Journey to Duncans Mills
Winner 2023 Notable Indie Book Award
Winner 2023 Historical Book Company 5-Star Award
Journey to Duncans Mills is a work of historical fiction, following the adventures of Alexander Duncan from his birthplace in Strabane, Ireland to the rural environs of west Sonoma County, California. During the second half of the 19th century, he built a lumber industry with his brother while experiencing many pitfalls along the way. It was a time when Indigenous people were enslaved, when Sonoma County sided with Confederates, when the Anti-Chinese League ran wild. Alex Duncan rose up against the racist writings of Thomas Thompson, editor of Santa Rosa’s Democrat, in an epic battle of good versus evil with guest appearances by mysterious men in white masks.
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Hunting Ground: The Forgotten Story of Cazadero is based on the true story of divine healing evangelists who square off against moonshiners in 1890s along the lower reaches of the Russian River.
George Montgomery was a two-fisted drinker, seducer, and a member of San Francisco’s Bohemian Club. His connection with the fraternity prompted him in 1888 to purchase a small logging town along the Russian River in rural Sonoma County, naming it Cazadero. With a world-renowned evangelist as his bride, he changed his ways and sought to abolish alcohol in the area. Country bumpkins, moonshiners, and good ol’ boys, however, had a different take on how things should move forward. Sinners squared off against Bible thumpers with fate deciding the fatal blow.
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Don’t Stop the Music wins Shelf Unbound Notable Indie Book award!
See us in the April/May 2018 Issue of Shelf Unbound Magazine!
For many in 1967, the Summer of Love brings freedom from parents, government and convention. But for Jonah and Otis it is a time of reckoning. The Vietnam War and the back alleys of San Francisco vie for possession of the two teenagers. Uncle Sam wants to draft them, but the boys waver on the idea of turning into killing machines. The mean streets at home, however, offer little in the way of an alternative as a crooked cop and a mobster roam the Haight Ashbury unchecked.
The boys are spotted while overhearing a discussion regarding the murder of an influential music producer. Scared, the boys flee the City to hide in the rural environs of west Sonoma County. They bounce from one small town to another along the banks of the Russian River, evading the close pursuit of the gangsters.
While seeking refuge in an abandoned cabin in Rio Nido, Jonah and Otis become entangled in a dragnet as the Sheriff’s Department swoops up a horde of illegal squatters. The crooked cop from San Francisco takes custody of the boys at the local jailhouse and delivers them to the mobster. Pinned in a corner, the boys must figure out how to escape and live another day.
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Stumptown Daze, a 1960 romance comedy, finds a free-spirited Lani as a caregiver to sixty-five-year-old dementia patient Walter in San Francisco’s North Beach. From the remote island of Rotuma,…
Primal yearnings tempt fourteen-year-old Sean McGinnis. Centerfold Marilyn Monroe and rock-‘n’-roll drive him to unthinkable actions, but the nuns at Our Lady of Angels Grammar School …
Anne Klausen busies herself with a promising ballet career in San Francisco. All seems on schedule until the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy on December 7th, 1941…
Eddy Peters drifts into the backwater town of Monte Rio in northern California on the run from booze, civilization and authority. The military veteran shirks the solicitations of a masseuse …
John McCarty
Historian & Author
John is affiliated with the San Francisco-, Sonoma County- and Russian River Historical Societies. He is also a member in good standing with the Fulbright Association and the Redwood Writers. His articles and novels reflect on his thirty-year career as a history instructor and researcher on both the secondary and graduate levels. Complete biography here.
To Purchase my novels locally in Sonoma County:
- Duncan Mills:
Poet’s Corner Books - Guerneville:
Books/Letters Bookstore
Five & Dime
Lark’s Drugs
Russian River Art Gallery - Jenner:
Jenner by the Sea Gifts - Monte Rio:
Bia’s Coffee - Occidental:
Hand Goods