Heroes of Grant's Crossing


Men and women serve our nation.

We call them heroes.

Now they're coming home.


All three standalone Heroes of Grant's Crossing novels feature veterans navigating civilian life in the Midwest. They're available in paperback and digital wherever books are sold online. Ask for them at your local library! 


No part of my books was created by Generative AI. The content is 100% my own creation. The covers were created by Kylie Sek of Cover Culture.


Wayward Guilt


Three friends leave home to serve their country. 

Only two make it back. 

What do you do when the one friend you’ve always turned to is no longer there?


After the Twin Towers fall, Derek Mitchell enlists in the U.S. Army with two of his best friends. He dreams of helping people, whether in the field of combat or back home in Grant's Crossing, Ohio. 

Juan dreams of marrying his high school sweetheart and starting a family. 

Joey dreams of being happy and living his own truth. 

Together, they serve in multiple deployments until Juan and Joey are each grievously injured in separate combat missions. Thirteen years after initially enlisting, one doesn’t make it back. 

Four months after the funeral, friends and family gather to celebrate Derek’s return to civilian life. With each story shared, he relives their final missions together, carrying the guilt of having saved one friend but not the other. 


CW: Domestic violence, attempted suicide, violence, grief.





Safe Now


Some secrets can’t be kept. 

Some people can’t be protected.

Some brothers can’t be stopped.


Growing up in a small town outside St. Louis, Missouri, Steve and Nick Cook struggle to balance their own aspirations with their strict parents’ desire to mold their sons into a picture-perfect and obedient family.


But when Nick is outed, their parents make life worse for both. Steve promises to get his little brother somewhere he can live without fear, even if that means delaying his own dream of becoming a Marine.


When fate intervenes, Steve takes Nick far from their childhood home to live with extended family. Believing he is safe, Steve finally enlists and serves multiple deployments in the Middle East.


With Steve fighting for his country, Nick risks the only safety he’s ever known to set out on his own. When Nick disappears, Steve vows to do what the local authorities can’t—setting out on a new mission that takes him across the Midwest, from Chicago to the seediest neighborhoods in Detroit and Columbus, to find him.


Now, living in a community of friends who don’t hesitate to share his burdens and with a family willing to share his pain, can Steve complete one more mission and save his brother?



CW: Domestic violence, religious homophobia, violence, interrupted sexual assault, brief drug use by a tertiary character.








A troubled veteran. 


An abandoned home. 


Some repairs take time.





It’s been over two years since Army veteran Derek Mitchell lost his best friend on the field of combat in Afghanistan. Back home in Grant’s Crossing, he turns to the bottle and one-night stands, two vices that become less and less reliable with each passing day.

As the nightmares worsen and the drinking consumes him, Derek retreats from his friends and family, hellbent on surrendering to a battle no one else can see.

Just as he receives an ultimatum that puts his job on the line, a stranger arrives with plans for the abandoned Victorian home next door.

With new motivation to seek help, he discovers an unexpected friendship, but will it be enough to piece his life back together before he hits rock bottom?


CW: PTSD, alcoholism, loss, and grief.
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