About the Book
Book: Texas Divided
Author: Sherry Shindelar
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
Release date: March 25, 2025
He
thought he was rescuing her from the Comanche. Now the Civil War
soldier must prove he isn’t the villain she thinks he is.
Driven by the looming expectation of becoming a suffocatingly
proper lady, Morning Fawn is determined to escape the confines of
her uncle’s plantation and return to her adoptive Comanche tribe.
But with each failed attempt, her hopes dwindle, and she wonders if
she’ll ever find her way back home or if that world is forever lost
to her.
Devon Reynolds, disillusioned by the price of affluence and the
horrors of war, leaves his privileged life to join the Texas
Rangers and later the cavalry. In the military service, he finds
purpose . . . until he loses his wife during childbirth while he is
away. In an attempt to redeem himself, he takes one last fateful
mission to rescue Morning Fawn from the Comanche. But the results
force him to question the righteousness of his actions and the
cause he serves.
When Devon returns to Texas as a Yankee spy, his path crosses with
Morning Fawn once more. Determined to save her from the prison of
her uncle’s house and to recover Texas from the Confederacy, Devon
is drawn to her fierce spirit and unwavering resolve. But can two
wounded souls, each fighting their own battles, find solace and
love amidst the chaos of war?
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Originally
from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers
into the past. She is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old
West. When she is not busy writing, she is an English professor
working to pass on her love of writing to her students. Sherry is
an award-winning writer: 2023 Genesis finalist, Maggie finalist,
and Crown finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her
husband of thirty-eight years. She has three grown children and
three grandchildren.
More from Sherry
The Cotton Road
I loved the opportunity to tie the Texas frontier and the Civil War together in Texas Divided, the second book in my Lone Star Redemption series.
I have been an avid student of the Civil War for a couple decades. However, until I started researching for Texas Divided, I had no clue that the Yankees ever invaded Texas. But they did in November 1863. Why? It was because of cotton. By 1863, the Federal blockade of the Confederate coastline was fairly secure, and Texas became the golden gateway for funding the Confederacy.
Cotton from Arkansas, western Louisiana, and east Texas traveled the Cotton Road. This dusty trail ran from the railroad terminus in Alleyton, TX (about seventy miles west of Houston) by way of King’s Ranch near Corpus Christi to Brownsville and across the Rio Grande to Matamoros, Mexico, the largest cotton market in the world during the war. In regards to commercial activity, it rivaled pre-war New Orleans or Baltimore.
A young teamster wrote that from the watchtower at King’s Ranch, the main stop on the way to Matamoros, he could see hundreds of wagons on the road at one time, a long train of dust rising up as they traveled toward Brownsville and the Rio Grande.
At some points the trail was almost a mile wide due to traffic, and more than one hundred miles of it was desert with no water. Puffs of cotton clung to the sagebrush and cacti along the way and lingered for years after the war.
When the cotton reached Matamoros, it was loaded onto steamboats and/or wagons owned by Mexicans and transported to the mouth of the Rio Grande at the Gulf of Mexico. International ships from Britain, France, and other countries hovered there, sometimes hundreds at a time, waiting to fill their hulls with cotton. And the Yankees couldn’t stop them. If a Federal ship fired on a British, French, Mexican, or ship of another nationality, it could have been considered an act of war.
By 1863, cotton, which had sold for .10 cents a pound in 1860, now sold for as much as $1.89 a pound, and one bale averaged 450 – 500 pounds. The money made on the sale of cotton was the financial bloodline of the Confederacy. For example, in just one week in August, twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder arrived in Brownsville, purchased with proceeds from the sale of cotton.
That’s why the Federal Army invaded Brownsville in early November 1863. Their mission was to stop or at least seriously hinder the cotton trade. Doing so could save lives on the battlefield and perhaps bring an earlier end to the war.
The Yankees reached the city without any resistance. However, they found a meager one hundred and fifty bales on the Texas side of the river and could only gaze at the more than ten thousand bales stacked along the Mexican wharves. The Rebs had moved or destroyed everything of value.
The invasion lasted for several months and forced the Confederates to improvise and find new trails for the cotton shipments, hauling the loads via San Antonio to Eagle Pass and Laredo. Unfortunately, the Yankees only netted a hundred or so bales here and there.
