Freedom is a place in your soul

I've written several books -I just had a new one come out last month, a mystery called Cross Road Blues. One of my proudest achievements, though, was a book that was released 10 years ago -Bound for the Promise-Land. It won a Spur Award for best original paperback novel from Western Writers of America, and was also a finalist in the "first novel" category (losing out to Stephen Harrigan's great novel Gates of the Alamo.) Doris Meredith, a reviewer for the Amarillo Globe-News and Roundup (official magazine of the WWA) called it a classic, a fact I have been known to point out from time to time (as any author would.)

This particular book meant a lot more to me, though, than awards or compliments. While there is no shortage of action in it, the novel is an examination of many of the things that are most important to me in life: freedom, and justice, and redemption. In many ways it is the polar opposite of another novel I'm proud of, Good Rebel Soil: The Champ Ferguson Story. Bound is about a black Union soldier and his story of redemption, and search for meaning, while the other book is about a white Confederate guerrilla and his story of damnation, and descent into fury. I have always regretted that Bound for the Promise-Land was in print for only a short time, and never really reached an audience.

That has changed now, and I had to take the opportunity to publicize that fact. Bound for the Promise-Land has been re-released, in both paper and ebook format, by Western Trail Blazer (Good Rebel Soil will follow in a few months.) I'd like to invite you to read it if you haven't; it's one of the accomplishments in this life I'm proudest of, and I'd like as many people as possible to check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Promise-Land-Troy-D-Smith/dp/1461042690/ref=tmm_pap_title_0