The Modern Series: Katie and Rory Fall In Love
People are asking about this story I call
my Katie Reynolds thing.
I call the first part Modern Katie. These first five books deal with Katie and Rory's relationship during and after vet school, before Katie is lost in time.
It’s a love story between Katie and Rory who are veterinary students at UC Davis in California. Katie is Navajo and grew up on the large Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. Rory is a smart, attractive young white professional male.
Once they fall in love, they get themselves in and out of trouble with each other, their friends, and their veterinary medical experiences. They make you wonder how in the hell they are ever going to get past this next problem. And the final answer isn’t always so clear.
As an author I have an ability to land these guys anywhere in space and time, allowing me a wide-open palette from which to paint their actions. Using time travel, and magic I place our heroes in unique situations and locations all over the world, and anytime in history, intertwining factual history with religious myths and miracles.
The Butterfly Boy
After discovering a connection between the death of many tribe members and certain animals on their land, Katie Reynolds leaves her Navajo reservation to attend a veterinary school in Davis, California.
There she falls in love with a white man, and together they consult ancient traditions to grow through cultural misunderstandings and self-doubt.
In a heartfelt effort to stay together, they must decide in whose world they are going to live.
Click the image to explore the chapters.
Yéiitsoh Omen
Rory has finished vet school and is practicing in central California, hoping to convince Katie to settle there with him. Katie finishes vet school a year later, intent on returning home.
When she returns to her native reservation as a new veterinarian evil spirits, both Ute and Navajo begin a tirade to push her back out, sending her ominous signs, creating ever-present worry and angst. The raping of her Ute friend, Pelipa by community acquaintances turns this unease into unbearable horror, that's when the spirits succeed in running Katie from her homeland.
Death From Down Under
Jen is a world class Chesapeake Bay retriever breeder. She is called upon to sell one of her puppies to Billy, a rugged, wealthy widower in Australia. Jen's dedication to her breed sends her to the wild Australian forests to complete the sale while she waits for her puppy to be released from quarantine.
For a month, she is separated a continent apart from her home and her husband. During this time she finds herself drawn into the novelty of the Australian world surrounding her. Her love of animals, her loneliness, and her need for family send her down a rabbit hole of choices, which ultimately prove disastrous.
Upon her return home, Jen will have to deal with decisions she has made that will permeate her life and loved ones in the states. Somehow, because of Jen’s actions an Australian disease previously unknown in the United States begins to spread itself through the central coast of California. State and Federal officials are brought in to stop the growing epidemic. As Jen's animals and friends become sick, Dr. Rory Evans must race to find answers as his client faces the consequences of her oversea visit. This veterinary medical thriller delves into love and loss amidst the horror of a deadly and elusive virus as it spreads from one continent to another. The story combines facets of human and veterinary medicine with notions of romance and loyalty amidst the rich tapestry of our interactions with our animal companions.
Tsegi Ruins
Katie brings Rory to an all night peyote tipi rite to show him the mind bending changes that occur within a tightly controlled ritual. However, things backfire when the event brings out doubts within Katie, causing her to wonder if her foray into Rory's world is wise.
And her doubts magnify significantly when she realizes she is attracted to Tal, a Ute indian from the reservation above hers.
Then she feels an ominous, evil tug from spirits. They want something from her, yet she’s unsure what it is. They don’t want to kill her otherwise she’d be toast by now. The answer becomes clearer following an all night peyote tipi rite.
Realizing the tug on Katie might pull her from him, Rory ups the ante by setting a wedding date.
The First Altar
Katie's vision to return to her reservation to help her people change when she meets Rory Evans in veterinary school. He's a white fellow who prefers to stay in California. The two lovers managed to overcome turbulent issues during school, but after graduation, the relationship begins to crack from their cultural and physical distances.
They come together for a time in California, where Rory is building a practice. Although he hadn’t intended on going into small animal practice he arranges to open a clinic so both he and Katie have enough work to make a living, build a home.
Meanwhile, Katie continues to pursue advanced veterinary studies, preparing to tackle public health issues such as epidemics. Katie jumps at the opportunity to spend time in Iraq tackling a brucellosis outbreak but needs to get her personal life arranged. The two lovers marry a few weeks before Katie is scheduled to leave. Marol, a wealthy client of Rory's offers to fly the newlyweds to the Middle East in her private jet as a wedding present.
However, Marol has ulterior motives. She is bringing Rory over to learn ostrich husbandry firsthand from ostrich farms in Israel and South Africa.
The trip turns to disaster when ISIS overruns the place Katie is conducting her study.
