Q&A with Tim Piper

 

 

 

Tim Piper is the author of the new novel The Yellowstone Campaign, the second in his Jubilee Walker series. He retired from an IT career, and he lives in Bloomington, Illinois.

 

Q: This is the second book in your Jubilee Walker series--do you think he’s changed from one book to the next?

 

A: As The Yellowstone Campaign opens, Jubil is still the earnest, restless, adventure-lover we came to know in The Powell Expeditions, but he has matured considerably.

 

Now approaching his 21st birthday, the past three years with Powell have seen him mature from a boy into a young man. He has not only found the adventure he was seeking, but a solid career in the outfitting business. He has gone from being orphaned to having a strong surrogate family, and his childhood friendship with Nelly has developed into an engagement to be married.

 

He has survived severe hardship on his adventures, which has taught him about leadership under stress and what is really important in life. He begins The Yellowstone Campaign enthusiastic and ambitious for the future.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of The Yellowstone Campaign?

 

A: When I finished The Powell Expeditions it seemed there was plenty of opportunity for Jubil to continue his adventures. I researched events happening at that time and found the expeditions that led to the creation of America’s first national park. That seemed like something that Jubil would have been involved with, and the Jubilee Walker series was born.

 

I developed a plot for my fictional protagonist in which he finds his way into that series of events, and wrote The Yellowstone Campaign, book two in the series.

Q: How did you research this book, and was your research process similar to that of the first book in the series?

 

A: For The Powell Expeditions, I was fortunate to have access to the John Wesley Powell Special Collection at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Ames Library, and the added benefit of the archive librarian directing me to other resources. For The Yellowstone Campaign I had no such guidance.

 

My research was done by reading history books and other historical accounts, and some firsthand experience from visits to the area. Beyond researching the events and characters involved in the expeditions and the political process, this book also required gathering insights into the remarkable sights, sounds, and smells of this unique region.

 

I was able to glean some help with that from books, but there is no real substitute for firsthand experience. The amenities in the park are much improved from its earliest days, but the geological wonders are largely unchanged.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: As forces maneuver to either support the preservation of this natural wonder or demand the right to exploit its resources for monetary gain, it is interesting to watch America’s values at work during this period of westward expansion. However flawed and incomplete the effort to preserve the Yellowstone area may have been, the nation showed that its heart was in the right place.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Book three in the Jubilee Walker series, The Northern Pacific Railroad, will be published Jan. 15, 2025. I’m currently working on book four, which will be published in July 2025.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think there will be one more book in the series. We’ll see.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Tim Piper.