Books:


Battle on the Ice

When young Dory Dickson leaves home to seek work, his father advises him to avoid the border towns, where Patriots meet to plan rebellion. 1838 is a year of discontent, Upper Canada on the verge of civil war. Despite his father’s warning, Dory walks straight into trouble at his first stop, when at the tavern in Chippawa he meets the Patriot recruiter who is raising an army to overthrow the Government of Upper Canada, toss out the Family Compact and establish the Republic of Canada. Unaware that he is being used, Dory is thrust into a role that is fraught with danger and betrayal wherever he turns.

Published by Crossfield Publishing Press. ISBN: 978-1-990326-26-4 (print) ISBN: 978-1-990326-31-8 (ebook)


The Knotted Rope

Broken Trail, a white boy adopted by the Oneida First Nation and brought up to be a warrior, has seen much injustice done to his adoptive people and even more suffered by the Black slaves who spend their lives in bondage. The year is 1793, the year in which a new law is passed to gradually end slavery in Upper Canada. The new law is not perfect; it will leave hundreds still in slavery for the rest of their lives. But it is enough to make many slave owners afraid that their investment in slaves will soon be worth nothing. No wanting to lose money, they sell their slaves to dealers to take to slave markets in the United States. When a twelve-year-old girl, Rosa, and her father are sold to a slave dealer, Broken Trail has a plan that will not only rescue them from the slave dealer but also make them free for life. But where has the slave dealer taken Rosa and her father? Broken Trail embarks a dangerous search for the place where slaves are confined until they can be shipped across the border. The danger is great, and Broken Trail finds more than he expected.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN: 978-1-55380-620-2 (print) 978-1-55380-621-9 (e-book) 978-1-55380-622-6 (pdf)


Hope's Journey

At thirteen, Hope Cobman must leave the orphanage where she has lived since her mother’s death one year ago. Alone in the world, she dreams of finding her father and three brothers –all complete strangers to her, for even before her birth the American Revolution had scattered her family. But finding her father and brothers must remain a dream. Forced into becoming an indentured servant, she is little more than a slave to a lonely man and his bitter, crippled mother. Their home is an isolated log cabin on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where Loyalist settlers struggle to rebuild their lives. Then a death and a betrayal leave Hope suddenly free to pursue her dream. She sets off on her own. But instead of finding a father and a brother who will take care of her, she learns that it is up to her to help them recover from the wounds of war.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN: 978-1-55380-446-8 (print) 978-1-55380-447-5(e-book) 978-1-55380-448-2 (pdf)


The White Oneida

When Broken Trail was thirteen, his spirit vision revealed that he was destined to become a great leader, “both in war and in peace.” Destiny catches him unprepared when the famous Thayendanegea, better known as Captain Joseph Brant, comes to see him. Thayendanegea has been looking for someone who can help him to achieve the dream of a federation and a country of their own for the native people. He sees Broken Trail as just such a person, but first he must be educated to prepare himself for this work.

Unenthusiastic but eager to do his best, Broken Trail arrives at a school for native students in Vermont. The school is fraught with tensions and conflicts. Dark secrets come to light. While his illusions crumble, Broken Trail holds fast to his vision, never giving up his search for a better way.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN: 978-1-55380-332-4


Hazut Mehugenet

"The Hebrew name that was chosen to your book is: "Hazut Mehugenet" which means something like "Respectable Appearance". In Hebrew it describe somebody that looks respectable or dignified (I hope I'm using the right word in English) but when you say he looks respectable (Hazut means look or appearance), it says that there must be something else inside or behind his appearance. I'm sure you'd love the name."

Published by Marenga Publishing in Tel Aviv


Freedom Bound

Charlotte has waited a long time to be with Nick. They have been married for over a year and in all that time have spent only twenty-two days together. But now Nick’s work as a courier for the British is over, and she has come to Charleston to join him.

