KAIOS Books, ISBN 0-9714287-2-7
September 2002,
268 pages, trade paper
Retail price $16.95 U.S.
Online price $14.00 + S&H
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In 1868, very few settlers stopped in southern Kansas. The big cattle drives, so often associated with West, were only a year old. As yet there were no six shooters, no cowboy boots, no barbed wire. But mysticism and divination the were widely accepted.
Meet Ellen Hargrove who, recently widowed, has returned home to her family's trading post along the Chisholm Trail. Ellen has always been troubled by psychic occurrences; but now she is challenged by knowledge about murders in her own community. How can she convince Marshal Stamford that what she "sees" is true? Or maybe it isn't. Perhaps Reed Carter, the gambler who is courting her, is more involved in the area cattle rustlings than she thinks.
FURY IN SUMNER COUNTY gives authentic details of pioneering and cattle drives and the events are punctuated by turbulent Kansas weather. The true story, however, lies in its mystery, where Ellen not only aids in the criminal capture, but finally comes to terms with her own unique talents.
from the back cover
"The gifted K Follis Cheatham loves to take the road less traveled. In this unique and absorbing novel, a young woman on the Kansas frontier, who possesses clairvoyant gifts, foresees dark events that swarm over her village like a tornado, endangering the whole community. Ms. Cheatham writes authentically of pioneer life and hardship, of homes made of sod and canvas, of men who are laws unto themselves there at the farthest rim of civilization. She writes richly and honestly, offering her lucky readers a memorable adventure. I truly enjoyed this novel."
-- Richard S. Wheeler
winner of the Owen Wister Award
for lifetime achievement in western literature.
Karyn's comment:
When I learned about the acute interest in paranormal occurences that thrived in the mid-19th century, the ideas for KANSAS DREAMER began. I read between the lines and interpolate the way my "subject" may have viewed things. My fiction characters usually endure situations and learn things that a lot of people may not have considered important.
I also wanted to tell about cattle drives and the interesting politics occuring in Kansas after the Civil War. For me, writing historical fiction is like doing a jigsaw puzzle where you work to get all the pieces—the history, the story, the characters—shaped into a coherent whole.