Author's Note

My fascination with Western Jewish history began with family lore and grew into a regionwide social history, Pioneer Jews: A New Life in the Far West, which in turn inspired the fictional Desert Dwellers trilogy. These novels probe the inner lives of Frieda Levie and her cohorts as the Americanizing West tears them apart and recasts them as westerners. Historical fiction at its best transforms the writer, then its readers. For more about me, my works and western Jewish history visit other sections of this site.