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?
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Author Interview
1. What is your favorite part about writing?
The best part is seeing readers get excited about something I’ve written, seeing it impact and
capture their hearts.
2. What is your least favorite part about writing?
The hardest part was the pre-contract waiting. That time period is years or even decades for
most writers. You pour your heart into a story, investing thousands of hours, and occasional
tears, and then you have to work up the courage to send a proposal to an editor or an agent.
Most authors, not all, face many rejections and no’s before they hear the YES. The no’s may
have nothing to do with the quality of your writing. It might be that the editor had just signed a
book from that time period, or that the market is flooded with that trope right now, or it could be
that your book is too risky for the current time (That’s what happened to me. I pitched a Civil
War story to agents and editors in 2020 and 2021 during all of the turmoil of those years. They
said they loved my writing, but I should write about something other than the Civil War. So I
wrote a Texas frontier captive story, and then, I was told that was too risky. Thankfully, I found a
published who realized that a number of readers enjoy stories of the Texas frontier, captives,
and/or the Civil War). But through all of the no’s on my way to the final YES, I worked to improve
my craft, and looking back, I can see that the Lord opened up the doors of publication at just the
right moment in my life.
3. When did you become a writer?
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, the Lord opened my heart to fall in love with writing all over again.
And it has been my daily passion ever since. I pulled out the box and unburied the past. My new
writing life was born.
4. Where do you get your ideas for your books?
I love to get my ideas from real history. The first book I ever wrote (which I have yet to publish)
was inspired by my visit to an 18 th century home which stood within a couple miles of a major
Civil War battle. The owner of the home told me that a brother and sister had lived there during
the war. That nugget of history inspired a 150,000 word book (That’s why I haven’t published it
yet. It needs to be trimmed down). My first published book, Texas Forsaken, was inspired by a
true life 19 th century-captive story that had haunted my heart for over twenty years. I took the
moment of crisis from that story and wove a different trajectory with a character of my own
creation, Eyes-Like-Sky. Texas Divided is the story of Eyes-Like-Sky’s sister, Morning Fawn set
in the midst of real historical events in 1863 East Texas. History is the soil of my imagination.
5. What is your work schedule/routine when you write?
I do something with writing seven days a week. Some evenings, it might only be critiquing or
researching, but writing is an everyday part of my life. Since I work full-time as a college English
professor, I do most of my writing Friday through Sunday. When the semester ends, and my
grading is finished for the year in May, I pour myself into my writing full-time for the summer. As
a resident of northern Minnesota, I thoroughly appreciate every moment of sunshine and
summer I can absorb. I spend time outside everyday writing, either in my backyard or a nearby
park by a lake. I'm also working on doing more with dictation so that when an idea strikes, I can
get it recorded even if I don't have access to my computer.
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
Kate Cunningham is facing the opportunity of a lifetime. As a zoo photographer, she’s spent years photographing animals in carefully controlled environments, but now National Geographic has dangled an irresistible prize: If Kate can snag a unique photo of a legendary bear in Grand Teton National Park, they just might publish it. It’s the kind of challenge Kate has been waiting for, and she’s eager to prove herself in the wild.
Suzanne Woods Fisher is a Christy finalist, a Carol and Selah winner, a two-time ECPA Book of the Year finalist, and Publishers Weekly and ECPA bestselling author of more than forty books. Her genres include contemporary and historical romances, Amish romance, and women’s fiction. She and her husband live in a small town in California. Most friends act a little nervous around Suzanne because they usually wind up in one of her novels. She has four grown children and enough grandchildren to keep her young.
When the devil wears Blue and Gray,
Kendy Pearson
