Kindred Spirits With his feet on the American continent in Colonial Virginia during the early 1700's, William Neal, an Irish immigrant, struggles to establish himself in a society moving toward its destiny as a new nation. An aspiring farmer, settling in the Shenandoah Valley where neighbors are miles apart, William loses his wife in childbirth, and faces life alone. Exploring the wilderness around him, he becomes involved in fur trading with the Indian tribes across the mountains and along the Ohio River. Forming a partnership with a trading company based on the Potomac River, he develops a close relationship with a white family there. Among the Indians, Will is befriended by a chieftain of the Fox tribe and falls in love with a talented, intelligent and beautiful native woman. Unscrupulous and competing English traders create chaos, resulting in violence between the tribes of the Ohio Valley and the Virginians, which threatens open warfare. Virginia's governor calls upon the experience and proven talents of William and assigns him the task of convincing the tribal governments to send delegates to a peace conference in Williamsburg. Negotiating with the tribes, while in danger of being killed by his own countrymen, William and his partners explore uncharted methods of diplomacy and ambassadorship. Months spent in an unknown and magnificent wilderness challenge his every fiber and hone his character. Finding himself the unwilling owner of seven black African slaves and torn between the values of conflicting societies, William longs for love and a return to his simple and peaceful life as a farmer. This is a gripping tale of romance, adventure, greed and intrigue that will find its readers on the edge of their seat and staying up late at night. Kindred Spirits is Book One of a generational series.
About the Author: Clifford Neal is a writer with fifty-five plus years of experience. Most of it in the form of sermons, which he personally presented from the pulpits of churches he served as pastor and evangelist. He has invested thousands of hours in research, developing over 7,000 such works. He has authored booklets and instructional manuals for use in training Christian church members. Augmented by many years of writing for newspaper columns and radio broadcasts, his interests naturally expanded to full length book production. His most recent published book is a well received nonfiction account of the life of what may well be the most prolific, but heretofore unknown, bank robber, ever. Material for this story was garnered through a personal relationship developed with the man and personal documental research. The book, "Hounded", is currently available in bookstores and through many internet booksellers, including Amazon.com. Currently, he has completed his first work of historical fiction as the beginning of an eight generational series based upon the lives of his ancestors. Actual Irish immigrants, arriving on the American continent in the early 1700's, become the well from which he draws a thirst quenching flow. A gripping story of adventure, intrigue, romance, crime, loyalty and pain develops around the life of William Neal. Commissioned by his Governor, the frontiersman becomes instrumental in solving a crisis that develops between the Virginia Colony and the Indian tribes of the Ohio Valley. A farmer, he struggles with the moral issues of slavery when he becomes the unwilling owner of seven black Africans, and rising interracial prejudices, fueled by his entanglement in the life of a beautiful Indian maiden. The author presently is engaged in promotion of his work as a speaker, lecturer, columnist and guest personality for many organizations and media outlets. As a Free Lance writer, he has been published in many venues.