Welcome to Sweetbrier Academy. What is Sweetbrier Academy? Well, most will tell you an academy is a school. Hum, true enough but oh, what an unusual school this is. Sweetbrier sits on the edge of the great western plains in the mythical town of Panther's Landing. It does rival some of the best finishing schools back east. The Academy's Madame teaches the girls French, embroidery, history, discussions of great literature and speeches. They dabble in the arts of harp or spinets and understand fine works of art. However, the best things the Academy teaches it's students are found behind closed doors. Madame Opal Benedict is the owner of the Academy a recent resident of New Orleans during the great unpleasantness. When the Beast Butler issues his order number 28 on May 15th, Opal knows it's time to go. Her long time paramour, Howard Stetson, who works for the railroads, finds her a space near the spur line and she moves, lock, stock, and twelve luscious ladies to the Wyoming Territory. This was the idea behind the books. The story began oddly enough with a dream after watching several hours of a Ken Burn's documentary. I thought, hum, WHAT IF...I'm a great what ifer. I grew up watching Gunsmoke. We all knew Miss Kitty ran a saloon and there was an UPSTAIRS, I mean come on the relationship between those two was great. So why not explore the idea of 12 women in a brothel. I mean bad girls need love too. Originally, I wanted three books four girls in each all in short story form. Which is why Having Faith is so short. The other two books grew. Hope grew to nearly 44k and Charity was a healthy 65k. You might notice that my ladies are Faith, Hope, and Charity. When my ladies enter the academy their names change to qualities. All of my girls are what today would have been called high-end call girls. Faith—is given the opportunity to gain a paramour or sponsor for a year or for life by being the prize in a high stakes card game that pits a kindly gentleman, a former Northern Union Officer, and a former Southern soldier against one another. Hope—falls in love with the town's doctor as influenza strikes. When the good people of Panther's Landing find out about the doctors love affair, will they refuse to allow the good Doctor to treat their love ones or make him leave town in disgrace. Charity—an interracial woman of extreme beauty. Her paramour refuses to take her to Washington because of her "tainted blood". Opal Benedict arranges Charity to become the personal secretary of one of Howard Stetson's friends Joshua Tobias Meriwether, a silver baron. Charity finds herself embroiled in a scheme to steal Merewether's wealth. Can she save him? Each of my ladies will also find love beyond the house. So will there be other stories? Probably. I'm working on researching another right now, I'm thinking, the heroine's name will be Tempest. And yes, like her name, she brings her own set of problems to Sweetbrier in order for Miss Benedict and her wisdom to help sort out. You know, what if is so much fun.