Cotton continued to reign until the war efforts in the East bled the Confederacy dry. But for those few months at the end of 1863, hopes were high, especially amongst the two regiments of Texas cavalry fighting for the Union, Texans who abhorred the Confederacy and who had left Texas to avoid being forced into the Reb army. These men returned with the Federal troops in November 1863 to restore Texas to the Union and wreak havoc on the Cotton Road.
Lieutenant Devon Reynolds is one of these Texans, loyal to the Union, and determined to do his part to rescue Texas from the grip of the Confederacy. Except in his case, he trades his Yankee uniform for that of a Confederate and dons an eye patch, operating as a spy and saboteur. But his life becomes complicated and his mission uncertain when he runs into Morning Fawn, the woman he kidnapped from the Comanche eighteen months before. As far as she’s concerned, he ruined her life by sentencing her to her uncle’s plantation. Can he complete the mission and right the wrong? Texas Divided is a story of redemption, faithfulness, and perseverance. The characters come to an end of themselves and discover that God can make a way where there was no way.
Blog Stops
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 20
Texas Book-aholic, May 21
Blossoms and Blessings, May 22 (Author Interview)
Pause for Tales, May 22
Locks, Hooks and Books, May 23
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, May 24
Artistic Nobody, May 25 (Author Interview)
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, May 26
lakesidelivingsite, May 27
Books You Can Feel Good About, May 28
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, May 29 (Author Interview)
For Him and My Family, May 30
Holly’s Book Corner, May 31
Stories By Gina, June 1 (Author Interview)
Book Butterfly in Dreamland, June 1
Bizwings Book Blog, June 2
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Sherry is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54224
Interview
What things molded your desire to write a novel?
I have been in love with stories since I was a child. I’d swing for hours on my swing set, pumping my legs back and forth, dreaming up stories in my head. Even then, I had a flair for romance, creating new love interests and episodes for Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.
My favorite possession at age nine was a set of author playing cards (a matching game with photos of famous authors). I wanted to be an author when I grew up and bring stories to life on the written page, stories that would impact my readers.
A visit to a historic home in the Shenandoah Valley, when my husband and I were newly married, spurred my love for history and planted the seed for a story. A few years later, I wrote the novel, then buried it in a box in my closet when it didn’t get published right away. I returned to college to earn a degree in creative writing and eventually a PhD in literature, wondering if I’d ever reconnect with the stories in my head, the ones buried deep in my heart.
Then, in the summer of 2019, I read a Laura
Frantz novel, my first Christian historical romance. I loved it,
and I read a second one. Through Laura’s writing, the Lord opened
my heart to fall in love with writing all over again. I knew I
wanted to write Christian historical Romance novels. Writing has
been my daily passion ever since.
If you could give advice to a newbie writer, what would it be?
Don’t give up. Writing is a marathon.
Sometimes you have no clue how far away the finish line is. You
have to pace yourself and keep running. You may trip, you may fall
to your knees, but get up and keep going. Turn your race over to
the Lord, and trust Him to see you through to the finish. Rejection
is part of the career. Rejection is a chance to learn, and grow,
and build your perseverance. Write, write, write, and join
organizations like ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers, etc.).
They offer loads of support. Writing can be a lonely business. I’ve
been part of a ACFW critique group for the last five years, and
they played a significant role in helping me to eventually get
published. Finally, attend conferences and study
the craft.
Do you have a favorite character you’ve created? Tell us about them.
Eyes-Like-Sky, the heroine of Texas Forsaken. At the beginning of the novel, she loses everything, except for her baby girl. But she isn’t defeated. She’s determined to do whatever it takes in order to protect and provide for her daughter in a hostile society far from the home she’d come to know with the Comanche. She learns that God isn’t as far away as the stars, but as near as her heart, and she learns to forgive and open her heart to second chances.
Do your books revolve around certain themes?
Redemption, second chances, fighting for and sacrificing for the one you love
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on the third book of my Lone Star Redemption series, Texas Reclaimed. The story takes place on the Texas Frontier in 1866. After the Civil War, Ben McKenzie, a Yankee soldier with soul-deep scars, travels to Texas to make good on a promise he made to his friend who died at his side in Andersonville.
After years of war and a father who wasn’t much count, Cora Scott has lost everything, except for her family’s abandoned ranch and her little brother who is half Comanche. She is determined to hold onto her ranch at all costs unless it means falling for the man whose wounds might be deeper than she can heal.
One or more characters from Texas Forsaken and Texas Divided will show up in Texas ReclaimedJ
