Rebecca Dawson McDonald’s three-book collection, When Dreams Take Flight, My Grandmother’s Treasures, and Dhaktan: Nothing Is Impossible, explores family heritage, resilience, hidden histories, and the connections that shape people across generations. Drawing from her background as an educator and historian, McDonald blends mystery, family storytelling, historical themes, and human drama. Across the three works, readers encounter stories involving family secrets, personal struggles, belonging, betrayal, and the enduring power of memories and inherited stories.
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PR Type: Standard Plan - General
Washington, MO - Aug 19th, 2026: What can the stories preserved within families, communities and forgotten places teach about who people become? That question connects three books by author, educator and historian Rebecca Dawson McDonald: When Dreams Take Flight, My Grandmother’s Treasures and Dhaktan: Nothing Is Impossible.
The author’s writing reflects a lifelong interest in history, family heritage and the human connections carried from one generation to another. Raised on a small farm in central Missouri without electricity or indoor plumbing, she developed an early appreciation for resilience, community and the stories that give ordinary lives meaning. Her more than two decades as an educator teaching American history, world history and English further shaped her interest in people and the forces that influence their lives.
In When Dreams Take Flight, Peter Mackenzie is a struggling guitar player returning from Los Angeles toward his family farm after abandoning his hopes of entering the music business. A chance stop in Jefferson City places him in the path of Kathy Lynwood and a chain of events involving murder, drugs and a ghost seeking revenge. The novel considers what can happen when a person who has surrendered one future suddenly becomes entangled in another.
My Grandmother’s Treasures turns family history into the foundation of a multigenerational story. Fourteen-year-old Tessa learns about her family through the objects in her grandmother Cassie McAllister’s jewelry box, each carrying a story from another time or place. At the same time, tensions between Cassie and Tessa’s mother, Vivian Stewart, force questions about what families conceal, remember and pass forward.
In Dhaktan: Nothing Is Impossible, Rebecca moves into a secluded world hidden within the Colorado Rockies, where an isolated community has maintained its own traditions and secrets for centuries. When Bailar D’Aguila encounters injured hiker Tamara McPherson, her arrival threatens the community’s carefully protected order. Their struggle against suspicion, betrayal and violence raises questions about trust, belonging and the cost of exposing hidden truths.
Together, the three books reflect Rebecca’s longstanding interest in the stories carried by individuals and families. Her body of work, which includes eight completed books, short stories and published articles, continues her commitment to preserving the art of storytelling and examining the lessons found in everyday lives.
All books by Rebecca McDonald are now available in print and digital formats at leading online bookstores.