Books published by Sunstone Press

In 1749, red haired blue eyed Thomas Turner left Belfast for South Carolina. The seventeen year old was expected to carve a home and a plantation out of the raw wilderness. The young Scots Irishman would grow up in a hurry. Overcoming his own doubts, pirates, wild animals, Indians, and European soldiers, he gained a foothold there to grow crops and a family. He succeeded in establishing a prosperous plantation, and a thriving community sprang up around it. However, because of the savage "Red Stick" band of the Creek Indians, and battles with British troops and American Tories, Thomas found his home repeatedly threatened by the drum beat of war. At what price would he be able to hold on to his dream in the New World? Steve Turner was born a fifth generation Texan, sixth generation Arkansan, and an eighth generation American. His youth was steeped in the history and culture of his heritage. He graduated from Texas Tech School of Medicine, and has worked as a pediatrician in rural Plainview, Texas since 1984. He is married with two married children. He spends his free time running their panhandle ranch, raising horses and hunting. He enjoys reading and writing historical fiction.

The Maxwell Land Grant was an immense parcel of land in New Mexico and Colorado with a history that began when the area was a colony of Spain and ended only in the twentieth century. In this volume, published originally in an edition of 250 numbered and signed copies, F. Stanley (Father Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola) takes on the task of telling the complex story. In his foreword, Stanley says: "Look in vain for another section of land in the nation that produced so much comment from the press or absorbed the attention of the entire world. Because of this bit of land a Supreme Court Justice almost lost his life; a president of the United States wanted to horse-whip a man; a minister was looked upon as a killer; a cattle man became a killer; vigilantes rode into the night burning and killing; and the Anti-Grant War was waged in two states taking more lives than the Lincoln County War that brought Billy the Kid his fame." Stanley has been faulted for his scholarship and for stylistic flaws that are probably reflections of the speed it took him to publish the amazing number of books and pamphlets he produced. His narrative is chatty and anecdotal, with few of the accoutrements of establishment history. Still, he has mined newspapers, trial transcripts, and a variety of documents to produce a broad account of the area. He includes chapters on ghost towns as well as "living" towns, the railroads, Indians on the grant, and a full chapter on Clay Allison, whom Stanley regarded as a more interesting character than Billy the Kid. The original edition is probably the scarcest of Stanley''s books. "An easterner by birth but a southwesterner at heart, Father Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola had as many vocations as names," says his biographer, Mary Jo Walker. "As a young man, he entered the Catholic priesthood and for nearly half a century served his church with great zeal in various capacities, attempting to balance the callings of teacher, pastor, historian and writer." With limited money or free time, he also managed to write and publish one hundred and seventy-seven books and booklets pertaining to his adopted region under his "nom de plume," F. Stanley, The initial in that name does not stand for Father, as many have assumed, but for Francis, which Louis Crocchiola took, with the name Stanley, at the time of his ordination as Franciscan friar in 1938. All of F. Stanley''s titles have now reached the status of expensive collector''s items.

The mutilated body of a young white girl is found in the parking lot of an abandoned factory on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Montana. Raymond Two Teeth, a Blackfeet Tribal Police officer, is joined in his investigation of the crime by Will Perkins, a Lakota federal agent posted in Browning. In spite of the stormy relationship between the tribal cop and the FBI man, they are an effective team. Their investigation leads them to White Calf, a sadistic murderer, and to Dirk Aalford, a hay farmer and polygamist preacher known as ''the prophet.'' Both are part of a major methamphetamine distribution operation. Pursued by the FBI and Tribal Police, White Calf heads for the Canadian border, ruthlessly killing anyone who gets in his way. Raymond and Perkins find their own lives in jeopardy as they attempt to bring White Calf and Aalford to justice. Leonard Schonberg''s four previous novels, "Deadly Indian Summer," "Fish Heads," "Legacy," and "Morgen''s War," were all published by Sunstone Press. "Blackfeet Eyes" is the first novel of a trilogy set on Montana''s Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Imported to the United States from Europe in 1890 and released in Central Park, New York City, to fight the growing number of insect pests at that time, the starlings quickly adapted themselves to the new climate. They are now at home almost everywhere. The starling is typical of many other birds, and this book with simple text is a wealth of birdlore. The marvel of streamline design and construction which is a bird's body-a design which has been copied to a great extent in building airplanes-is carefully explained. We follow the starling from nesting time, when the female busily sets the nest to rights, until the young ones are completely independent. As in "Pinto's Journey," "Turtles" and "Coyotes," also by Wilfrid Bronson and published by Sunstone Press, the text in this book for young readers is in large, clear type, and there are many illustrations on each page.

