This is the Shannon series of novels. Each book is loosely based on prevoius ones. They can easily be read as a stand alone story. 

These books are available through Amazon in print or electronic format.

For the last eighteen years, Peyton Kinsley has been locked away in prison for a crime he did not commit. Through the wonders of DNA he is exonerated and set free with little fanfare. Now a free man he must start all over and forge a life on his own. Peyton checks into a homeless shelter and begins to search for a work. He finds a job at a restaurant and starts getting his life on track. While at work he encounters the two detectives who originally arrested him. They are unhappy that he is free and set about to destroy him. After his shift, while walking home, he accosted by the corrupt detectives and their cohorts. He is beaten severely and hospitalized, costing him his job. Moving on, Peyton does his best to avoid the detectives. He finds another job, this time as a loan officer in a small finance company. His life begins to look up. With his better income, Peyton leaves the shelter and moves into an apartment and is able to purchase a car. He meets and falls in love with his next door, Cali. Soon the two are an item with plans for a future together. Still being harassed by the detectives, Peyton is again beaten, threatened and forced to flee for his life and that of Cali. On the run he eventually ends up on the Appalachian Trail northbound with no particular destination in mind other than staying under the radar of the law back in Georgia. Stopping off the trail for supplies while trekking through Tennessee, Peyton discovers the small town of Shannon. There he decides to settle down and once again try to build a new life. Trying out his hand at outdoor photography, he quickly produces works of art that become quite popular and profitable. Peyton worries that the notoriety from his photographic artworks will somehow bring unwanted attention from the ugly past he left behind. It does in a most unexpected way.

During the U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam conflict, Marine Captain Timothy Miller's F-4 Phantom fighter is shot down. On the ground in enemy territory, injured, Tim is soon captured. He is taken to an underground Viet Cong infirmary. There the wounded pilot is treated and held prisoner while waiting to be moved to Hanoi to be imprisoned. He encounters nurse Anh who cares for his wounds. While Tim is recovering, an airstrike on the tunnel system causes a massive cave in. As the dust settles it turns out that he and Anh are the only two survivors and find themselves trapped in the partially collapsed chamber. Through mutual need the two sworn enemies band together and dig their way out. Finding that the tunnels have been abandoned by her fellow soldiers, Anh and Tim are alone when they reach the surface and safety. In an act of kindness Anh decides to give Tim his freedom for helping her out of their underground tomb. The two spend the night in the jungle before she leads him to a nearby U.S. firebase and disappears from his life. Before parting Tim gives her his dog tag and makes a promise to her that after the war if she ever needed something to get in touch with him and he would do anything within his power for her. Thirty years later Tim finds himself retired and divorced. His wife and kids get the house in Atlanta. He packs up and moves to their beach house in Florida where he is originally from. He has a bittersweet reunion with his mother and father who also live in Panama City. He slowly picks up the pieces of shattered dreams and rebuilds his life. Then, early one morning Tim receives a fateful phone call that will change his life forever. It is from the Viet Cong nurse, Anh, who let him go free all those years ago. She is living in San Francisco and is calling in on the promise he made. Anh related that she urgently needs to discuss something with him but does not want to do it over the phone. Tim readily makes arrangements and flies out to see her. Anh is as beautiful as ever. He learns that she is a recent widow. Her husband had been a prominent physician there for many years. She then reveals that she has terminal cancer which saddens Tim. Then she tells him why she has called. He has a granddaughter in Vietnam who is now an orphan, her name is Nan. Anh is too ill to travel and asks Tim to go to Vietnam and get Nan out before she disappears or is sold on the black market. Anh has contacts that will covertly help Tim get Nan quickly out of the country. He agrees to the plan and the wheels begin to turn.

