Allie Ray

  WHO I AM  I am an author, educator and part-time librarian from the small, rural town of Osceola, Nebraska. I earned my BA in English with minors in creative writing and theater arts from Concordia University--Seward, Nebraska. From there I moved several places, held several jobs, and had several daughters. Now my girls and I live in my hometown again, where I moonlight as the assistant librarian. I am also featured on  Nebraska Authors . WHAT I WRITE My writing tends literary, with a strong focus on characters and dialogue. I like writing in historical settings, especially the early 20th century. In general, I like writing flawed love stories and complicated families; specifically, I like writing about life in a small town, crime capers and mysteries, fast-talkers, and strong-willed women. I like mixing genres and writing situations and characters that challenge me to find hope, light, and beauty in a grim world. WHAT INSPIRES ME I am perennially fascinated by history....

" No one wants you this way, son,” he said hoarsely. “I pray you hear that. No one at all wants you this way.” The Story Rural Arkansas: 1928. While the rest of the country roars, the little coal-mining town of Hanger's Hollow, Arkansas carries on much the same as it always has; mines collapse, widows are made young, moonshine is brewed, and Preacher Jackson is second only to God.  Interweaving the lives, loves and losses of a vast array of characters, Children of Promise is the story of a tenuous marriage —a reckless affair —new life —grim death —ghosts —and bootleg liquor; a rich Southern gothic set seven years before the events of   Holler .  Summary A prequel to Holler,   Children of Promise  is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon . 

"I just can't help it. I got to know what happens to the forgotten ones.  Even though the answer usually ain't pretty." The Story When low-profile people go missing in the swamps of central Florida, Clementine Brooks is the gal to call. A self-made sleuth with a puzzling past of her own, Clementine prides herself in finding "the forgotten ones." And at first glance, Ivan Kiss's disappearance isn't unusual: the only person who seems to miss the immigrant field hand is his sister. But snooping around the cotton plantation where Ivan Kiss worked reveals the case is anything but ordinary---despite the best efforts of debutante Arden Harris. For Arden, it's bad enough Clementine married the man she's in love with; she doesn't need Clementine sticking her nose in this Ivan Kiss business, too---especially since the truth is so ugly. But when supernatural occurences start upending the peace in their Old Florida community, everything Arden and Cle...

"The con has never taken him this far before." The Story Life since the Great War ended hasn't been kind to Rolf Litzsinger. Armed with only a clerical shirt and a dubious sob story, he roams the French countryside, slipping into churches---and slipping out with the offering plate. Easter morning in the sleepy village of Auvers-sur-oise should have been no different. But when the real priest suffers a sudden accident, Rolf's con takes him much further than he ever meant it to go. No matter; Rolf is sure he can wiggle his way free without drawing suspicion---espeically since everyone in the village seems to think he was sent by God himself--- Everyone, except Simone DuBois. A daring painter and self-proclaimed bohemian, Simone may not be as devout as her family, but she can spot a fake. She knows Rolf is no holy man---but Rolf knows a damning secret about her as well. After witnessing a clandestine kiss, Rolf leverages a deal: if Simone helps him steal a thousand franc...

  "And August feels it, now---pulsing on the air, sparkling in the orange evening light...He helps Rosalind across the yard, heels sticking in the wet ground, and each step snaps electricty through his whole body. The porch steps whine under his weight. His feet shift on the sandy, peeling beams and he knows. He stands on the brink of the extraordinary." The Story For over twenty years, the fading white mansion on the edge of Hutchinson Island has drawn writers and artists, bohemians, eccentrics---and plenty of skeptics---with the promise of the impossible: at night, classic characters surface to mingle among regular people. At Boris's, you might see John Henry beat Beowulf in an arm-wrestling match, or charm Cinderella into a dance, and artists renowned and obscure credit their time at the mansion for inspiring their works. But that's not what has brought August Carroll. August prefers biology to literature; football to theater; and couldn't tell you the last tim...

 "My father's name was Henry Kinsey. I know because Mama's husband Paul could not say his name without a curse." The Story 1910: Loren Kinsey Whitmore has known his whole life that he doesn't belong---not among his beautiful, talented siblings, and not to his stepfather, Paul. His mother made it clear he was someone else---the son of the man she truly loved, Henry Kinsey. The fact did little more than explain his perpetual discomfort in his own family---until now. After Paul's passing, and with his mother Agnes's health in a dire state, Loren sets off on a quest to find this Henry Kinsey, and reunite his parents one last time. 1879: Martha Kinsey doesn't know how she's going to explain the frozen, golden-haired woman on their cabin floor. The Kinseys eek out a sparse existence in the Dakota Territory; they certainly can't afford to add one more mouth to feed. But Martha's widowed father Henry seems almost happy about the arrival of the my...

"Sheriff, I just saw to it that these three scoundrels were spared the battering fist of vigilante justice, and my only design in so doing is this: one of them, or two of them, or all of them, know where my daughter is." The Story When five thousand dollars and the governor's daughter disappear from the Monmouth Plantation in 1852, Natchez Sheriff Murphy is called on to interrogate three suspicious house guests: Kitty, a minstrel actress from New York's grim Five Points district, learned the value of playing dumb and sitting pretty long ago. For Sheriff Murphy, she's all batted eyelashes and girlish innocence--- But her employer, Lord Farkas, hints at a sinister cleverness lurking behind Kitty's charm. A genteel nobleman from Hungary, Farkas may be the most respectable of the suspects, but the vast incongruities between his testimony and Kitty's force the sheriff to confront the third member of their party: a free black Londoner named Coop. While Coop mig...

"Back then I thought that men, like sins, could be done away with a little water." The Story Eliza was always taught that when a varmint scampers into the house, you shoot it--and that's just what she intends to do to Llewellyn Jackson the night he breaks into her kitchen. A former bootlegger and outlaw, Llewellyn is reviled as the black sheep of their holy-rolling town. And Eliza has little patience for sinners. But when Llewellyn confesses he is in love with her, the night takes an unexpected turn toward temptation. Angry and ashamed, Eliza intends to keep her night with Llewellyn a secret. Her determination only grows stronger when the man she secretly loves, James Sutton, returns to write a novel about the holler--using Eliza as his muse. Convinced James loves her at last, Eliza puts Llewellyn out of her mind. But Llewellyn Jackson is not so easily deterred. And deeds done in the dark are not without consequence. When her night with Llewellyn proves more troublesome t...

"And the longer Lars stared into his face, the more he wondered if maybe...maybe...the answers to this strange scene were trapped inside him, gnarl-frozen like ice swelling the cracks in a rock." The Story Lars Gustafson has one job to do. The mortician hired him for his size---not his brain, and certainly not his English---and Lars carries the bodies. Big and small; young and old; drowned, pneumatic---and murdered.  When wealthy farmer Harold Eklund is found shot---and frozen---on his dining table, the small, windswept town of Osceola, Nebraska is consumed by the mystery--and Lars more than anyone. Harold and his family fascinate Lars, and, despite his usual reticence, he seeks ways to get closer to them--- Especially Harold's daughters, Mildred and Rachel. Pulled further and further into the Eklund family's secrets, Lars begins to unwind the mystery of Harold's murder---and the strange part Lars himself played in the man's demise. Fifteen years of pain and l...