"I love the way the author tells both sides of an anecdote, then provides her own opinion as to what really happened." Marian Fletcher, Political Scientist.

STOLEN FIELDS: A Story of Eminent Domain and the Death of the American Dream tells of my life as a descendant of the colorful Cole family.

My grandfather and great-grandmother were the last holdouts on Neville Island when, during WWI, the government took over the rich farms by invoking eminent domain, to make way for a munitions factory that was never built. The story of the people they were and the drama of the event that changed all our lives, is interwoven into that of my own life. The historic loss of the homestead on the island has shadowed the lives of my mother's generation as well as my own. The farms there grew the best asparagus on the East Coast. The loss of our farm grew other things as well: hatred, bitterness, greed, ambition, and aberrant lust. The book tells my story as a descendant of the Cole family, telling the story of the past, but dwelling on the journey toward, and triumph of, the future.

Cover design by:  1106 Design

"She makes you feel like you're right there with these people, they're so real." Phyllis Lee, Artist.