Kelly Conrad

Shaman is an award-winning historical romance set in post-Civil War Pennsylvania and Washington. It's the story of Matt Tyler, who left behind his privileged upbringing to serve as a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War. The story begins in 1867 on Matt’s property in Pennsylvania. A discovery one night in his barn changes Matt’s life forever. Degan, a young woman from the Seneca Nation, has escaped from a gang of vicious white men who raided her village and kidnapped her. Badly beaten and suffering a gunshot wound, she seeks shelter in a deserted barn and waits to die … until Matt finds her. The young surgeon takes her in and treats her wounds. Her initial fear of this white shaman slowly turns to trust as she recovers under Matt’s care. Though they plan that she will return to her people once she’s recovered, they cannot deny their deepening feelings for each other. Despite Degan’s love for Matt, she refuses to enter white society. How can she live among his people when they brutalized her, shot her and left her for dead? She decides to return to her people. Matt tries to go on with his life. He begins working at a dispensary in Washington, providing free medical care to the city’s poor. But he remains unable to quiet his yearning for Degan. Can Degan overcome her fear and the cruelty of her past to accept a man from a strange culture who promises his love? And is it a promise he can keep?

The Passage is the sequel to Shaman. Picking up the story, The Passage continues the saga of Dr. Matt Tyler and Degan, the Seneca woman whose life he saved. In the spring of 1869, Dr. Matt Tyler has returned to his home in Washington from the Allegheny Reservation with Degan and their young son, Adam, to begin their life together as a family. But Matt soon discovers a long-held family secret that upends his world and threatens the Tyler family legacy. As Degan tries to adjust to her new life in the affluent surroundings of the well-to-do of the Victorian Era, her bond with Matt is tested again and again through struggle and unspeakable tragedy. In rich detail from new settings across the globe, new characters — as well as familiar and beloved characters from Shaman — all play against the backdrop of the epic love story of Matt and Degan. From Washington, the seat of power in America, to the wealthy neighborhoods of London, to the tropical shores of Cape Palmas in West Africa, The Passage continues the poignant and inspiring story of great love that transcends cultural differences and intolerance.

An anthology of personal essays from an award-winning writer. On topics that range from growing up and finding her way, to navigating grief and loss, to at last finding her soul mate, award-winning author Kelly Z. Conrad shares this collection of deeply personal essays. Author of the historical romance novel Shaman and its sequel, The Passage, in 7 p.m. (and other essays), Conrad writes eloquently, relatably, and often with humor about life’s joys, its complications, and its frequent absurdities.