by Shirl Henke
I thought Samuel Shelby was hero material when I first created him as the heroine’s idealistic younger brother in White Apache’s Woman. Reader mail confirmed my opinion, so I gave him his own story. I knew he would follow in Elise’s footsteps and become a spy. Conveniently, the War of 1812 rolled around just when I needed it. Samuel certainly had his work cut out for him: If the various tribes up and down the Mississippi river basin had united against the Americans, and if Pakenham and Cochrane had planned their invasion of New Orleans with greater care, the Treaty of Ghent might well have opened a British corridor stretching from Canada to the Gulf, ending our westward expansion.
The real life men and women who prevented this from happening are every bit as fascinating as those any writer could imagine. The Madisons and James Monroe are portrayed much as history records them, as are the mysterious and romantic Baratarians. No book set during this era could overlook the Battle of New Orleans and its general. Andrew Jackson can be hero or villain, depending on whose accounts you choose to use or whose shoes you stand in. Jackson was an inspired backwoods militia leader and stump politician—a real man of the people—providing, of course, your people did not happen to be Native Americans. In any interpretation he still remains larger than life.
Since its rescue from obscurity by revisionist historians, the War of 1812 has become a popular subject. Dolley Madison: Her Life and Times by Elswyth Thane is a rich and sensitive account of her remarkable life. The Expansionists of 1812 by Julius W. Pratt, The United States and the Disruption of the Spanish Empire by Charles C. Griffin and The Scorching of Washington by Alan Lloyd provided excellent background material. The Battle of New Orleans by Zachary F. Smith gives a detailed account of the American triumph. Even better is the wry and insightful commentary of John R. Elting in Amateurs, to Arms!, which exposes not only the government’s bungling of the war effort, but also Jackson’s rather dilatory performance enroute to accidental glory. The Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans by Jane Lucas De Grummond gives excellent evidence supporting the Lafittes’ contributions.
After writing the first two books in the Santa Fe Trilogy, Night Wind’s Woman and White Apache’s Woman, I found it difficult to bring the saga to a conclusion in Deep as the Rivers. I hope I have provided the Quinns and the Shelbys all the happy endings they deserve. If you would like to ask questions or make comments about my writing, I promise to reply to your emails, and if you are interested in other of my generationally related sagas, please visit my website: www.shirlhenke.com.
About the Author
SHIRL HENKE lives in St. Louis, where she enjoys gardening in her yard and greenhouse, cooking holiday dinners for her family and listening to jazz. In addition to helping brainstorm and research her books, her husband Jim is “lion tamer” for their two wild young tomcats, Pewter and Sooty, geniuses at pillage and destruction.
Shirl has been a RITA finalist twice, and has won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewer’s Choice Awards from Romantic Times
“I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ballpoint pen—it’s hard to get good quills these days,” she says. Dragged into the twenty-first century by her son Matt, a telecommunication specialist, Shirl now uses two of those “devil machines.” Another troglodyte bites the dust. Please visit her at www.shirlhenke.com.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Author’s Note
About the Author