"Murder by the Homeplace" A Novella in "The Homeplace Saga" Series of Stories

This novella is the latest addition to "The Homeplace Saga" series of stories. It is set in 1987, shortly after the end of the earlier book in the series, "Back to the Homeplace." The story features secondary characters from the earlier book as leading characters; lead characters in the first book become secondary characters in this novella.

This novella is about 80 pages in print with about 23,000 words - about one-third the number of a full novel. Great reading for summer time - or anytime. Revisit your favorite characters from "Back to the Homeplace." You do not need to have already read "Back to the Homeplace" before you read "Murder by the Homeplace" - but, some relationships may be more meaningful, if you do.

Both books are available in print and in kindle editions, just a click away, below. Get yours today.

The beginning of The Homeplace Saga series of stories

This novel is a family saga set in 1987 that introduces you to most of the characters you will find in the novella, "Murder by the Homeplace." You will learn the inter-relationships among the characters that make a fine family saga as well as set up the situations we find in the novella.

The matriarch of the Bevins siblings has left a unique 'video will' which requires each of them to commit to live on the family farm for two years in order to qualify for 'their inheritance!'

People of the town of Oak Springs, a fictional setting in the Southern Missouri Ozarks, interact with the Bevins family as they learn the true meanings of the will. Where do we fit? What will it mean to us? How will our lives change?

This story is set 9 years after the close of "Back to the Homeplace" - three of the members of the next generation have returned to Oak Springs as young professionals, seeking their place in the family business and community.

Two romances are at the heart of the story, as well.

Some have described this as a Christian fiction novel. What do you think?

Available both in Print and in Kindle Edition from Amazon.

These Short Stories are the beginning of what will become a Short Story Collection, forthcoming, fall of 2014: "American Centennial at the Homeplace: The Founding (1833-1876)." These stories tell the story of the founding of the Homeplace in 1833, shortly after Missouri Statehood, in a valley in the southern Missouri Ozarks, just west the Current River area.

It is fiction, of course, but the fictional account is based on extensive research of the region and the time period.

The Short Story Collection will cover the period from 1833 to 1876, the year of the American Revolution Centennial. The stories are written in the style many of us as family historians and genealogists find in many of the County histories that were published throughout the nation for the Centennnial.

Three of the short stories were published earlier in a regional Short Story Anthology. The Civil War Short Story, the centerpiece of the Short Story Collection, is one of them.