The Short Story
After graduation from Purdue University the road led West far from the flat farmlands. Adventure awaited me in the deserts and mountains of Arizona. Backpacking through those wild spaces awakened the writer of my youth. I learned how setting would become the inspiration for my historical stories.
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Today we live in the foothills of the northern reaches of the Rocky Mountain range. Here they are known by other names -- the Lost River Range, the White and Sawtooth Mountains. Wilderness exists here, places hidden or lost to memory. Inspiration rises like smoke from our campfires, invasive and fragrant.
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Beyond these breathtaking vistas, the research has opened for me a deeper understanding for what these wild places demanded of those who passed through on rugged animal tracks. Those who stayed to make a home were not unlike those who explore the stars with the right stuff, the resilience of body and mind.​​Their history infuses me with hope for the generations that follow.
I invite you to come along and uncover stories of under-appreciated or forgotten history, those with the grit to push through adversity in however they perceive it.
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Misha is a survivor! Branded a half-breed and a bearer of bad luck, he'll do anything to prove he's worthy of his home in the Russian American Colony of Fort Ross.
In the spring of 1827, Misha Alexandrov arrives at Fort Ross as a ten-year-old orphan of a Russian father and an Aleut mother. Hated by the foreman for his half-breed heritage, he must prove his worth as a working member of the Russian American Company and overcome the perception that he brings with him "a bag of bad luck".
On the remote coast of Alta California, a passion for the land takes root in his young heart, and he vows to do anything it takes to make the fortress colony his home.Misha Alexandrov, a middle grade novel from California's earliest days of European colonization, is a work of fiction in the style of Scott O'Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins), and Allan W. Eckert (Incident at Hawk's Hill). Students of California history will discover the fuller picture of Sonoma County's diverse culture.
A beautiful and absorbing story, rich in history, that readers will have a hard time putting down.
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Diana Wallis Taylor,
award winning author
Journey to the Well
The writing is fluid and engaging . . . making this story one to be used for discussion among readers.
Semi-finalist for
BookLife Prize for Fiction
It’s what Misha learns from
his struggle that’s supremely uplifting. . . Misha Alexandrov gives us a model of perseverance, tells us we can overcome.
Shirley Miller Kamada
award winning author
No Quiet Water