Five Hundred Moons

Spain is on the move in California and in turmoil at home. As wars ensue and revolutions brew, a Gypsy woman flees her captors, a young soldier dreams of a future, and a French naval officer conquers a dancer’s heart.

On the crescent shores of the great bay, a priest battles inner demons while pursuing men’s souls. An Ohlone chief worries. He does not understand his spirit guide, the Lioness. He hopes the shaman’s life force in his young daughter will point the way.

Set during the latter half of the turbulent eighteenth century, Five Hundred Moons spans nearly five decades and two continents as we follow the spirited Carmona family, Alta California’s Ohlone people, the zealous Junípero Serra and his Franciscan missionaries, and the heavy-handed Spanish military that sought to control them all. As richly drawn as the landscapes they inhabit, my characters meet indignity and deprivation with resourcefulness and compassion in the timeless search for where they fit in a world undergoing monumental change.