Orphan Dreamer Saga
2 primary works • 7 total works 7 total works planned
Novellas and Short Stories can be read in any order. Novels should be read in order.
The Orphan Dreamer Saga defies time and takes readers from 1018 B.C. into a future of what-ifs.
What if Indiana Jones were a naive girl born into a close-knit African-American family in the South—a girl destined to solve her own DA VINCI CODE but who would rather simply overcome the provincialism of her community and find her own ANNE-OF-GREEN-GABLES-style bosom friend?
The ORPHAN DREAMER SAGA is a seven-novel serial interspersed with seven novellas that intertwine three tales across time and space and tells a sweeping fantastical story, spiced with thrills, stark realities, and comedy. This epic tale weaves an intricate tapestry of divine guidance, faith, isolation, hope, and loss as it follows two children from their beginnings to their ends.
See the author's website for more information.
Book 0.5, Novella
One girl.
One boy.
One mission . . .to protect Earth from invasion by the planet’s previous occupants.
The ORPHAN DREAMER SAGA (ODS) is a Coming-of-Age Story with a Fantastical Twist about the most unlikely candidate chosen to become the next Indiana Jones—a twelve-year-old depressive schizophrenic.
ORPHAN DREAMER and the MISSING ARROWHEAD—the first non-linear short story in the ODS—shines a spotlight on this loveable heroine!
Daniela's Labels
• Her middle school bullies call her crazy.
• A small-town pediatrician diagnoses her as a depressive SCHIZOPHRENIC.
• BUT Albert Einstein said, "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
So could Earth’s apocalypse really be worse than puberty for Daniela Rose—a shy girl struggling with mental illness yet destined to meet an orphan boy who haunts her chaotic dreams?
Adults mislabel Daniela as a depressive-schizophrenic, and the kids at school call her a freak. Both refuse to understand the way she sees the world—unfiltered by time and place.
What if this "freak" will one day outwit and survive her bullies, solving a series of ancient mysteries while fighting an invisible yet powerful force in order to save her small-minded neighbors from self-destruction?
In this NON-LINEAR short story, experience what Daniela experiences as she shifts through ancient and futuristic times and places.
Keep up—if you can!
Because as Earth sits in the crosshairs of a sinister force, Daniela must slip between three realities—a perfect job for a schizophrenic—to find an arrowhead gifted to her by a prince from an ancient world. This arrowhead is the missing link that can save her family and bring order to Earth’s chaos.
Book 1
Author J. Nell Brown―a New Release Top Ten Bestseller in Children's and Young Adult Fantasy (Time-Travel Fiction)—takes readers on a journey that defies time, from 1018 B.C. to a future of what-ifs, in the first full-length novel of the series: ORPHAN DREAMER and the GLASS TATTOO.
Daniela Rose―a preteen and Earth's newest kick-butt Indiana Jones―must come to terms with her destiny, avoid getting committed to the psychiatric ward, endure nightmares about a mysterious boy, deal with the mean girls at school, and save the world by traveling to the past to uncover clues hidden before the dawn of time.
You know, typical middle school drama. Not even.
Especially for an awkward thirteen-year-old girl with knobby knees, curly hair, brown skin, and nosebleeds. She’s certainly no one special in the eyes of her classmates, who either bully or ignore her.
Before realizing her destiny, Daniela had only two quests in life: become the youngest medical student at her dream school and find a kindred spirit.
However, her destiny has already been decided—and it doesn’t include friendship bracelets.
After her thirteenth birthday, Daniela must juggle going to school, caring for her ill father, and solving an ancient puzzle that will protect her friends—and enemies—from a dark, biblical-sized force. One that seeks to eradicate humans from Earth.
Will Daniela stop fighting for the kindred spirit her heart is destined for—leaving him unprotected and doomed to certain death?
Or will she rise to the challenge and meet her destiny head-on when a twist of fate alters the destiny of an orphan boy and the future of humanity?
