Continuing in a series promoting authors in the family, this month's image shows Thomas Beck and a poster of his seven books. Cousins on the family's member-only Facebook page will recognize Tom -- of the family of Raymond and Rebecca (Rugg) Miner of Indian Head, PA -- for his regular posts about his immediate and at times quirky family of yesteryear. Other of his writings are published on his "Thomas Beck's Blog" as well as on this website, headline "Tales of the Raymond and Rebecca (Rugg) Miner Family," Part 1 and Part 2.

His four "Tommy Two Shoes" books feature a fictional Pittsburgh detective, named appropriately enough Tommy "Two Shoes" Minerd. The four books to date describe the adventures when Tommy "steps into a tangled web of extortion and corruption ... [vowing] to find the men responsible for assaulting him, his friends, his family and the woman he loves.” Their titles are From Mountains to More - Entangled - 12 Days of Murder - and Partners for Life. Tom's non-Two Shoes works are entitled Hannah's Messiah - The Walls Came Tumbling Down - and Addie. Check them out on Amazon and Kindle.

Tom attended our Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor Reunion in 2019. In a post headlined "WOW, What a Week End," he wrote this of his first-time experience: "I applaud all who I met and who have contributed so much over the years to keep the family ties strong. I pray that these bonds will expand and draw us closer together.'Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace be with you'. II Corinthians 13:11." In a fascinating twist, his late wife Cindy (Morrison) Beck was a member of the Connellsville (PA) Area High School Class of 1972, of which 38 known student body members are cousins within our clan.

Other cousin-authors highlighted in previous Minerd.com Photos of the Month include Mary "Michele" Miner and her novel Their Moon Was Cardboard (July 2020) - Jack Lewis and his novel Storm Coming: A Novel of the Civil War in Western Virginia (December 2017) - and Jeffrey T. Minerd's fantasy adventure novel, The Sailweaver's Son (November 2016).