About Rhona

I’m a retired swamp and farmland appraiser who had a thirty-five-year career in Mid-South agricultural real estate. During my appraisal career I had the opportunity to value 75,000 acre Delta plantations and 300,000 acre coastal marshes; I was blessed to work with dozens of professionals in the agricultural community and hundreds more “regular folks” who tilled the cropland, herded the cattle, or tended to the forests and swamps. It was truly a dream job for a woman who grew up in a tiny community in the foothills of the Ozarks. 

My real mission in life took hold in 1991, when I founded The Shepherd’s Ranch ministry for at-risk children in Arkansas. I ran that program for several years while I continued my full-time appraisal business. God provided the ministry with donors and volunteers who helped me shepherd hundreds of kids through years of educational enrichment, community service, and encouragement. I continued both my business and the children’s program until 1999, when a near-fatal illness forced me to merge the children’s ministry with another nonprofit. Even now, several of my Shepherd’s Ranch “children” are significant parts of my life. 

With the exception of a three-year stint as a senatorial aide in Washington, DC right after college, and three years in West Virginia during my husband’s FBI career, I have always called Arkansas home. I have a BA and master’s degree from the University of Arkansas, and my husband and I are both devoted Razorback fans. I’m thrilled that the U of A is Win Tyler’s alma mater as well!

We’ve been blessed to have visited Yellowstone National Park several times in the past few years. The first trip to the park was in 2006, when my husband—Bill Temple—and I took my mother and stepfather there. It had always been one of my mother’s dreams to see Yellowstone, although she’d rarely had the chance to travel. The gift of that trip, even though she was in a wheelchair, was one of the best things I ever did in my life. Bill and I were fascinated with the park, and we’ve enjoyed showing it off to other family and friends on subsequent trips—it truly is an American treasure. All of the photographs on the website and on the book’s jacket were taken in the park by him or me. Visit my Facebook page and Instagram account to see more of our photographs. 

A Noble Calling draws on my love of the land and my deep admiration for the men and women in our law enforcement community who truly share a noble calling. Those park rangers, FBI agents, and other first responders are my heroes. My husband is a retired Special Agent in Charge and Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI; he helped immeasurably with researching the book. He also labored through numerous draft scenes, corrected dozens of misspelled words, and offered endless encouragement. He liked the book from the beginning—every writer needs a cheerleader like Bill! 

I hope you enjoy my first novel. It isn’t the typical crime thriller. It takes the time to develop the characters, both the “good guys” and the “bad guys.”  As Win’s father told him once, “The only difference between the good guys and the bad guys is often just some poor judgment along the way.” The book’s pace also allows the characters the time to have misgivings, make mistakes, and move forward.  It isn’t a book to be read in one sitting. Instead, it’s intended to draw you into Win Tyler’s world as he works his way through guilt, insecurity, and danger toward confidence, assurance, and redemption. That journey can rarely be made in a quick read.  

If you want to know more about Rhona and her process of writing the FBI Yellowstone Adventure series, check out her blog post “Creating a Novel: Questions and Answers about My Journey.”