Song of the Horseman
About this ebook
In 1941 Jonas Walks-Through-the-Storm, a full-blooded Cherokee horse trainer in rural North Carolina, trains an equestrian unit at Camp Tuckasegee. As he straddles the racist divide while working with white men, a mutual love develops between him and the wife of an officer.
In modern-day Chicago, Jonas’s one-quarter-native grandson, Russell, battles racism of another color. As a teacher at a mostly black school, he burns out in work, marriage, and self-esteem by sliding into alcoholic dissolution. Divorce, dismissal, and dejection quickly follow. Trying to exhume his self-respect, Russell attempts to revive his lineage through a self-imposed “trial by fire” alone in a night forest. This ceremony leads to a journey to retrace his grandfather’s story.
Due to a past scandal, memories of Jonas have been erased in Russell’s family. Yet Russell’s childhood excursions with his grandfather persist. Wandering across Illinois and Wisconsin he interviews the people who knew Jonas and discovers a chain of sobering tragedies.
When the search leads to North Carolina’s mountains, Russell comes full circle to his grandfather’s old homestead and discovers the love and purpose that the old man had bequeathed to him through a kinship with the land . . . and a brotherhood with horses.
Praise for Mark Warren
“Woven with clarity and colorful prose, Warren leads readers on an odyssey . . .” —True West Magazine on Promised Land
“A good book offers the ultimate escape . . . armchair travel to those wild places of the imagination. Warren’s book took me to places I had previously not expected to visit, but I’m really glad I went there. —New Zealand Booklovers on Promised Land
"Warren's novel paints a vivid picture . . . and its colorful similes will put a smile on any genre-fiction lover's face." —Booklist on Born to the Badge
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About the author
Mark Warren owns and runs nationally renowned Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the Southern Appalachians of Dahlonega, GA where he teaches nature classes and primitive skills of the Cherokee. Mark has taught survival courses to thousands of schools and groups all over the country.
In 1980, the National Wildlife Federation honored Mark as Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year. In 1998 he became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999, he won the World Championship Longbow title.
Another passion for Mark has been researching the West for more than 60 years. He has presented as a western historian at top western museums around the country.
His published books include:
* Two Winters in a Tipi (Lyons Press, 2012), a memoir
* Secrets of the Forest (Lyons Press, 2020) a 4-volume series that explores nature and survival skills
* Wyatt Earp: An American Odyssey (Five Star- Gale Cengage), an historical novel trilogy Comprised of:
* Adobe Moon (2017)
* Born to the Badge (2018)
* Promised Land (2019)
* Indigo Heaven (Five Star – Gale Cengage 2021)
* Song of the Horseman (SV Original Publication 2021)
* Last of the Pistoleers (SV Original Publication 2021)