Lucas Murdoch isn't what he seems to be: a successful New York City salesman, retired at the age of 53, and searching for his roots in the quiet New England town of Pennington. But Lucas is a man with an obsession that governs everything he says and does.

In this superbly researched WWII novel, award-winning writer, Tori Warner Shepard, captures the mood of remote Santa Fe, New Mexico as it waits out WWII for the return of her men held in Japanese prison camps. POW Melo Garcia has survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines but his brother and father have not. Along with 1,500 other American prisoners, he is diseased, tortured, starved, and used as slave labor in a condemned coal mine outside of Nagasaki, Japan. Melo is the last living hope to continue his family's centuries old line for his war-widowed mother, Nicasia, who prays for his return alongside his sweetheart, LaBelle. They have received no reliable news since the surrender to the enemy in 1942. The novel is as much a story of the men's heroism as it is of their Hispanic community which after Pearl Harbor was a distant and a safe refuge from the war, sought out by the US Government as an internment camp for 2,000 Japanese "e;Isseii"e; barely a mile from the office of the top-secret Manhattan Project that was developing the atomic bomb to be dropped 20 miles from Melo's prison camp. Add to the mix FBI and counter-intelligence agents, Gringo fanatics opposed to Roosevelt, Melo's "e;novia"e; LaBelle and Phyllis, the redheaded bombshell, who challenges her. And Melo himself with his mother who embodies "e;gracia,"e; a word that does not translate. This gripping exposition of the Japanese atrocities is even-handed and the characters and personalities on the home front will haunt your memory. TORI WARNER SHEPARD grew up in post-war Japan and since moving to Santa Fe over thirty-five years ago has been absorbed by the story of the POWs, their welcome home, and the effects of the war on a tight isolated community. She has an M.A. in Creative Writing which she has taught, and has published poetry, articles and short stories. Winner of the Mountainland Award for Contemporary Fiction, she has three grown children and lives with her husband in an old adobe.

The year is 1923, and one of Ohio's most prominent judges, O'Brien O'Donnell, fathers his first and only child. Though a joyous occasion for the recently married, fifty-nine year old, the birth sets off a terrifying chain of events, beginning with blackma

In the early days of the American West, outlaws dominated the New Mexico Territory. Such colorful characters as Black Jack Ketchum, the Apache Kid, Curly Bill, Devil Dick, Billy the Kid, Bill McGinnis, Vicente Silva and his gang, the Dalton Brothers, and the Wild Bunch terrorized the land. Feared by many, loved by some, their exploits were both horrifying and legendary. In between forays, notorious outlaws were sometimes exemplary cowboys. Singly or in gangs, they held up stagecoaches and trains and stole from prospectors and settlers. When outlaws reigned, bank holdups, shoot-outs, and murders were a common occurrence; death by hanging became a favored means of settling disputes by outlaws and vigilantes alike. Stories of outlaws later provided plots for many of our favorite Western movies. Between 1936 and 1940, field workers in the Federal Writers'' Project (a part of the government-funded Works Progress Administration, or WPA, later called Work Projects Administration) collected and wrote down many accounts that provide an authentic and vivid picture of outlaws in the early days of New Mexico. They feature life history narratives of places, characters, and events of the Wild West during the late 1800s. These original documents reflect the unruly, eccentric conditions of the New Mexico Territory as they played out in clashes and collaborations between outlaws and "the gentle people" of New Mexico before and after statehood. This book, focusing on outlaws and desperados, is the first in a series featuring stories from the New Mexico Federal Writers'' Project collection. Other books in the series include stories about ranchers, cowboys, and the wild and woolly adventures of sheepherders, homesteaders, prospectors, and treasure hunters. In them, the untamed New Mexico Territory comes to life with descriptions of encounters with Indians, travels along the old trails, cattle rustling, murders at the gambling table, and Pancho Villa''s raid on Columbus. This treasury of Federal Writers'' Project records, presented with informative background and historic photographs, also highlights Hispano folk life and Western lore in old New Mexico.

