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Anita Perez Ferguson

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Golden Secrets

Teens

synopsis

Synopsis

2021 San Francisco Writers Conference Young Adult Writing Contest Winner

Alicia Ortega, a 14-year-old Mexican girl, struggles to protect her father’s land when she and her older sisters are aggressively courted by land-hungry Yankees and rough-cut fur traders in the Spanish colony. It’s up to Alicia, her sister Clara, and their Chumash friend Nina to shoulder the responsibility of caring for the Ortega home and business.

When Alicia’s oldest sister is sent to finishing school in Texas for protection and refinement, the remaining younger sisters must run the rancho alone. Dangers on all sides begin to descend as the sisters are pursued by Yankee immigrant merchants and sailors hoping to cash in on rich lands and access to Pacific ports.

Alicia is trying her best to keep her family’s home and business afloat and thankfully, her companion, Nina is there to help. But as an indigenous girl, Nina is valuable to traders, trappers, and surveyors for her knowledge of the Californian terrain and her network of tribal relations. However, she won’t always be there to help Alicia’s family, especially since she has problems of her own. The Franciscan Mission is pressuring her family to convert to Catholicism, a charming trader is courting her, and, worse of all, their tribal territory and tribal ways are vanishing.

The girls struggle to protect the Ortega family’s land and black market dock from conniving suitors, but tough family secrets are threatening everything, and Alicia doesn’t know if they’ll be able to survive until her parents return.

bio

Author Biography

Dr. Perez Ferguson is a cross-cultural educator and consultant. Her fiction brings to life the voices of California inhabitants living 200 years ago. She has twice won the Best YA Fiction Award from the San Francisco Writers Conference, 2021 and 2022.

Regarding Broken Promises:

"The tightly wound plot flows effortlessly from one moment to the next.... readers will find themselves inspired by the future Sparrow creates for herself and those around her." — Kirkus Reviews

Her non-fiction promotes the voices of under-represented communities in the twenty-first century. This earned her the 2014 Lacayo Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute. She is an Advisor and Former Chair for the InterAmerican Foundation and a former Visiting Lecturer for the Council for Independent Colleges. She enjoys living and writing on the Pacific coast.

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Author Insight

Secret Plans

There is never enough excitement in a book when only one character solves one problem. An engaging story presents twists and turns, then, unexpected resolutions that change the story and the characters. As a writer, I imagine my initial plot, then add complexity, mystery, and surprises. In this excerpt from Golden Secrets, Alicia and Nina discover that someone has intentions to take over papa's rancho. It takes them some time to realize that the reason Captain Harris is taking such careful measurements of the land is so he can make a map and claim ownership. Alicia is horrified to see that her own sister, Clara, is helping the captain with his plot. This is just one of the complications Alicia must face in Golden Secrets, book two, in the Mission Bells trilogy. Obtain all the books here at the Bublish.com site. You are also welcome to follow my free weekly newsletter, Diverse Voices - Bravo! where I introduce you to other Latinx authors and their books. See it at anitaperezferguson.substack.com

Book Excerpt

Golden Secrets

Nina revealed the secret Mission gate, the trapper followed the girls all the way back to the Rancho Refugio boundary. Alicia and Nina were more relaxed to be back on the Ortega land, but as soon as the three of them spotted Captain Harris and Clara in the distance the trapper slowed his pace. He held up a finger to his lips, warning the girls to keep silent. He backed away into a brush-covered area and hid himself.

Nina and Alicia thought he was acting strangely, but they were more interested in watching Harris and Clara to see what mischief they were up to. The girls observed them from the shade of a live oak. A flock of rancho sheep grazed nearby.

“Why count stones?” Nina strained to hear his words.

“He’s making a picture, a map of Papa’s land.” Alicia recognized what Captain Harris was doing. She and her papa once followed a surveyor estimating taxes on the land—taxes Papa never paid.

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, it’s perfect! Leave it all to me, Clara.” Harris moved with exaggerated steps and paused near the spot where the stream crossed the pasture. He scribbled something on a parchment Clara held up to him. They headed toward the ridge and continued counting.

“How he make a picture with numbers?” Nina asked. The tensions the girls shared in the village subsided even though the trapper was still nearby.

“Is that man following us?” Alicia could not see the trapper any longer. The girls locked arms to help each other up; they were more interested in observing Harris’s movements. He could make his pictures, but he could never trace all 600 acres of Rancho Refugio.

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Anita Perez Ferguson

Golden Secrets

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Secret Plans

Book Excerpt

Golden Secrets

Comment on this Bubble