Wolves at the Door

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ABOUT THE NOVEL: Wolves at the Door, a saga of homesteading across Kansas and Colorado in the 1800s, is the first installment of the Devon family trilogy. The author's own family history springs to life in this generational tale, taking the reader from the Battle of Westport, across Kansas from Ft. Scott to Kiowa, and ultimately to La Junta, Colorado at the turn of the century. The second volume, Full Circle, continues the journey into the 20th century with completely different locales and challenges. It is scheduled for release in 2008. REVIEWS OF WOLVES AT THE DOOR: "In his solid inaugural novel, Wolves at the Door, Tom Chown evinces an historian's eye and a storyteller's soul. His saga of Henry and Tamsen Devon's journey from the American frontier to the founding of the modern Midwest is one part history lesson, one part sociology primer, and one part action movie script. It's also a well-crafted study of the frontier family, something rarely attempted since Willa Cather's masterworks. The early descriptions of Henry's experience as a Jayhawker in 1860's "Bloody Kansas" are harrowing, and Chown describes the beauty, hardships, and spirituality of frontier Kansas in dead-on fashion. He constructs the novel in subtitled snippets, stories of everyday frontier lives. Henry Devon is an epic western character, forged by a savage world yet understanding how quickly it is all slipping away. His spiritual awakening while watching an Osage band hunt and kill a bull Buffalo is profound, providing a fine literary explanation of the historical respect and regret with which many settlers viewed the conquered and dispirited Indians. Inspired by his forebears, Chown's novel is a rich tapestry ofaccurate history, humor, folklore, and legend, expertly defining those who, in the last half of the 19th century, may well have been America's true 'greatest generation.'" - Jon Chandler: Author, singer/songwriter, and 1999 Western Writers of America Spur Award Winner for The Spanish Peaks.