Thomas C. Chace

Bright Moon at Mid-day Thomas C. Chace

'It's a disease, a sickness, an obsession. As with drink or women, some men are driven crazy to get it even unto death.'Gold! Even today the very word conjures up unimagined wealth, adventure and hardship, he-manly work and the prize of all prizes: 'Gold - the same precious metal which all through history made men do things they would not otherwise do to get it-and women, even nice women, to do the same.''The bug bit Miller-hard!' (The Prologue) William Miller setout with his young wife and two-year-old daughter to make his fortune in the gold fields of Nome, Alaska, during the gold rush of 1898-99. But more than gold, during his decade in the great north this man learned and turned from a chauvinist to become a loving husband, from a hardcore miner to a caring and replete father. His treasure became not gold but love, for life, wife, and family. He and his wife, Hilma, had four other children during their ten years living in this godforsaken spot of earth. The growing together of man and woman, the adventures (all true) of this remarkable family, and the harrowing experiences of life on the edge is at the core of Bright Moon at Mid-Day. You will meet some of the most interesting and entertaining characters in all of fiction: Whisky Gus, a bedeviled, bewhiskered sourdough who hardly drew a sober breath but seldom let booze slow him down nor hold back his innate words of wisdom. Big Tom and his half-breed son, Little Tom, who originated the deep-freeze using the 40 below zero temperature to hang their 'secret recipe' beans out-of-doors where they would whack off a hunk with a hand axe for dinner or breakfast. Sitting on the porch of the general store is Hokey Pokey, the loveable town gossip. There is naive Dolly, an abused teenage runaway heading for the Silver Slipper Saloon, who becomes Hilma's 'adopted' daughter, though they are but a few years apart in age. There are the two Misses Mabels, K-12 schoolteachers whose first names are their only commonality. Both learn