In a time of tremendous American growth, transformation and exploration, they led the wayliterally. Now, a new book from Outskirts Press author Richard Puz brings readers along for the ride as a group of pioneers carve out new lives for themselves on the 1830s American prairie, revealing in the process the roots of a nation's greatnessand its darkest shame.
"The Ohioans," now available through the author's Web site at http://www.outskirtspress.com/richardpuz, is the first entry in the Six Bulls series. It weaves a warmhearted story with historical events for an engrossing tale that provides an up-close look at the hopes, struggles, prejudices and triumphs of a generation.
The novel follows the families of Captain Renke Vogel and Andres Sommer as they travel along the fast-moving rivers from Ohio to Missouri seeking a better life. Both main characters illustrate the diverse reasons that compelled thousands of similar treks west: Just returned from the Black Hawk War, Vogel loves raising horses but finds farming repetitive and better left to his sons. He yearns for new adventures on the American frontier. Fellow farmer Sommer is frugal and thoughtful, but contracts the pioneer bug from stories about the frontier and the prospect of ample farmland.
Whetting their appetites for adventure is Big Jen, the sidekick of Daniel Boone. He spent seventeen years living with the Osage Indians in southwest Missouri, and spins yarns of the Six Bulls country, with its prairie grass as high as a horse's eye, abundant game, and sweet, flowing waters.
On log rafts that take the families from Ohio to the Missouri frontier, their courageous journey will bring them face-to-face with the new-fangled steamboats and the awe-inspiring Ohio and Mississippi Riversas well as tragedy and the bravery that gets them through it.
"The people who founded frontier communities like Seneca, Missouri and Millersburg, Ohio were special in my view," Puz says. "They risked everything to follow a dream and poured their lives and energies into creating a new life and a new nation. They are my heroes, and their travels are truly journeys of courage."
In a rich prose that deftly evokes the time period and characters' individual social and geographic backgrounds, Puz also explores the complex emotions that swirl around American and Indian relations. Set against the backdrop of President Andrew Jackson's 1830 Indian Removal Act, the novel examines the clash of cultures through Captain Vogel's struggle to reconcile Indian atrocities he witnessed as a boy with the brave actions of an Indian boy who saves his life. What emerges sheds light on a period that transformed America through these heroes' self-reliance and faith.
"The Ohioans" is now available through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and the online bookstore of Outskirts Press, at outskirtspress.com/store.php.
About the Author:
Richard Puz has been writing non-fiction books for more than a decade. "The Ohioans" is the culmination of extensive travel and research into the places that American pioneers encountered on their westward journeys. This is the first in a series of Six Bulls novels with work progressing quickly on the follow-up, "The Carolinians."
ISBN: 978-1-4327-2020-9
Format: 6.14 x 9.21 paperback/6.14 x 9.21 hardback w/ jacket Pages: 296
SRP: US$ 18.95/$ 26.95 CAN$ 19.95/27.95 Genre: Fiction - Historical
Author Contact: Visit him on the Web at http://www.outskirtspress.com/richardpuz or http://www.richardpuz.com
Contact:
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 S. Parker Rd - 515
Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com
1-888-OP-BOOKS
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