Orion O'Brien and the Phantoms of Wakarusa

A lifelong Kansan, Fran Borin grew up hearing about the turbulent, sometimes violent history of the eastern part of the state. Bleeding Kansas, the Border War, stops on the Underground Railroad-all were within a few miles of her childhood home, and didn't seem that long ago to her. Despite an abiding interest in history and early aspirations to writing, her education and experience led in different directions-teaching, motherhood, and federal law enforcement. The writing bug, however, was dormant but not dead. One day she read a newspaper article that reported ghost sightings near the Shawnee Indian Mission. She mulled it over for the next twenty-five years, and the result were the stories of Samuel Grayhawk, Susie Chase, and Noah and Katie Wheeler.Fran lives with her husband within walking distance of the Shawnee Indian Mission, a short drive from the Quindaro district of Kansas City, and less than an hour from the Wakarusa region of Lawrence. She has three grown children.