As her ship ties up at the wharf in Charleston Harbour, she looks everywhere to catch sight of him. But it is a stranger who has come to meet her, and he gives Charlotte the news that Nick has been sent on a fact-finding mission into the war- ravaged interior of South Carolina. She will be among strangers in a town unlike any place she has ever been before.

The filthy streets are filled with footpads, cutpurses, and drunken sailors. The sight of black slaves waiting on their white masters troubles her sense of justice. The room she expected to live in has been given to someone else.

Life looks brighter when arrangements are made for her to live in the home of a Quaker widow. Knowing that the Quakers are opposed to slavery, she feels that she will be comfortable there while she waits for Nick’s return.

But unexplained noises waken her from sleep, and she sees men watching the house. In the middle of the night, the peace of the Quaker home erupts into violence.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN: 978-1-55380-143-6


Scattered Light

A new collection of short stories, slightly noir, mostly murderous, a little humorous and very Canadian.

Published by Seraphim Editions. ISBN 978-0-98088-799-0


Broken Trail

In a forest clearing north of Lake Ontario, twelve-year-old Broken Trail waits anxiously for the vision that will reveal his path through life. Knowing that he is white by birth and an Oneida only through adoption, he fears lest the Spirits deny him the mystic dream that is the essence of an Indian boy’s passage to manhood. But at the very moment when his vision finally appears, a single shot fired by a Loyalist soldier sets in motion a series of events that take him on a dangerous trail.

The bullet was aimed not at Broken Trail but at a wolverine. The soldier who shot the boy was hunting with a comrade. While tending Broken Trail’s wound, which is minor, the two soldiers realize that the boy is not an Indian. Despite his protests, they take him to their camp for questioning. Broken Trail reveals his original name, Moses Cobman. A soldier in the camp knows the boy’s brother, Elijah Cobman, and is familiar with the story of the runaway who joined the Oneidas.

Offered gifts to carry a message to the commander of a Loyalist force to the south, Broken Trail agrees. Setting off on a dangerous journey, he is drawn into the American Colonies’ struggle for independence. In the aftermath of the British and Loyalist forces’ defeat at King’s Mountain, South Carolina, he finds the brother he had tried to forget.

To read more about the writing of Broken Trail you can visit "The Writing of Broken Trail" courtesy of the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN 978-1-55380-109-2


Looking for Cardenio

Dr. Deirdre Gunn had never read Cardenio. Possibly no one had, for Shakespeare’s lost play had not yet been issued in print at the time of its last recorded performance in 1613. After two presentations at the Court of King James 1, the play vanished. For centuries there were recurrent rumours about a manuscript copy. But after nearly four hundred years, it seemed impossible that Cardenio would ever be found.

When Deirdre makes her first inspection of the sheaf of yellowed paper with its faded writing in the obsolete Secretary hand, she sees the possibility of fame and fortune. But is the manuscript genuine? And can she trust the man who tempts her with the perfect opportunity to jumpstart her stalled academic career? Before these questions receive an answer, murder intervenes.

Published by Seraphim Editions. ISBN 0-9808879-0-9 / 978-0-9808879-0-7


The Way Lies North

This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the "Sons of Liberty" during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper is separated from her sweetheart, Nick, who sympathizes with the Revolutionaries. The war has already taken the lives of her three brothers, and it is with a sense of desperation that Charlotte and her parents begin the long trek north to the safety of Fort Haldimand (near present-day Kingston). The novel portrays Charlotte’s struggle on the difficult journey north, and the even more difficult task of making a new home in British Canada. In her relationship with Nick, the novel explores how the ideals of the American Revolution were undermined by a revolutionary ethos of violence and manifest destiny. In the flight north, the Mohawk nation plays an important role, and Charlotte learns much about their customs and way of life, to the point where she is renamed "Woman of Two Worlds." Later in the novel she is able to repay her Native friends when she plays an important part in helping the Oneidas to become once again members of the Iroquois confederacy under British protection. The story of Charlotte’s journey north is a tale of paradise lost and a new world gained. Strong and capable, Charlotte breaks the stereotype of the eighteenth-century woman, while revealing the positive relationship between the Loyalists and the Native peoples.

