Barbara Walsh – författare

In August Gale, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Barbara Walsh—who has interviewed killers, bad cops, and crooked politicians in the course of her career—faces the most challenging story of her lifetime: asking her father about his childhood pain. In the process, she takes us on two heartrending odysseys: one into a deadly Newfoundland hurricane and the lives of schooner fishermen who relied on God and the wind to carry them home; the other, into a squall stirred by a man with many secrets: a grandfather who remained a mystery until long after his death.

Sixty-eight years after the hurricane that claimed several of her ancestors, Walsh searches for memories of the August gale and the grandfather who abandoned her dad as a young boy. Together, she and her father journey to Newfoundland to learn about the 1935 storm, and along the way her dad begins to talk about the man he cannot forgive. As she recreates the scenes of the violent hurricane and a small boy''s tender past, she holds onto a hidden desire: to heal her father and redeem the grandfather she has never met.

Newly ordained, Pastor Toby Armstrong accepts his first church assignment in the quaint town of Dobbs, New Mexico, dubbed Elsewhere by a television reporter. In this little town thirty minutes from the Mexico border, he discovers early on that the encounters and friendships he develops are blessings. Pastor Toby realized his calling early on, and worked hard to make that a reality, even if it meant losing his first love in the process. He wonders if hell ever fall in love again.

Nestled at the foot of the Florida Mountains, Elsewhere offers hope and tranquility for this young pastor, and its anything but boring. A tiny puppy, a beautiful pediatrician, a stressed-out church secretary, a variety of townspeople, and many other parishioners from his Methodist congregation exemplify their faith and show how it can help to solve lifes everyday challenges and troubles.

Pastor Toby discovers that God works in and through the lives of people everywhere, including the residents of Elsewhere. The town becomes one he wishes he could call home forever.