CAST OF CHARACTERS

      Shelby August—Twenty-one years ago she saw something rise out of the river and come after her. Whether the monster was real or imagined, Shelby’s life has never been the same since that night.

      Nathan Dallas—For over two decades he’s kept his feelings for Shelby a secret. Now she’s come back home, but another terrible secret threatens to keep them apart.

      Annabel Westmoreland—Shelby’s grandmother has lived on the river most of her life. She’s seen a lot of strange things.

      Yoshi Takamura—He’s built a laboratory near the river, and there are whispers in town of strange experiments.

      James Westmoreland—Annabel’s son. How far would he go to get his hands on her money?

      Delfina Boudreaux—Her midnight walks along the river are troubling. What is she looking for?

      Virgil Dallas—After Shelby’s monster sighting, his paper made the nine-year-old famous…and then infamous.

      Miss Scarlett—Annabel’s neurotic cat may be the death of Shelby yet.

      Dear Reader,

      They say you can’t go home again, but Nighttime Guardian took me straight back to my roots along the White River in Arkansas. The journey started, oddly enough, on the Internet when I came across a site for a jewelry store in Newport, Arkansas, which deals in freshwater pearls from the White and Black Rivers. I was fascinated to learn that river pearls can be worth thousands of dollars and that in the late 1800s a White River pearl was mounted in the royal crown of England!

      I was hooked. Intrigued. But I still didn’t quite have the spark I needed for my story. Then one day Phyllis Holmes, the manager of the store, reminded me about the White River Monster. That prehistoric, sea-serpent-like creature, affectionately dubbed Ole Whitey by the locals, had been the stuff of local legends. I began to wonder what would happen to a child who had a close encounter with the monster. How would she function in a world that didn’t believe in such creatures?

      In Nighttime Guardian I’ve changed the name of the river and created a fictitious town, populated with fictitious characters. I’ve even taken artistic license with the monster. But make no mistake. This is where I grew up. These are my people.

      And the monster? Well, a 1973 resolution was passed in the Arkansas state legislature creating the White River Monster Refuge.

      Now, to you city folk, this may seem a mite eccentric. But if you’re ever out on the river at midnight, when the air is still and the shadows deep and the water so murky it’s like pea soup, you won’t think it strange. Not one bit.