Sallie Culbreth

Transmission of Shadows Sallie Culbreth

Beleaguered Frances has a hard ass career Army Colonel father with no tolerance for a willful teenage daughter, but that's exactly what he has. To endure the minefields of family conflict, her evolving sexuality, the chaotic 1960s, and constant upheavals from military moves, Frances gets creative. With each move, she changes her name, her persona, and her style, perpetually reinventing herself to try to make sense of where she fits in. After her beloved Aunt Mary passes away, the young woman's sensitivity to the spirit world soon recognizes that Mary is still very much present. She is channeling herself through a 1939 Lafayette radio to give guidance through the turbulence of too many moves, too many new schools, and too much family conflict. While Frances has always been aware of ghosts and even seen a few from time to time, a shadow person begins to visit Frances with increasing frequency. When she discovers a hidden letter, a surreptitious truth is revealed, forcing her shame-filled mother to unearth a long-buried secret. Directed to a haunted railroad track, she discovers the one thing that has always eluded her. Home.