The setting for my novel, Riding Babyface, was inspired by the little farm where I lived as a kid. My old homestead had a mysterious feeling. When I told my friend Sam a treasure might be buried in the barnyard, he got permission to metal detect there.

We hit the trail bright and early. Sam slowed his Blazer, then he turned off the main road. He drove up a dirt driveway to the hill pasture where a barn and bunkhouse once stood.

"Does anything look familiar?" Sam asked.

Not sure of the barn's exa...