Today, Tuesday, March 18th, Courting Morrow Little is available for free international download via e-readers!
When I was writing Morrow’s story I was inspired by this painting by Mitchell Tolle, a Kentucky artist. His gallery is just down the road from my granny in Berea, Kentucky. He captured the look of Morrow’s cabin so perfectly with the exception of the dogtrot down the middle. So I just imagined it there:) It’s hanging in our home now and always reminds me of the years spent writing Morrow’s story.
Readers often ask where the inspiration for a character comes from. Here is the real Red Shirt below. Born along Nebraska’s Platte River in the 1830’s to an Indian mother and white, trapper father, he is something of an enigma. I discovered him 20 years ago while researching the Oglala/Lakota (Sioux) Indians for a Dances With Wolves type novel. He identified with the Lakota and lived free till his people were placed on reservations. He and his wife, Pretty Woman, had several children. This cropped photo shows him accompanying the famous chief, Red Cloud, in a delegation to Washington DC. Later, he joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
I carried him around in my head and heart for a long time before he found his own story. Of course, I had to alter him a bit for Morrow’s world. He had to leave the Sioux and become Shawnee. And Pretty Woman was a thing of the past! I also had to tweak his name to fit into the historical context of the 18th-century. Most importantly, my Red Shirt found freedom in Christ as well as freedom to exist where he pleased. Literary license is a fine thing. Every reader will have a different picture of him in their head and heart, too.
What is life? If is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. ~Crowfoot
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Hope you enjoy Morrow’s story! And thanks for the reviews if you care to leave one!