The Story Behind The Shimmering

Every book has a beginning, and for The Shimmering, that beginning wasn't at a keyboard or a desk. It started on a quiet trail along the Natchez Trace.

When my daughters were growing up, my wife and I homeschooled them. History was one of our favorite subjects, and instead of simply reading about it in textbooks, we wanted to experience it. We spent countless days exploring the Natchez Trace, walking the same paths once traveled by pioneers, traders, soldiers, and settlers.

One place captured my imagination more than any other—the Gordon House.

I became fascinated by the story of Captain John Gordon and his remarkable wife, Dolly. While John served under Andrew Jackson in military campaigns across the South, Dolly managed the family farm, operated a trading post, and ran the ferry across the Duck River. It was an incredible story of determination and perseverance.

In those days, visitors could follow a half-mile trail from the Gordon House down to the river where the ferry once crossed. National Park Service signs and interpretive plaques lined the path, telling the stories of the people who had lived and worked there more than two centuries ago. Those signs have since disappeared, but I can still remember standing there, reading about their lives.

As I walked those trails, I found myself asking a simple question:

What would it be like to go back in time and meet these people?

That single question planted a seed.

For the next twelve years, the idea stayed with me. I thought about it while delivering mail on my daily route. Every return trip to the Natchez Trace gave me another opportunity to imagine the pioneers who had once called it home. The Gordon family became familiar friends in my imagination, as did the people of She Boss Stand and the infamous Priscilla Griner of Grinder's Stand, where Meriwether Lewis met his mysterious end.

Like so many people I've met over the years, I always said, "Someday, I'm going to write a book."

Then life reminded me that "someday" isn't guaranteed.

My father passed away in July of 2017. His death changed my perspective. I realized that if I was ever going to tell this story, I needed to stop talking about it and start writing.

The challenge was that I had never successfully completed a novel. I'd started stories before, but I'd always lost interest before reaching the finish line.

This time was different.

Before I began writing, I made one final trip to the Gordon House. During that visit, I was reminded that the house had been built in 1817–1818.

Suddenly everything clicked.

If my main character traveled exactly 200 years into the past—from 2017 to 1817—he would arrive just as the Gordon House was being built. It was the perfect setting for the story I had imagined for more than a decade.

Not long afterward, my wife and I vacationed in Panama City Beach.

While she relaxed on the beach, I spent most of my days in our hotel room writing.

Page after page, the Natchez Trace came alive.

Daniel Lane stepped into 1817. The Gordon family welcomed him into their world. She Boss Stand bustled with travelers. Grinder's Stand whispered its mysteries. The people I'd spent years reading about became living, breathing characters on the page.

I wasn't writing history anymore.

I was living it alongside them.

The journey wasn't a quick one. I was still working full-time for the Postal Service, so writing had to fit into evenings, weekends, and any spare moments I could find. It took nearly a year to finish the manuscript.

Then came another year of editing.

Through every step of the process, my biggest supporters were my wife, my mother, and our two daughters. Their encouragement kept me moving forward whenever the road seemed long.

Finally, in the summer of 2019, The Shimmering was published.

Holding that finished book in my hands was one of the most rewarding moments of my life. Not simply because I had published a novel, but because I had kept a promise to myself.

More importantly, I discovered something unexpected.

I wasn't finished.

Writing had become a part of who I was.

That first novel opened the door to many more adventures, including my western Ambush at Horse Creek, the four-book Red Raven pirate saga, and now The Legend of Billy Bones. But it all began with a walk along the Natchez Trace and a simple question:

What if you could step back in time?

Every time I return to the Gordon House, I still feel the same sense of wonder that inspired me all those years ago. The buildings, the trails, and the stories continue to remind me why I wrote The Shimmering in the first place.

Sometimes, all it takes is one place, one question, and the courage to finally begin.