Books

An Ocean Away

An Ocean Away is the first book in a gripping World War II series that follows two American farm boys from their peaceful hometowns to the edge of history's greatest conflict.

Ollie Oscarson is a steady Minnesota farm boy who knows wheat fields and hard work. Sandy Williams is a restless Tennessee river boy who can read water like a map. After enlisting in the Army, they meet on a cross-country train heading west. Their assignment to Fort Kamehameha in Hawaii feels like an adventure—until December 7th, 1941, when Japanese planes fill the sky and paradise becomes a battlefield.

A story about growing up fast, facing fear, and discovering that your strongest weapon is the friend standing beside you. Perfect for readers ages 12–15 who love history, adventure, and stories about courage under fire.

The Far Island

In October 1942, the battle for the Pacific reached a critical turning point on Guadalcanal. Among the soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 164th Infantry Regiment—the first Army unit sent to reinforce the Marines at Henderson Field—are Ollie and Sandy, two twenty-year-old friends who first met during training in Hawaii.

Assigned to Company M and entrusted with a heavy Browning M1917 water-cooled machine gun, they fight through the October night battles, the march to Koli Point, and the hidden toll of malaria and exhaustion. Letters from Grace and Leilani keep them going, and translated enemy letters show them that the soldiers across the wire are homesick farm boys, too.

Carefully researched and grounded in official unit reports and primary sources, The Far Island blends accurate military history with a fast-paced coming-of-age story.

From Heaven to Hell: A Novel

Pearl Harbor is behind them now, and the war has carried them far from Fort Kamehameha.

Ollie and Sandy are in the jungles of Bougainville, where the enemy can be anywhere: in the next creek bed, on the next ridge, or hidden in camps of grass huts deep in the hills. They have already learned that courage alone won't keep a man alive. It takes friends who will carry you when you can't walk, and sometimes forgiving a man who has let everyone down.

Then comes August 7, 1944. On a muddy slope the soldiers call Nip Hill, Ollie goes back for a wounded friend and pays a heavy price. His long trip home to Hawaii will test him as much as any battle. Sandy stays behind with the regiment, where he has to lead, keep the platoon together and get ready for whatever waits beyond the next horizon.

Thousands of miles away, Grace refuses to stay on the sidelines. She is determined to find her way back across the Pacific, toward the people she loves and the islands she calls home.

Told across two islands and one ocean, From Heaven to Hell is about loyalty, healing and the bonds that hold when everything else is falling apart. It continues the story that began in An Ocean Away and The Far Island.

Watch for it soon on Amazon.