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Measuring Up: Fourth volume in the Good Neighbors Series
Fourth in The Good neighbors Series, Measuring Up follows characters from the first three books to Wyoming. In 1934 at the height of the Depression, New York Times reporter, David Epstein, brings his wife, Rebecca, and their two pre-teen children, Deborah and Daniel, to the Dacia’s (Romanian immigrants) farm in South Dakota. From there they will travel with the Dacias, and neighbor, Fritz Wagner, to the Black Hills of South Dakota and on to Wyoming for Fritz’s wedding to Flora Doyle of the Lucky D Ranch.Concerns about New Yorkers fitting in with cowboys are overshadowed by the forces of nature when both a flash flood and a fire impact the visitors. A two day ranch rodeo, a death, the wedding, and the Fourth of July make an action-packed week with even Will Rogers and Wylie Post dropping in.But Wyoming isn’t the only place with things astir. Back in Centerford, South Dakota, Fritz’s brother, singing star August Wagner, is caught in a con which risks the loss of a special member of the family, his wife, Marie’s Appaloosa horse, Sky, as well as his paycheck and savings.Everyone faces a challenge, whether from New York, South Dakota, or Wyoming. And everyone will find out if they can measure up.
289 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 6, 2020
About the author
Janet M. Dann
5 books3 followers Janet was born and raised in upstate New York and as a child and adult has many times visited the farm her father’s family homesteaded in South Dakota six generations ago.
After an Anthropology degree from New York University, she joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and worked for a year on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which extends into both North and South Dakota and was the main relocation site for most of the Sioux combatants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Following this memorable experience, she received a BS in Nursing from Alaska Methodist University. Then back in the “lower 48” Janet worked as a nurse, primarily at the Norwest Day Center for Adults in Seattle.
In 2001 she and her husband embarked on a nine year adventure as full time RVers and explored America. Then in 2005, Janet's father suffered a stroke and asked her to finish a novel, IRINA, which was half finished and a sequel to his first novel, THE GOOD NEIGHBORS. THE GOOD NEIGHBORS is a work of historical fiction set in Depression era South Dakota, and loosely based on some of her father's memories of that time and place. IRINA continues the saga of a Romanian family who have immigrated to America in search of the American Dream of freedom and land of their own, and is about the last member of the Dacia family who must flee Romania and of her South Dakota family's struggle to get to New York to save her.
Janet so enjoyed the writing and research process, that she wrote a third novel, DEBTS AND VENGEANCE, which ties up loose ends from IRINA, and further develops the characters from the first two novels. The three books have now become The Good Neighbors Trilogy and Janet has revised and illustrated all three.
Janet and her husband now live in the San Juan Islands in her late parents' home, where she is studying water color painting, Astrology and mentally planning two more books about the Dacia family.
After an Anthropology degree from New York University, she joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and worked for a year on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which extends into both North and South Dakota and was the main relocation site for most of the Sioux combatants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Following this memorable experience, she received a BS in Nursing from Alaska Methodist University. Then back in the “lower 48” Janet worked as a nurse, primarily at the Norwest Day Center for Adults in Seattle.
In 2001 she and her husband embarked on a nine year adventure as full time RVers and explored America. Then in 2005, Janet's father suffered a stroke and asked her to finish a novel, IRINA, which was half finished and a sequel to his first novel, THE GOOD NEIGHBORS. THE GOOD NEIGHBORS is a work of historical fiction set in Depression era South Dakota, and loosely based on some of her father's memories of that time and place. IRINA continues the saga of a Romanian family who have immigrated to America in search of the American Dream of freedom and land of their own, and is about the last member of the Dacia family who must flee Romania and of her South Dakota family's struggle to get to New York to save her.
Janet so enjoyed the writing and research process, that she wrote a third novel, DEBTS AND VENGEANCE, which ties up loose ends from IRINA, and further develops the characters from the first two novels. The three books have now become The Good Neighbors Trilogy and Janet has revised and illustrated all three.
Janet and her husband now live in the San Juan Islands in her late parents' home, where she is studying water color painting, Astrology and mentally planning two more books about the Dacia family.
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