Flossie Smith

Twelve year old tomboy Flossie Smith fights for her right to be herself. Her older sisters, mother, aunt, and school teacher are all pushing the young girl to change her ways and become a proper young lady. Tall and lean, the fiery red head with the support of her father, Jim Smith, only wants to be left alone to spend time with her best friend, Josh Miller. The two of them are inseparable companions fishing and hunting along the banks of Stout's Creek. When Josh turns twelve one of his gifts is a coon hound pup. When he shares the gift with his blood brother, Flossie, it opens a whole new world to her and the argument over her dreams becomes even more heated. "I want to become a Coon Hunter just like Josh," declares Flossie. "Being a girl should not keep me from my dreams." This first book in the Miller Family Saga, "Flossie Smith" tells the story of the training of Bob the hound and the early days when Flossie begins to develop an almost mystic relationship with her hound. With each misstep more pressure in put on the fiery red head to conform to the rural communities standards. Only the intervention of Flossie's father, Jim Smith, helps the girl avoid being forced to join her four older sisters on the front porch, where they sit and wait for a potential suitor to call. Instead Flossie continues to work along side her friend Josh in the Miller's truck gardens, trains her hound, and under the tutelage of Little Harry Waggerman, becomes the finest shot in Connor County.The back story is the struggle of the Millers with the local Klavern of the Klu Klux Klan. The Millers, dedicated Christians hold fast to their faith and their belief in the "social gospel" a philosophy that many consider to be revolutionary. One bishop of the Methodist Church said of the Millers, "Isaac and Margaret are the perfect blend of what it means to be a Christian. They not only ache for the souls of their neighbors, they are willing to lay down their lives for the substance of the faith."