A BOXER, a singer, a good-looking young man, Victor charms everyone -- except his demanding mother. She's a tough Oklahoma homesteader who insists Victor owes her a loyalty forsaking all others. Caught between his upbringing and a longing to be free, Victor goes to desperate lengths to escape. He makes his get-away by joining a Conoco Oil surveying party in the early 30s. His adventures on the road, and with the women he attracts, keep Victor preoccupied until everything backfires in California.

RUNNING FROM GRACE is a riveting sequel to the period novel MAMA GRACE. Told from the viewpoint of her youngest son Victor, the awesome heroine of the Oklahoma frontier this time emerges as something disturbingly different: a ruthless and fearsome villainess.

Cover photo by the author. Author's photo by Steve Gorton.

Dana Jones Bagshaw grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas; attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma; and began her career as a writer in Silicon Valley, California where she received a degree from San Jose State University.

She lived in England for 18 years where her play CELL TALK about Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe from Medieval times won the Radius religious drama award in 2000 and is received its eighth production there in August 2011.

Dana currently resides in Santa Cruz, California where she enjoys singing with her church choir, walking, cycling, birding, and volunteering as a docent at Neary Lagoon and the new Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center.

Her first novel, MAMA GRACE, was published for the Oklahoma Centennial celebration in 2007. Now its sequel, RUNNING FROM GRACE, is available from FastPencil. She hopes to publish a third book, FACING GRACE.