Middle America  is the background of J. Michael O'Connor's Ghosts of My Mind, a mind-blowing perspective of the dark side of small town America. O'Connor's Novel shows the guts-and-spit reality, which contradicts Americas picturesque postcard with quite tree-lined street, clean lawns, and little churches in the town square. The book's protagonist, James Patrick O'Francis increasingly unhappy in the crime-infested city, moves his family to a rural area deep in the Appalachian Mountains where his sons could enjoy the clean air, closeness, and security of a small town.

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What O'Francis does not expect to encounter is the callousness and malice that a corrupt political system offers an outsider. His belief in honor and integrity are soon challenged in ways he could never imagine.

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Over the course of many years, he faces discrimination, prejudice, character assassination, and betrayal, bringing extreme hardships to himself and his family. His devotion to his students, the joy, warmth and laughter in which he shares with them on a daily basis, is overshadowed by the ever-increasing stress and pressure applied by his administrations. The entire system follow suit, and dissembling, jealous colleagues double the pressure.

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O'Francis struggles to keep his elite military training in check, as the ghosts of his past grow ever closer and nearly overtaking his life and destroying himself and his family.

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