River of Fire

About the Book

The effects and counter effects of a little known religious revival lead by Charles Finney in upstate New York in 1830 began a change of events that would be felt long after Finney's visit and far beyond the boundaries of the river town of Rochester.

Charles Finney, a talented lawyer turned Presbyterian evangelist spearheaded the Christian social justice movement that produced the abolitionist movement, prohibition, woman's suffrage and the Civil War. Finney challenged the traditional belief in Predestination by his stand on duty to one's fellow human beings.

Thousands of people came to his revival in the river-town of Rochester and were transformed by his message. He set them afire with religious zeal - hence upper New York became known as the Burnt Over District and this novel received its name.

A door had been opened for men like Frederick Douglass (a black man) to publish an abolitionists newspaper. Rochester would become an important part of the Anti-Slavery Movement and the Underground Railroad.

Rochester was also the birthplace of the woman's rights movement in the person of Susan B. Anthony. The ancient roles of women would, at last, be challenged along with the other attitudes that had hitherto suffocated the dignity of large numbers of the human race.

All this is not to imply that the utopia dreamed of in Finney's day was in fact realized. Quite the contrary, an upheaval occurred. forces were set in motion that could not be stopped. But it is only when humans are stressed that agitation conceives change to which complacency could not give birth.

I came to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism to receive, and how distressed I am until it is over! Do you suppose that I came to bring peace to the world? No, not peace, but division. -Luke 12:49-51

Through the fictional characters of my book, I dramatize vividly the transformation of human beings representing every facet of 1830 American life. From their cold and bitter Puritan roots; the tyranny of slavery; the oppression of immigrant peoples; and the greed of the emerging industrial revolution, to the upheaval that produced the Civil War, my characters tell a passionate, painful, and uplifting story of a nation giving birth to the ideal of social justice.

About the Author

I was born in Fresno, California. I have seven natural children, one adopted (developmentally disabled daughter), and one foster daughter. I suffered from hearing loss as a child. Until nearly eleven years of age, family and teachers considered me retarded because I could not pronounce words and I often did not understand. Surgery restored most of my hearing, but this experience left me with a profound understanding of the discrimination and mistreatment faced by many disabled persons in our society.

I married young. My spouse served in the Air Force for many years. We moved many times in those years and I grew in solidarity with other military dependents that endure the hardships of that lifestyle.

While stationed in Massachusetts, I became deeply involved in community service. I chaired the base chapel's Community Action Committee and organized efforts that fed and supplied the poor and homeless of the Somerville area of Boston with furniture and clothing. Th committee also painted and repaired local school buildings. I helped to found a local "Children Have A Potential" (C.H.A.P.) parents' group through which a class action suit on behalf of disabled children lead to laws protecting the rights of disabled students to attend normal classrooms. This activity inspired other States to protect the education rights of the disabled and, to some degree, contributed to the creation of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990. I continue to involve myself in social justice issues.

I completed my undergraduate work in history and received a membership in Phi Alpha Theta for conspicuous attachments and scholarship in the field of history. I then attended law school for over a year. I discontinued my studies in law because of the difficulty of attending law school and parenting seven of my children as a single parent. I consider myself a professional writer and researcher. I am also a portrait artist and an ongoing student of American, world and religious history.