Tumbleweeds Burning A Novel

Heinrich and Anna Marie Oster are invited by the Czar to move to Russia. Their excitement runs high when a son of their family is selected to serve in the Czar's elite body guard, the Imperial Hussars, and life is good. Life next to the Royals is full of thrills and color, but before long the corruption and greed in high places are exposed, and soon bitter persecution of the family makes their days difficult. Their children flee to America and accept the government's offer of free homestead acres on the great prairies of the heartland. The free land, however, extracts a heavy price. As they wrestle their sod house out of the stubborn buffalo grasses, they discover that their new "palace on the prairies" is only three miles from the Native sons of the warriors who scalped George Armstrong Custer. It leaves their days uneasy, their nights uncertain. At every turn, Nature confronts them with immense battles, from killing blizzards and sweeping fires, to plagues of grasshoppers. From years of deathdealing drought where nothing grows but tumbleweeds and biting flies, to international conflicts that drastically change their lives. Through it all they come together in faith and turn their little spot of earth into the breadbasket of the world.

Life for the Osters, immigrant Germans in Russia, started out well enough. But then persecution began and life turned sour. Their children flee to America and accept the government’s offer of free homestead acres on the great prairies of the heartland. The free land, however, extracts a heavy price. As they wrestle their sod house out of the stubborn buffalo grasses, they discover that their new “palace on the prairies” is only three miles from the Native sons of the warriors who removed the golden tresses of George Armstrong Custer. It leaves their days uneasy, their nights uncertain. But events bring a twist that adds an entirely new dimension. At every turn, Nature confronts them with immense battles, from killing blizzards and raging fires, to biblical plagues of grasshoppers. From years of paralyzing drought where nothing grows, to tumbleweeds and early death. Violent dust storms threaten to choke all of life around them. They deal with witchcraft and murder, and international conflicts that drastically change their lives. Through it all they come together in faith and turn their little spot of earth into the breadbasket of the world.

A recently orphaned girl moves to the Texas panhandle and struggles to forge new friendships in a town of football glory in this unforgettable novel of surprising plot twists and unexpected beginnings. Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.

The sagebrush prairie passed by outside the bus window and the landscape grew dim in the fading sunset, leaving his hometown far behind. Maybe the tumbleweeds swirling in the wind alongside the bus were an omen; time would scatter bad memories just like wind chasing tumbleweeds

When a girl she had met at an innercity church is murdered, fifteen-year-old Macey channels her grief into a school project that leads her to uncover prejudice she had not imagined in her grandparents and their wealthy Connecticut community. An ALA Quick Pick. Reissue.

Can you be vulnerable? People have a hard enough time being vulnerable with their friends and family. Now imagine that vulnerability cast upon the world. This collection was created without pretentiousness, never assuming its publishing would ever see the light of day. The deepest fear had to be overcome in order for light to shine on Bad Poetry. Sometimes you’re just lost—lost in love, lost in tragedy, lost in confusion... The list is endless, but the one element that remains constant is emotion. Tumbleweed shows you’re not alone on this journey. Bad Poetry, Vol. 1: Tumbleweed is the first installment in this poetry series. Just like a tumbleweed moving freely without direction throughout the desert, the poems in this book were written the same manner.

"This hard-hitting story lights up the world of animal rescue with engaging characters and their pets, bringing hope out of personal tragedies. Danny Sandoval, a character from Prairie Dog Blues, joins up with his friends to take on Norma Jean Lawson and her Safe Sanctuary No-Kill Rescue Center in Albuquerque. Danny accuses Safe Sanctuary of negligent animal care, claiming they do more harm than good. Norma Jean puts up a fierce fight through her attorney Ray, and sues Danny for libel and slander, seeking $500,000 in damages. Danny's friends all rise to his defense: a veterinarian friend, Virgil Hummel, his AA friends Mark and Dave, and his lover Ida. In the midst of the legal battle, Danny and Norma Jean also struggle with internal demons as they attempt to rescue dogs and cats, innocent creatures that sometimes bring a mysterious transforming power to broken lives. As Danny recovers from burns from a fire, he faces his childhood grief and begins to heal in the warmth of people who care. Norma Jean endures psychological abuse, and then rises up to face the evil of her lover William Redfield, finding that bad motives often end in darkness, and that animals and a clean heart can reveal pathways to God's healing. Dog Shelter Blues takes these beaten, everyday people on a breathtaking journey that ends with an astonishing triumph of good over evil."--