It’s October of 1888, and Clarence Duval’s life has hit rock bottom.

Clarence is twelve years old, homeless, broke, an orphan, and, as of a couple hours ago, an unemployed actor. Stranded in Omaha, Nebraska with biting winter weather on the way, he’s contemplating his bleak future when the most unusual of opportunities arrives.

Out of the blue, Clarence gets a chance to do something any boy dreams of: travel the world. His companions, however, can be a problem. Several of them like to get drunk. Constantly. They become experts at getting Clarence into trouble. One is a businessman who devises a never-ending set of schemes to line his pockets. Others have more serious plans, like the Irish nationalist who wants to free the Emerald Isle from British rule. Even John Ward, outwardly the all-American boy, has skeletons in his closet.

The worst, however, are the companions who simply want to make Clarence miserable. You see, Clarence is an African American, and he’s fallen in with several hardcore racists who never wanted his company in the first place.

This leaves Clarence with a multitude of dilemmas. Not only must he maintain his dignity and win the respect of his companions, he must do so while surviving adventures in the warrens underneath San Francisco’s Chinatown, amongst the royalty of Hawaii, and after becoming a spy for one faction of his fellow travelers.

Share Clarence’s life as a social outcast in the cold, unforgiving world of the Gilded Age in book 1 of the Clarence Duval series, My Australian Adventure.