road beside the courthouse. A strange hunchback with a voice of doom casts an uneasy shadow across the town. Where did he come from? Nobody knows. Men are spending their hard-earned money with dime-a-dance girls, looking for love, a wife, or something more sinister. Everyone has a secret. Whose secret sent the lovely Louise Fontaine to a muddy grave? And who is the small boy who stepped off the train with a paper note attached to his coat that said: My name is Ollie Porter. My daddy is Oliver Porter. He works in the oilfields. Does anyone know where he is? Is the boy connected to the fancy dancer or, perhaps, the killer? Or is he just a waif in search of a home? Ashland is a town without law. It is threatening to explode from the mass of humanity crowding into the oilfield. Is the death of the fancy dancer only the first? And can Doc, the charming and lovable con man, and Eudora, the beautiful widow, catch a killer before they find out who’s the next to die?

A gritty western saga and timeless love story that will leave you breathless and wanting more. PRAISE FOR ORPHAN MOON: "Gritty, raw American history...I felt like I was there. LOVE that in a good novel."-Gary "Highly recommended! An exciting, breathless read with well-developed characters and a plot that keeps you guessing."-Elizabeth "T. K. Lukas's writing reflects the kind of maturity that will shine more and more with each passing novel. Kudos to her!"-Grammar Dowager Writers' League of Texas 2015 Top Five Finalist-Historical Fiction 1860 - Palo Pinto, Texas: Under the spectacular glow of a Comanche moon, a family is slaughtered, their homestead torched. Nineteen-year-old Barleigh Flanders survives the terrifying raid. Fiercely determined to rebuild, she seizes an opportunity meant for another. It's a foolhardy, reckless scheme. Desperate, near penniless, it's her only hope. Her grueling physical journey stretches from Texas, to Missouri, and into the rugged Utah Territory. However, it's her emotional journey that takes her to places of uncharted darkness, discovery, and redemption. In Hughes Levesque, Barleigh gains an unsought ally with dark secrets of his own. A hired gun, it becomes his personal mission to keep Barleigh safe. Doing so may cost him his life, his job, and his heart, none of which he's keen to lose. Orphan Moon is a heart-wrenching saga of family love, loss, and betrayal. Both a gripping adventure and a timeless love story, it gallops across the bleeding edge of the western frontier.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hypnotism Molly Moon is no ordinary orphan. When she finds a mysterious old book on hypnotism, she discovers she can make people do whatever she wants. But a sinister stranger is watching her every move and he'll do anything to steal her hypnotic secret...

Jason Wander is ready to lead the final charge into battle. After forty years of fighting the Slugs, mankind's reunited planets control the vital crossroad that secures their uneasy union. The doomsday weapon that can end the war, and the mighty fleet that will carry it to the Slug homeworld, lie within humanity's grasp. Since the Slug Blitz orphaned Jason Wander, he has risen from infantry recruit to commander of Earth's garrisons on the emerging allied planets. But four decades of service have cost Jason not just his friends and family, but his innocence. When an enemy counter stroke threatens to reverse the war and destroy mankind, Jason must finally confront not only his lifelong alien enemy, but the reality of what a lifetime as a soldier has made him.

A hybrid novella of prose poems, collages, and drawings.

The son of a singer mother whose career forcibly separated her from her family and an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jong Il. By the author of Parasites Like Us.

In the years since the last Slug War, Jason's command style hasn't made him any friends in the Army. Now, in an effort to keep him out of trouble, the Army has sent Jason to the vast, Earth-orbiting resort called New Moon. At the core of this enormous space station is a starship, a relic from the last war. When a test run of the ship goes wrong, Jason, along with a handful of others, will be torn from orbit and thrust into space. Now, stranded on an alien planet, Jason realizes that not only are his friends are looking to him for rescue, but an entire planet sees him as their only hope.