Rosetta Trujillo migrated from Spanish territory—now New Mexico—about the same time Robert McFarland of County Down, Ireland, came to the Mexican territory of California from Utah with the Mormons.

Leander’s parents were married in the pueblo of Los Angeles in 1848, the year gold was discovered, the same year the United States was fighting a war with Mexico from San Francisco to San Diego. By the time Leander was born in 1849, California was a new US territory. Times were changing. The Pony Express was replaced by new cross-continental stagecoaches. By 1859, when Leander McFarland’s story begins, news traveled faster than ever.

Briefly, 1859-1861, the stagecoach connected America coast to coast before railroads. Native American lands absorbed Spanish settlers and explorers, but after 1848 the United States poured out streams of settlers, cattlemen and prospectors. Land was surveyed and divided up for sale. The Base line—measured from Southern California’s Principal Meridian point on Mt. Bernardino, was part of Thomas Jefferson’s plan to parcel out this land. When he runs away from home with his horse Stage, Leander learns these lessons in the San Bernardino Mountains.

A middle grade adventure novel, Leander & Stage reflects the diversity of early California. Afraid of losing the horse he rescued and raised, a 12 year-old boy runs away to the mountains. Leander is the son of Rosetta Trujillo McFarland, born in New Mexico (formerly Spain), and Mormon immigrant Robert McFarland, born County Down, Ireland. Leander’s best friends are classmate Ernesto Trujillo (son of tracker Lorenzo Trujillo*) and neighbor Li Cheng Tao. On his adventures he meets Doña Merced,* Padre Garza, ice cream maker Victor Beaudry,* Capt. Alf Janssen, and Cahuilla hunter Juan Antonio Segundo.* This 22,000-word middle grade historical fiction contains maps, period photos, surveying facts and vocabulary, plus Spanish and English glossaries. (*Real people)

Ava Capossela grew up on an orange grove in East Highlands, California. Graduating from Stanford University with a BA in English with emphasis on creative writing, she later earned both an MA and PhD from Claremont Graduate University. Ava has taught copywriting at Cal State Fullerton and Chapman University, as well as middle grade English and Latin, and now tutors young readers and writers. 

The fourth generation Californian loves to hike her native mountains, read, write, and travel with family.