Historical Fiction with Speculative elements
Date Published: January 7, 2026
Publisher: Mindstir Media
A WALTZ ACROSS TIME spans 500 years of New Mexico’s history, inspired by
family ancestral records and lore; interweaving a contemporary ghost story,
bibliomystery and romance with fictionalized accounts of ordinary people
navigating extraordinary times.
Lucinda, a clairvoyant Santa Fe bookstore owner, promises the ghost of a
one-eyed Marine she will return his family’s 500-year-old Spanish Bible to his
descendant and rightful heir, using clues stashed within its pages to guide
her search.
Each clue opens a window to the lives and loves of Franciscans and Indigenous
peoples, Spanish-Mexican colonials, mixed-race settlers creating adobe
homesteads and fighting slavery with the Union Army, forbidden lovers eloping
amidst a hail of bullets, midnight fugitives being quietly fed, and WWII
soldiers prevailing over devastating injuries. But Lucinda’s search for the
Bible’s heir goes dark with the plight of a Marine who lost an eye at Okinawa
and imagined a raven-haired angel just before his world, too, went dark. How
can she trace the thread of his life to the present day and keep her promise
without losing sight of her own hopes and dreams?
characters seems so real as to almost have been recorded on tape as it
occurred. This book has great pathos, as well as hopefulness.” – Reg Olson
“… a historical novel blended with adventure, romance, mystery, suspense,
and a paranormal touch … Jiron interweaves two stories: a modern-day romance
and the history of New Mexico from the fifteenth to the twentieth
century…Through well-researched historical exposition and cinematic
depictions…The prose effortlessly shifts between historical times and the
contemporary era. ” – K.Mbuya (Readers’ Favorite)
EXCERPT
(1861 Fort Craig, NM): “Lt. Ned Beale, already a legend in his own time, was leading the first camel caravan for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 35 th Parallel railroad survey through northern Arizona. The camels were proposed by then U.S. Secretary of War (now the turncoat President of the Confederacy), Jefferson Davis, who thought camels were superior pack animals in desert terrain.
Lt. Beale headed the caravan in his bright red wagon, followed by 24 camels carrying 700 pounds apiece, twice the weight of what most mules could withstand.
Beale proudly boasted his camels could pack 800 pounds and travel up to 75 miles without water. He described them as gentle, affectionate animals. But the packers and muleskinners described them as stinky-breathed and cantankerous. Worse still, camels scared the horses and mules, causing whole pack trains to stampede.
And they ignored commands in English. “It takes a special camel driver to manage them,” Beale insisted. “Right. One who speaks A-rab,” said the muleskinners. Hadji Ali was one of the six Arab camel drivers, whose strange-sounding name the Americans quickly streamlined to Hi Jolly.
Lt. Beale, Hi Jolly and the other camel drivers were lining up the camels near the fort’s corrals, to the uproar of panicking horses and mules. The whole spectacle was quickly surrounded by a raucous crowd shouting loud jeers and guffaws. “Move those beasts back outside the sally port!” shouted the stable master, frantically waving at the camel drivers to turn the animals around.
In the confusion, Aidan slammed into one of the smelly giants. The animal glared down its nose at him through half-closed eyes and spat a wad of green gunk onto his shirt.
Disgusted, he raced to the laundry, pulling his shirt over his head, and ran headlong into someone in his path. Someone who smelled like cinnamon and sugar. When he pulled his head free from the tangled shirt, that cinnamon-scented someone regarded him almost as haughtily as the camel. But her sky blue eyes twinkled and chestnut tendrils of her hair blew free of her braid and teased around her rosy cheeks.
“Need help getting dressed, soldier?”
About the Author
I am a Midwesterner from America’s corn belt, but have lived in 7 states
(18 different cities) and Austria. As a travel agent and tour operator, I got
my first chance to do creative writing in the form of travel brochures for
places I’d never been:). Eleven years with Hughes AirWest/Republic/Northwest
airlines were fun because aircraft had actual legroom back then (!) and I also
worked as a recruiter. But after too many “dumb stewardess” jokes, I earned my
Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology and worked with neurodivergent individuals
of all ages in many settings (clinical and educational) for 20 years, which
involved writing detailed clinical assessment results and treatment programs.
All of that culminated in my first published book, “Brainstorming: Using
Neuropsychology in the Schools.” Anthony Girard at Western Psychological
Services taught me the priceless value of a good editor:).
But the most fun career I ever had was running elementary school libraries for
6 years! I redesigned the physical setup to display kids’ book covers facing
out at their eye level, and developed a curriculum that allowed for coaching
cognitive and social skills through read-aloud. After six years, students’
scores on standardized reading tests improved significantly, and I keep a
basket of Thank You cards from parents who said Library was their child’s
“favorite class.”
During those years, writing time was scarce, but I enjoyed a one-month
writers’ retreat at Vermont Studio Center in 2014, where I drafted a family
drama/speculative fiction then titled “The Well,” which won the 2015
Chanticleer Paranormal Award, and was a Finalist for the 2015 Indie Book Award
(since then updated and retitled, “Voices from the Well.”)
After retiring in 2017, I was able to garner enough concentrated time to work
on the five stories that had been cavorting in my head for years. A Waltz
Across Time was one of those books. I also authored a spiritually-oriented
self-help book, “Living the Real Tree of Life,” and collaborated on two plant
medicine books with a 2-tour Iraq war veteran turned ayahuasca healer, Drew
Bankey.
On a more personal level, due to a mild spinal curvature, I started doing yoga
at age 16 and have practiced several different styles, but focused on
Kundalini yoga for the past 40 years. I’ve taught that practice in a variety
of settings, including churches, recreation centers, and a maximum security
prison. My husband and I currently reside in wondrous New Mexico, where the
skies are a panorama every moment.
