Sailing to Windward

From the author of the historical series SUNNY OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST, telling of a courageous and adventurous marriage between a Navajo woman and a white American adventurer from Virginia . . . SAILING TO WINDWARD, a small enjoyable novella takes us to the beautiful and sometimes dangerous Philippine Islands just one year before the invasive American political involvement there in 1898. __ This is the story of the troubled and dangerous lives of two Filipino sisters, typically petite Cebuano Visayans from the central islands, who might be forever lost to their family and the world . . . and two men who may care enough to help, one Filipino and one Irish American. __ Sheltered, entitled, provincial, twenty-three year old Rosario Lopez flees home and family on the island of Cebu to avoid her selfish stepfather's demands: marry his friend, an older man who is a sexual pervert, or be sent to a convent. Now, as she tries to secure passage on a trading schooner that roams from mainland Southeast Asia to scattered Polynesia, her sister, Teresa, a year older and equally charming, has disappeared months earlier, perhaps for fear of being forced to take Rosario's place in the marriage. No one really knows why she's gone or where she is. __ The author is married to a charming and accomplished Visayan woman, and they have lived and traveled where much of this story takes place. __ 1. Moral, 2. Christian main characters, 3. Some Catholicism, 4. Some adult themes and content, 5. Realistic violence and risks, 6. No gratuitous sex and violence.