Writing this book has been a new and interesting experience for me. Having written and self published my memoirs a few month ago, I decided to try my hand at fiction. This story is based on “what might have been” in the history of my family and their settlement in Eastern Kentucky. Not one shred of it is factual, but all of it is possible. The main character is a Bowling from Bradford, England which is where my ancestors came from. James is a name frequent in the Bowling genealogy so I named him James. He is a carpenter and all my Bowling ancestors were builders too. This story was born when I was writing my memoirs and began to wonder what would make anyone back in the 1700's leave their home and come to America, possibly never seeing family again.The adventures he has are fictitious but they are woven through and around real historical events such a battles of the revolutionary war, Indian uprisings, and the first explores through the Cumberland Gap. . The names of villages and forts are the actual names of places as they were called back then. For example, Long Island, Tenn. became the current tri-city of Bristol/Kingsport/johnson City. Manchester, Ky was first called Greenville.

I have written this book with my fellow Christians in mind. It does not contain any graphic sex scenes or vulgar language. It is my belief that a good book can be written without them. Only the reader can determine if this is a “good” book.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

My thanks go to God for his blessings.