Life is moving too fast! A year or two ago I met a new friend, Darren Parry. He came to one of our art festivals and in the process we ended up talking. I'd long been an admirer from afar of Darren and even had purchased and read his book Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History I became interested in the massacre site some 20 years ago when my husband and I stopped by to see the historical marker. I didn't know anything about it, but was dumbstruck that the monument was not to the over 400 Shoshone victims, but rather to the women of Preston who had cared for the soldiers who had killed them! When I started to research the event, I knew I wanted to write about it. But I'm not a historian, so I chose to write a modern day suspense/mystery/romance that could intertwine the history of the massacre through a fictional character Sky who is a direct descendent of Chief Sagwitch. Well, Darren is a direct descendent of Sagwitch. I asked Darren to read my already written and published book Just Shy of Paradise. To be honest, I didn't know Darren very well at the time and I was nervous about his reaction. But I had a feeling a could count on him to let me down easily if he didn't like it. :) Darren started texting me the very night I'd given it to him. "Holy Cow" is one of Darren's favorite exclamations and he'd sent that a long with the praise that if he wasn't so tired, he'd have finished it in one night--as it was it took him two.
Since that time, Darren and his wife Melody (also a good friend) have become awesome neighbors out here in Old Paradise (Avon). We have a lovely group of neighbors which include a bunch of bucking bulls--no lie--goats, sheep, horses, cats, chickens, and an assortment of wild birds in the spring.
Long story mad a little shorter. I got the rights back to my book and have recently revised it which means I made it better! Plus Darren has added an afterward to my story which adds a lot. Many thanks to Darren, but also my good friend Ashley Dymock who has the skills to make this happen from idea to published. Also thanks to Lori Nawyn for the awesome cover.
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| Fishing is an important part of the story |
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| Chief Sagwitch and wife after the massacre |
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| Shoshone Author, storyteller, and historian Darren Parry |
