Frank and Annie move to Dixie City thinking it'll be a nice bucolic place in which to enjoy a quiet retirement. NOT When they and their friends, Ned and Kate, begin to have strange experiences at the creepy old Dixie Mall, try to get involved in restoring the Hangin' Judge's (haunted?) house, and stake out a bed and breakfast inn that is a plantation with a crematorium, it dawns on them that everything in Dixie City is just a wee bit weird. And thanks to the Village Idiot they also learn the true significance of being "from away." Therein lie the Dixie City tales.

When "'til death do us..." means murder, will justice --- that fluid-like concept --- seek its own level? Nineteen-eighteen was a watershed year for 6-year-old Walter Dunbar and 13-year-old Ruth Wilson. That year's seminal events in their childhoods ultimately bring them together as young adults to share a lifetime --- dedicated to strong moral and family values --- through a half century of shifting societal values and standards. Nineteen-eighteen also marked the birth of Eleanor Riggs whose nature and upbringing combine to create an unprincipled and manipulative self-serving woman --- the embodiment of evil --- who insinuates herself into Walter's life. As it sweeps across the landscapes of eastern New England, New York's Southern Tier, Maryland, and eastern Pennsylvania, the saga of these three individuals' lives is set against a tapestry of historical events and shifting cultural and societal attitudes of 20th Century America. This tale of two families with a slice of history and a slice of mystery will appeal to readers who enjoyed John Steinbeck's East of Eden.

As the initial US observer, David Rawson participated in the 1993 Rwandan peace talks at Arusha, Tanzania. Later, he served as US ambassador to Rwanda during the last months of the doomed effort to make them hold. Despite the intervention of concerned states in establishing a peace process and the presence of an international mission, UNAMIR, the promise of the Arusha Peace Accords could not be realized. Instead, the downing of Rwandan president Habyarimana's plane in April 1994 rekindled the civil war and opened the door to genocide. In Prelude to Genocide, Rawson draws on declassified documents and his own experiences to seek out what went wrong. How did the course of political negotiations in Arusha and party wrangling in Kigali, Rwanda, bring to naught a concentrated international effort to establish peace? And what lessons are there for other international humanitarian interventions? The result is a commanding blend of diplomatic history and analysis that is a milestone read on the Rwandan crisis and on what happens when conflict resolution and diplomacy fall short. Published in partnership with the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series.

As the initial US observer, David Rawson participated in the 1993 Rwandan peace talks at Arusha, Tanzania. Later, he served as US ambassador to Rwanda during the last months of the doomed effort to make them hold. Despite the intervention of concerned states in establishing a peace process and the presence of an international mission, UNAMIR, the promise of the Arusha Peace Accords could not be realized. Instead, the downing of Rwandan president Habyarimana's plane in April 1994 rekindled the civil war and opened the door to genocide. In Prelude to Genocide, Rawson draws on declassified documents and his own experiences to seek out what went wrong. How did the course of political negotiations in Arusha and party wrangling in Kigali, Rwanda, bring to naught a concentrated international effort to establish peace? And what lessons are there for other international humanitarian interventions? The result is a commanding blend of diplomatic history and analysis that is a milestone read on the Rwandan crisis and on what happens when conflict resolution and diplomacy fall short. Published in partnership with the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series.