David A. Jacinto is the author of the new novel Where Eagles Fly Free, the second in his Courageous series. He served as president of SM Engineering Company and as chief engineer for the State of California.
Q: What inspired you to write this second novel in your Courageous series, and how would you describe the relationship between the first novel and this one?
A: Where Eagles Fly Free is a natural progression from the first book in the series, Out Of The Darkness, where I traced the early lives of both main characters changing laws all across the United Kingdom. Ultimately, they were driven out of England after confronting the powerful aristocracy in their fight against child labor. Their home was burned to the ground.
Book 2 begins on the Brigantine sailing ship to America, the first introduction of the main characters to the American way of life. They arrive in America just after the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. New York City is entering the Gilded Age and the wild West is about to be tamed by the transcontinental railroad.
Tom, the main male character, has all the skills to play a major part in this transformational change to America.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: I spent two and a half years researching the two-book series. These are real events and real individuals. All have fascinating histories of their own.
The 1860s was the most transformational decade in America history. I hadn’t realized the extent of the changes in America’s future that occurred during these years until I dove into it.
It all makes for a fast moving, dramatic, romantic, and
explosive adventure for Thomas, Annie, and the rest of those involved in both
books.
Q: The book features historical figures, including Brigham Young--what did you see as the right balance between history and fiction as you were writing it?
A: I made every effort to stay as close to historical events and people as I could. There is plenty to make the story exciting. But the interpersonal relationships between all the players are mostly fictional. I delved into what they must have felt, feared, and how the events changed their lives.
Although even some of the quotes by Brigham Young, Union Pacific President Dr. Durant, Granville Dodge, Ulysses S Grant, William Sherman, Tom and Annie, and many others are actual quotes.
One of the fascinating characters is Black Eagle, a Shoshone
Indian chief who plays a major role in the second half of the book and
ultimately is killed by the US cavalry in his struggle to retain his heritage 10
years after this story ends.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: It is a wonderful story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but I hope mostly that Americans learn to appreciate their heritage. That we are a nation of immigrants. That our forefathers went through struggles, challenges, and transformational changes in their own lives to lay down the foundation for this great country that we have been left with.
You and I are the beneficiaries of their struggle, and I
hope the readers appreciate the sacrifices that were made by their forefathers
for our benefit.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Right now, I’m trying to get book two out. I have
scheduled events, meetings with museums, and interested historians all over the
country to talk further about our American heritage.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: This has been a labor of love. I never found out about these relatives until my mother was on her deathbed. She was an orphan, abandoned by her father and this was a family she had long since put out of her mind until that final week we spent together.
As I read her stories from a previous book I had written, Christmas Kindling, about my wild youth and other family stories, she told me about her Wyoming family.
When we buried her in this previously unknown small town, Wyoming Cemetery, I found the two largest tombstones in the cemetery were of my great great grandparents and I had no choice but to spend the next two and a half years researching their lives.
These two books are the culmination of those studies, transformational, transcontinental railroad research, and the history of America in the 1860s.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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