This series of line drawings by legendary Santera (saint-maker) Marie Romero Cash, depict many of the popular saints painted by the santeros of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Northern New Mexico. "The saints have always been an integral part of the culture," Marie says, "so much so that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in New Mexico the art of the religious folk art of the santero became a part of its history. In creating this coloring book, my goal was to not only impart knowledge about the santero culture, but to provide images that could be colored in by children or adults, and could also be used for many other purposes, including embroidery or various decorative arts." Each full-page image is suitable for coloring by children at playtime or in a classroom setting. Easy to read information on many popular patron saints is included, as is the feast day of each saint. Teachers will find this coloring book a valuable teaching tool. There is also an author preface and an article about Marie Romero Cash by well-known journalist, Kay Lockridge. Born in Santa Fe, Marie Romero Cash has been a Santera (saint-maker) for over thirty years. Her award-winning works are in major museums and private collections throughout the United States, Mexico, Africa and The Vatican. She has written several books and magazine articles on the culture and religion of Northern New Mexico and has lectured widely on the subject for the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities.

In what follows can be found the doors to a house of words and stories. This house of words and stories is the "Archive of New Mexico" and the doors are each of the documents contained within it. Like any house, New Mexico's archive has a tale of its own origin and a complex history. Although its walls have changed many times, its doors and the encounters with those doors hold stories known and told and others not yet revealed. In the Archives, there are thousands of doors (4,481) that open to a time of kings and popes, of inquisition and revolution. "These archives," writes Ralph Emerson Twitchell, "are by far the most valuable and interesting of any in the Southwest." Many of these documents were given a number by Twitchell, small stickers that were appended to the first page of each document, an act of heresy to archivists and yet these stickers have now become part of the artifact. These are the doors that Ralph Emerson Twitchell opened at the dawn of the 20th century with a key that has served scholars, policy-makers, and activists for generations. In 1914 Twitchell published in two volumes "The Spanish Archives of New Mexico," the first calendar and guide to the documents from the Spanish colonial period. Volume One of the two volumes focuses on the collection known as the "Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Series I," or SANM I, an appellation granted because of Twitchell's original compilation and description of the 1,384 documents identified in the first volume of his series. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico was assembled by the Surveyor General of New Mexico (1854-1891) and the Court of Private Land Claims (1891-1904). The collection consists of civil land records of the Spanish period governments of New Mexico and materials created by the Surveyor General and Court of Private Land Claims during the process of adjudication. It includes the original Spanish colonial petitions for land grants, land conveyances, wills, mine registers, records books, journals, dockets, reports, minutes, letters, and a variety of other legal documents. Each of these documents tell a story, sometimes many stories. The bulk of the records accentuate the amazingly dynamic nature of land grant and settlement policies. While the documents reveal the broad sweep of community settlement and its reverse effect, hundreds of last wills and testaments are included in these records, that are scripted in the most eloquent and spiritual tone at the passing of individuals into death. These testaments also reveal a legacy of what colonists owned and bequeathed to the next generations. Most of the documents are about the geographic, political and cultural mapping of New Mexico, but many reflect the stories of that which is owned both in terms of commodities and human lives. Archives inevitably, and these archives more than most, help to shape current debates about dispossession, the colonial past, and the postcolonial future of New Mexico. For this reason, the task of understanding the role of archives, archival documents, and the kinds of stories that emanate from them has never been more urgent. Let this effort and the key provided by Twitchell in his two volumes open the doors wide for knowledge to be useful today and tomorrow.--From the Foreword by Estevan Rael-Gálvez, New Mexico State Historian