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN 978-1-55380-048-4


A Twist of Malice

A Twist of Malice brings together fourteen short stories, told with economy and clarity. Their settings, protagonists and plots cover a wide range; yet the common element of irony unites them. In Jean Rae Baxter’s dark vision, nothing is as it seems or as it should be. Her characters lose their dreams, or they dream too much. Obsession overwhelms a love-struck youth. A university student copes with the aftermath of a rape she cannot remember. Two eleven-year-olds kidnap a cat. A cast-off wife exacts cruel, calculated revenge. A bored housewife is trapped by a love letter falling into the wrong hands. An old woman imagines a beautiful life for the child she aborted seventy years in the past. In each story the central figure reacts uniquely when expectations are thwarted. The outcome may be absurd or tragic or darkly comic, but seldom what the character, and by extension the reader expects.

Six of the stories in this collection have been published in Canadian literary journals or anthologies. Five have been shortlisted for awards, and three are award winners.

Published by Seraphim Editions. ISBN 0-9734588-4-4


Anthologies:


Brought to Light: More Stories of Forgotten Women

“A Turtle Laying Her Eggs in the Sand.” Methoataske. Tecumseh’s mother. A shadowy and mysterious figure, she abandoned her family of eight children. But why? And what happened when Tecumseh and his mother met again after many years, not long before the Battle of the Thames, in which he died?

Published by Seraphim editions. ISBN 978-1-927079-36-2


In The Wings

“Konwatsi’tsiaiénni and the Governor’s Lady.” Molly Brant (Konwatsi’tsiaiénni) was the sister of Joseph Brant (Tyendanegea) and wife of Sir William Johnson, the most important landowner in what was then the Province of New York. Member of an important Mohawk family, she was manager of Sir William’s estate, the dear companion of his life, the mother of eight of his children, and a respected diplomat. During the American revolution she also was a spy for the British. Late in her life she travelled by ship from Niagara to Kingston in the company of Mrs. Simcoe, the Governor’s wife. This could have been the story she told.

Published by Seraphim editions. ISBN 978-1-927079-10-2


Indian Country Noir

“Osprey Lake.” A cottage located on an ancient burial ground proves to be an inhospitable hide-out for criminals on the run, when it is discovered that “the ancestors never left this land."

Published by Akashic Books. ISBN 978-1-936070-05-3


Going Out With a Bang

“Payback,” a story of a long awaited revenge, is Jean Rae Baxter’s contribution to The Ladies Killing Circle’s new Anthology, Going Out With a Bang.

Published by RendezVous Crime. ISBN 978-1-894917-68-1


Revenge

“A Wanton Disregard” was the lead story in Revenge: A Noir Anthology about Getting Even (Insomniac Press, 2004). After a careless driver causes the death of her husband and young son, the grieving widow plots revenge. Intricate and cunningly constructed, the story builds to a shocking and unexpected climax.

Published by Insomniac Press. ISBN 1-894663-66-7


Hard-Boiled Love

With “Loss,” Jean Rae Baxter made her debut as a writer of noir fiction. One of twelve short stories published in the anthology Hard Boiled Love (Insomniac Press, 2003), “Loss” is a dark tale of love and vengeance. This story marked the beginning of Baxter’s reputation as a literary Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Published by Insomniac Press. ISBN 1-894663-45-4


Beginnings: Stories of Canada's Past

As a Canadian, Jean Rae Baxter was troubled by the fact that many Canadians view their own history through American eyes. She found this to be especially true in the case of the American War of Independence. With her short story “Farewell the Mohawk Valley,” she began to do something about it. This story of a Loyalist family driven from their home in the Mohawk Valley was included in the young adult anthology Beginnings: Stories of Canada’s Past (Ronsdale Press, 2001). Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper made her first appearance in this story, which, in altered form, subsequently became Chapter One of her first historical novel, The Way Lies North (Ronsdale Press, 2007).

Published by Ronsdale Press. ISBN 0-921870-87-6