If you knew your ending, how would you have lived your beginning?
One snowflake falls from heaven to quench hell's thirst. I am that snowflake. I am Daniela. I am the Orphan Dreamer destined to quench the hellish reality of an orphaned boy that I've never met.
Book 1.5, Short Story
Her family was to be her legacy until an angry mob murdered her only son. North Carolina farm owner Gertrude Smith had dreamed of leaving a legacy—raising hardworking and socially-conscious children who would parent her grandchildren to become people who would change the world for the better.
But hope faded when her unmarried son died tragically in the racially charged 1960s—then completely vanished when her only surviving child, a daughter, remained childless after marriage for twenty years.
That is, until Gertrude received a phone call from her forty-year-old daughter: “Momma, next summer you’re going to become a grandmother! And not to just any baby—but one with a divine mission.”
A special child.
A dreamer.
A baby girl.
But will another tragedy strike and bury Gertrude’s dreams for an eternity, taking with it the seedling of her legacy, erasing the stories of her ancestors, and stopping a quiet Southern woman from leaving her mark on America—and maybe even the world?
“Here sleeps a girl with a head full of magical dreams, a heart full of wonder, and hands that will shape the world.”
But dreams require strength. The strength to believe in what no one else can see.
Should an elderly woman who lost her only son dare to dream again? Should you?
Find out by reading SHE LAUGHS LAST, a sweet story that mothers, grandmothers, and daughters will treasure for years to come.
If you knew your ending, how would you have lived your beginning?
Book 2
Told in the style of the hit TV show, THIS IS US, the ORPHAN DREAMER SAGA is a modern-day retelling of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES meets THE DA VINCI CODE in a play of fate that will change the destiny of an orphan and the future of humanity.
This second full-length novel in the Orphan Dreamer series—ORPHAN TREE and the VANISHING SKELETON KEY (OT and VSK)—is an ambitious tale where betrayal, harsh realities, twists and turns, and ancient relics converge with angelic warfare and a seventeen-year-old depressive schizophrenic, Daniela Rose Cavanaugh.
Daniela will learn that some dreams should never come true!
A brainiac and classic introvert, she adores her biological research at the world-famous World War II atomic bomb lab, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
But secretly, she has another life: launching on a brave quest to save Earth from a supernatural invasion. It’s totally not your normal college-sophomore stuff!
Releasing the power of the Glass Tattoo―her time-traveling device―Daniela slips through time and explores three realities where she must gather critical clues to help solve an ancient riddle: who is Chi Xi Stigma―666, the antichrist―a dark force that plans to eradicate humans by unleashing a ruthless pandemic and instigating World War III, a.k.a., Armageddon.
Will the Orphan Dreamer―Earth's newest kick-butt Indiana Jones―solve the mystery of an ancient Hebrew statue found inside the ruins of a bombed World War II–era church in Hiroshima, Japan?
Will she complete this mission in enough time to discover the deadly secrets behind an Apache cave drawing―the answer to a mystery that will catapult her on a mission to identify the antichrist and stop his impending pandemic and global war?
Because if she fails, humanity and Earth may not survive Armageddon―the most deadly war of all time where humans must fight an extraterrestrial army of Nephilim, half-demon, half-human beings currently hiding and training on Wormwood, an invisible planet.
Buckle up for a fun fantasy ride. Read the ORPHAN TREE and the VANISHING SKELETON KEY: the second novel (episode four) in the Orphan Dreamer epic saga.
If you knew your ending, how would you have lived your beginning?
Book 2.5, Novella
Austin commits a fatal mistake that in time births a miracle—a child who could possibly change the trajectory of a small Southern town and even the world. For readers who treasured the movie WAR ROOM, believe and dream again. This story will be enjoyed for seasons to come.
A GENERATION OF LIGHTED EVERGREENS is a heartwarming and wholesome read.
Guilty, but redeemed . . .