In what follows can be found the doors to a house of words and stories. This house of words and stories is the "Archive of New Mexico" and the doors are each of the documents contained within it. Like any house, New Mexico's archive has a tale of its own origin and a complex history. Although its walls have changed many times, its doors and the encounters with those doors hold stories known and told and others not yet revealed. In the Archives, there are thousands of doors (4,481) that open to a time of kings and popes, of inquisition and revolution. "These archives," writes Ralph Emerson Twitchell, "are by far the most valuable and interesting of any in the Southwest." Many of these documents were given a number by Twitchell, small stickers that were appended to the first page of each document, an act of heresy to archivists and yet these stickers have now become part of the artifact. These are the doors that Ralph Emerson Twitchell opened at the dawn of the 20th century with a key that has served scholars, policy-makers, and activists for generations. In 1914 Twitchell published in two volumes "The Spanish Archives of New Mexico," the first calendar and guide to the documents from the Spanish colonial period. Volume One of the two volumes focuses on the collection known as the "Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Series I," or SANM I, an appellation granted because of Twitchell's original compilation and description of the 1,384 documents identified in the first volume of his series. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico was assembled by the Surveyor General of New Mexico (1854-1891) and the Court of Private Land Claims (1891-1904). The collection consists of civil land records of the Spanish period governments of New Mexico and materials created by the Surveyor General and Court of Private Land Claims during the process of adjudication. It includes the original Spanish colonial petitions for land grants, land conveyances, wills, mine registers, records books, journals, dockets, reports, minutes, letters, and a variety of other legal documents. Each of these documents tell a story, sometimes many stories. The bulk of the records accentuate the amazingly dynamic nature of land grant and settlement policies. While the documents reveal the broad sweep of community settlement and its reverse effect, hundreds of last wills and testaments are included in these records, that are scripted in the most eloquent and spiritual tone at the passing of individuals into death. These testaments also reveal a legacy of what colonists owned and bequeathed to the next generations. Most of the documents are about the geographic, political and cultural mapping of New Mexico, but many reflect the stories of that which is owned both in terms of commodities and human lives. Archives inevitably, and these archives more than most, help to shape current debates about dispossession, the colonial past, and the postcolonial future of New Mexico. For this reason, the task of understanding the role of archives, archival documents, and the kinds of stories that emanate from them has never been more urgent. Let this effort and the key provided by Twitchell in his two volumes open the doors wide for knowledge to be useful today and tomorrow.--From the Foreword by Estevan Rael-Gálvez, New Mexico State Historian

Author, photographer, historian, archeologist, and preservationist, Charles Fletcher Lummis stood tall in the affections of American Southwesterners at the turn of the 20th century. A flamboyant figure of enormous energy, he championed Indian rights and Hispanic culture, while introducing Easterners, through his many books, to the rich heritage of New Mexico, Arizona, and California. After years of fading from view, the large Lummis legacy is being rediscovered. His works are coming back into print and in 2006 the city of Los Angeles inaugurated an annual Lummis Day Festival. This little book can acquaint readers with a remarkable recorder of history and can help to reawaken interest in his efforts to preserve the distinctive cultures of the American Southwest. Additionally, this book contains, as its first chapter, the complete contents of the classic "Two Southwesterners: Charles Lummis & Amado Chaves" by Marc Simmons, originally published by San Marcos Press in 1968 and long unavailable until now. Marc Simmons, besides being an aficionado of the writings of Charles F. Lummis, is himself a historian and prolific author. In 1993 he was knighted by order of the King of Spain for his publications on Spanish colonial history of the Southwest. Among his most recent books are "New Mexico Mavericks," "Stalking Billy the Kid," and a new edition of "Southwestern Colonial Ironwork," all published by Sunstone Press.