Author Spotlight - Tina Pinson discusses the setting of "When Shadows Fall"

The setting of When Shadows Fall starts in Maryland and the Capital in 1862. During the Civil War.

Maryland was with the Union, but there is fear they could attacked at any time.

Rebekah's family lives out in the country in nice homes and continue on with life pretty much unscathed by the war, while Rebekah's home is in West Virginia where the battles rage.

She lives in a little log cabin with a rustic barn and dilapidated out buildings. The land seems to have taken on the temperament of war itself, battling her as she tries to find food and keep her land.

Then we head to Missouri on a wagon that travels through enemy lines and connects with a train that will hopefully reach its destination without incident.

Independence Missouri is filled with people trying to leave the war, and people with sentiments drawn on both sides. Blacks are traveling on the trail, but they have to be careful.

Once the train finally leaves Independence, there are miles to go along a vast prairie filled with bugs and Indians and buffalo and all kinds of pestilence. They travel in grueling heat, their bodies practically drinking dust.

They pray for cool breezes and shadows. They pray for rain but only the mists, otherwise the rain pushes their wheels into the muck. They stop to bury those who died. Dropping of household goods because the wagon is too heavy and the oxen are tired. And the land is sloping upward. There are long stretches of trash from other trains. And crosses line the way.

Then comes the mountains, which they hope to reach before winter so they get across. They are both a blessing and a curse when one thinks of using pulleys and ropes to pull the wagon over the passes, considering blistered hands and sore backs. But they signify the trail is coming to an end.

Then finally about 6 months later, they pull into Oregon. The land is green and lush. There is no war that they can see or hear. They have found the new Eden and home.