Starting a new chapter in life, Julia Ballard embraces the career of her dreams as a nature photographer and hopes to find peace, solitude, and artistic fulfillment in the mountain wilderness of the West. Her children are grown, and she's liberated from obligations to a family. Julia packs up her camera gear, and thus begins her adventure in an SUV accompanied only by her dog.Freelance photography and writing for the magazine Natural Heritage has earned her an official staff position. Will hard work for their environmentalist group also help restore her eroded self-esteem, the consequence of a failed marriage and bitter divorce?Julia's hard-won peace is quickly disturbed when she stumbles upon clues connected to two mysterious deaths. Innocently, she and her cameras have captured more secrets. Tension builds, suspicions about the people she works for haunt her, and her wilderness adventure becomes a nightmare.Follow the intrigue surrounding a nine-year-old, unsolved double-murder, experience a colorful story that transports the reader through the scenic beauty of the Colorado Rockies, and share the warm bond between Julia and her dog Maxie. Michaele Lockhart brings a diverse background to her writing: a passion for history, a fascination with human drama, and a love of literature. Her education combines early and secondary schools in Europe, in addition to college degrees from the University of Arizona and the University of Maryland.Embracing a variety of genres, her versatility extends from her favorite periods of history to contemporary social issues. She's a retired teacher and a talented nature and landscape photographer, often inserting elements of visual lyricism into her writing. Her short stories and novels have encompassed historical fiction adventure to compelling romantic magic realism to suspense.Michaele Lockhart lives in Tucson, Arizona, where current projects include a mystery-suspense series set in the scenic beauties of the Southwest. Book One is "Focused on Murder."