Austin—a sugar cane field hand
Gus—a nine-year-old yellow Labrador
Jeanette—a small-town school teacher
Chuck—a field hand on a sugar cane plantation in Belle Glade, Florida
What do they have in common? A quest for love
Before the ORPHAN DREAMER, Daniela Rose Cavanaugh, was born, Austin’s journey for love begins.
"If love’s a fish, she must be a pink salmon, swimmin’ up a cold water creek—troubled, tryin’ somethin’ mighty to find her intended."
It’s 1967; Austin is a simple American man—hardworking, loving, and faithful. Hands calloused, he works a cutlass in sugar cane fields in Belle Glade Florida.
Mind elsewhere, he’s lost in a dream world as he desires to discover his life’s purpose and find his pink salmon swimmin’ up a cold water creek, troubled, tryin' somethin' mighty to find her intended—a metaphor that Austin equates with love.
Unfortunately, a train-wrecked military career and a fatal mistake complicate his quest for love until he stumbles upon the message of a mysterious carpenter.
Austin’s world is about to make a 180 degree U-turn.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . . . one snowflake falls from heave to quench hell's thirst. I Am that Snowflake—unique and fragile yet filled with life-giving water. I am Hope. Be inspired to never give up on your dreams.
Book 3.5, Novella
One word describes HOUSEGUEST―SCARY. For readers who enjoy reading a PG-version of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, reading HOUSEGUEST will make you want to turn on ALL of the lights and then look under your bed before you close your eyes.
So buckle up and continue reading the ORPHAN DREAMER SAGA—an eschatological and fantastical coming-of-age adventure tucked into the stories of children entrusted with a Divine mission.
What makes the main villain of the Orphan Dreamer Saga tick?
In this short story, it's almost Hanukkah then Christmas. Only a year ago, a Jewish family, the Bushcrofts, escaped Nazi Germany. The date is December 11, 1941.
Asher Bushcroft is twelve-years-old, short, and a social outcast. His sister, Natalia, is sixteen, breathtaking, a gifted violinist, and a dancer. They are inseparable, or so it seems. But, every villain has a beginning, and Asher's villainous beginning starts on the same day that the United States enters World War II. Asher barters with a dark force named Nomed in order to win the affections of a popular girl at school.
Nomed vows to assist Asher in his lustful adventure in return for a favor—murder two children to prevent them from thwarting Nomed's plans for world domination.
Will the children survive? If they don't, will Earth survive?
If you knew your ending, how would you have lived your beginning?
Book 4.5, Novella
OUTLANDER and DOWNTON ABBEY fans will adore LITTLE PEACH LIES―a PG historical (time-travel) romance and the ninth installment of the ORPHAN DREAMER SAGA set against the backdrop of Scotland's famed Saint Andrews University and the Queen of England's Scotland residence, Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Charlotte Cairstine McDonald, the soon-to-be Duchess of the Isles of Caithness, is about to learn that even in 1967, it's dangerous to be born a royal. Especially if that royal—a.k.a. Charlotte—is hiding a secret . . . one that could end her engagement to a dreamy English duke.
While alone on Saint Andrew's seaside bluff, Charlotte drifts into sleep and is transported from her 1960’s reality to 1567 Scotland―an era when her secret would have guaranteed a trip to the executioner's dungeon.
Charlotte encounters her great ancestor, Queen Mary of Scotland, who sounds a dire warning to her future heiress. But will Charlotte solve the clue before she loses her head no differently than Queen Mary?
The stakes are much higher than Charlotte realizes—beyond her stained reputation or abandonment by the royal family. History might be irreparably changed.
Even if Charlotte survives the Dark Ages, a real and present threat still exists that can derail the future Orphan Dreamer's mission to help humanity and find her essential sidekick—her kindred-spirit Emmaline, Charlotte's future daughter.
Brew your favorite tea and snuggle up with a historical (time-travel) romance: LITTLE PEACH LIES, the fifth short story (episode nine) in the Orphan Dreamer Saga.