Moving his family from Tennessee to Mobile, Russell Carson begins his studies toward a medical degree at the University of South Alabama. Dreams of becoming a physician, he works diligently to fulfill his goal. While attending premed classes he meets and becomes friends with Jessica Krammer who also has the same aspirations. Things go well until his wife falls in love with her boss and divorces him. During his hard times, Russell meets a Kim, a Chinese immigrant, who is struggling to pay off her debt of being brought to the states. They become fast friends and eventually fall in love with plans of marriage. As the college courses become more demanding, Russell's best friend and study partner, Jessica, has a mental breakdown and has to withdraw from school. Soldiering on, Russell comes to the end of his premed requirements and is accepted into medical school at the University of Alabama. His life is thrown into chaos when his ex-wife and son, along with her husband, are found murdered. Russell is charged with the crime and jailed. While awaiting for trial he is beaten into a coma by irate inmates in the jail. Two years pass before Russell regains consciousness. He is in a nursing home in Tennessee. He begins the process of rehabilitation. Much to his dismay Kim has disappeared. Jessica is straddled with mental problems and her marriage is in shambles. Separated from her husband, she visits Russell is Shannon and the two fall for each other. Though she loves him, Jessica encourages him to keep looking for Kim. She even talks him into going to China to see if Kim had gone back home. Russell travels to China to find Kim and thinks he sees her with her husband and child. He goes back home brokenhearted, not knowing that he had seen Kim's sister instead. Back home he had hoped to win Jessica, but she had reconnected with her husband. Building a life as an entrepreneur, Russell becomes a major businessman in his home town. He gets a call one day from Jessica's husband that she has had a stroke and is paralyzed. Russell visits her regularly in a nursing home in South Alabama. Jessica's husband divorces her and takes her son from her life. Russell does his best to be there for her in any way he can. On one visit Jessica, her speech severely affected, communicates to Russell that she saw Kim and that she works in another part of the facility. She convinces him to look for her and sure enough, it really is Kim. The two are reunited at last and he takes her home to Shannon to be his wife. Because of his love and devotion for Jessica, Russell has her moved to Shannon so he and Kim can care for her. With the most important women in his life, Russell finds peace and happiness in spite of the bittersweet road he has traveled.

It was time for the annual national sales meeting for Daniela Cosmetics. Long time district manager for the Carolinas and Tennessee, Wesley Lane prepared to make the flight up to Newark. He had a bad feeling that things were not going to go well. There had been a dramatic drop in sales over the last year. He wondered what effect it would have on him and his staff. Flying out of Asheville, he makes his connection to Newark in Charlotte. Onboard he has a negative encounter with a beautiful but haughty Native American woman. Once in Newark he clashes with her at the hotel he is staying at. To make matters worse, when he attends the Daniela sales meeting he meets her again. Emma White Could was introduced as the new district manager, taking his place. The reasoning by the corporation was that they wanted to bring in fresh talent and new ideas to kick start the company on the path to success again. Wesley is demoted to salesman and placed under her management. Dejected and disappointed, the next day Wesley boards the plane for the trip back to Tennessee. To his dismay, Emma ends up in the seat next to him. Agreeing on a cool but workable truce, the two settle in for the flight back home. The jet develops mechanical problems and the passengers are informed to prepare for a crash landing. Facing possible death, Wesley and Emma turned to each other for support and comfort. The outcome places the two into an intertwined path that shapes their lives forever.

While on a combat mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Sergeant Dawson Lee is assigned to escort and protect CNN correspondent, Lianne Palmer and her cameraman. The company comes under attack by the Taliban and Dawson is seriously injured while trying to rescue the cameraman. He ultimately ends up at Walter Reed Hospital for continued medical treatment. While recuperating Dawson is visited by his fiancé who dumps him because of his injuries. He becomes depressed and uncooperative with his rehabilitation program. Assigned to the Washington CNN bureau, Lianne looks Dawson up and finds him is a state of torpor. She takes an interest in him and rallies behind him to see him recover. The two fall in love and begin a long distance affair once he returns to Georgia. Discharged from the Army, Dawson decides to open an outdoor recreational equipment store. With the help of his father, the business does well. Dawson and Lianne marry and travel between their home in Georgia and Washington D.C. Life is great until Lianne is given an assignment to cover the war in Afghanistan again. Dawson is concerned for her safety. While she is gone he takes a trip across the U.S. to keep his mind busy from worry about Lianne. In Southern Arizona, Dawson goes on a backpacking trip into the desert guided by a local Native American woman. They find two small illegal children whose mother had been murdered. With the aid of the guide, he hatches a plan to take the children home and raise them as his own. Still deployed, Lianne is upset with his decision for fear it would jeopardize her career if the news came out that they were harboring illegal's. She returns from Afghanistan and eventually accepts the children who have been given U.S. status.

After being wounded in Afghanistan, Sergeant Mason Amberton is sent to Walter Reed Hospital for treatment. While recuperating, he goes on an outing to see some of Washington D.C. There he meets the girl of his dreams. They connect and begin a long distance relationship once he returns home to Shannon, Tennessee. Natalie and her daughter come to visit him and the two work to solidify their future together. But, she reveals a dark secret that destroys what they have and the two part ways. On his own again, Mason seeks to rebuild a life after his military career. He takes a job as a deputy sheriff that starts off well until he is injured and has to resign. He then tries his hand at being a businessman. This works out wonderfully. Mason finally seeks to rekindle the spark with Natalie which takes him on a journey in life that he could never have imagine.