The Hand of Lou Diamond
Young Nicolette Devereux, an orphan raised in a San Francisco brothel, is sent to a Nashville finishing school for young ladies. Dismissed, she must make her way back, relying on her wits and her skill at card games. Handsome riverboat gambler Ethan Diamond takes Nicolette in hand, but then sells her to a New Orleans brothel. She avoids prostitution with her skills at poker under the name Lou...
Guns of the Texas Ranger
When Texas Ranger Ygnacio (“Nacho”) Ybarra slips across the border into Mexico, he is surprised by bandits and taken to confront an old acquaintance, Pancho Villa. The revolutionary leader charges Nacho to assist in corralling a rogue outlaw, Chulo Valdez. But that bandit lure Nacho into an attack on his own Ranger Company. Guns of the Texas Ranger, volume one in Border Trilogy, is a...
Code of the Texas Ranger
Old-time Texas Ranger Whitey Wilson is not welcome when he rides into the South Texas town of Kingsville. His old compadre, former Ranger Red Regan is sheriff and resents Wilson’s interference. Both men courted Mable Regan, who is now Red’s wife, and jealousies erupt when Whitey comes to town. What does Whitey want? The sheriff’s job? Or his wife? Follow the further adventures...
Revenge of the Texas Ranger
On his final assignment Texas Ranger Whitey Wilson is gunned down from ambush and then accused of murder. His friends Red and Mabel Regan hurry to his side along with their son Buck Regan. But who is Buck’s biological father? Does old Ranger Nacho Ybarra hold the key to Whitey’s survival? Purchase ISBN 978-1-61009-095-7
Escape from the Alamo
Remember the Alamo! The defenders fought bravely, to the last man, giving their lives for freedom and the Republic of Texas. But suppose one of those warriors survived the battle? What could he do? Where could he go? He’s suppose to be dead. Escape from the Alamo is the story of young George Hanks, an ever-grinning Tennessee lad called “Possum” by Davy Crockett. No longer...
I’m D. A. Crossley, Jr., a retired professor at the University of Georgia. My nickname is “Dac.” I’m an emeritus professor of ecology. And a curator emeritus of ticks and mites in the Georgia Museum of Natural History.
And I write fiction.
I grew up in a little city in south Texas, Kingsville. It's the home of the famous King Ranch. Grandma King donated land for the city. It was also the home of railroad shops for the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico railway company. Everybody in town worked for the railroad or the ranch, or did business with them.
After WWII I went to the local college, Texas A&I, and soon migrated to Lubbock, to Texas Tech in the Panhandle. I started as an English major but fell under the influence of a charismatic biology teacher. I never looked back.
My doctorate was in Entomology at the University of Kansas, where I studied the classification of chiggers - redbugs. I think I'm still the U.S. expert. I'm the survivor.
After the University I was hired at Oak Ridge National Lab as an ecologist. Which I surely wasn't. In those days (1950's) almost nobody was. I looked at the effects of radioactive waste on forests and fields. A fortunate turn brought me to the University of Georgia, where I had the privilege of working with some excellent ecologists.
With retirement looking me in the face, I turned to my first career choice - writing. And hit my stride in writing about South Texas in its pre-civilized days. The Old West lived on for decades down near the Border and in the Wild Horse Desert. Family stories and tales I was told as a child form the basis for my Texas novels.
I am a widower with one daughter, Mary Freeman, a stream ecologist of note, and two sons Greg and Steve Blankenship, contractors, green builders.
