DRAWING DOWN THE MOON: Tuckaseegee Chronicles 26 (The Tuckaseegee Chronicles)

DRAWING DOWN THE MOON: Tuckaseegee Chronicles 26 (the opening chronicle in Volume VI) continues the saga of the MacNeills and their Cherokee friends and neighbors in the Tuckaseegee River Valley. As Joe Buck Cheatham’s life hangs in the balance, Mairy MacNeill struggles to hold her family together in the face of seemingly endless tragedy, including the reappearance of her archenemy Yellow Jacket, and her mother Elspeth invokes her Celtic heritage of second sight in beseeching the power of the moon. King George’s Proclamation Line of 1763 is violated from the very beginning; a Regulation Movement grows in the foothills of the Carolinas to thwart corruption; and Cherokee factions disagree on how to protect their mountain homeland from the stampede of invaders. Standing Wolf becomes increasingly disheartened, and militant bands of young warriors, including Standing Wolf, Dragging Canoe, and Doublehead, begin to break away from the older Cherokee leaders who continue to seek peace with the English. Mairy, intending to stay in the Tuckaseegee River Valley as long as she can, looks for new ways to expand her enterprises and to encourage her growing family to learn all they can about the revolutionary changes taking place along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Appalachian Mountains.

About the TUCKASEEGEE CHRONICLES____
__Devastated by Scotland’s failed uprising against England in 1745, exiled highland warrior Ruary MacNeill transports his wife Elspeth, two children, and three orphaned nephews to America to operate a trading post and horse-breeding enterprise in the Great Smoky Mountains, the Southern Appalachian heartland of the large and powerful Cherokee Nation.
__Set in America’s first frontier during the French and Indian War and its aftermath, the TUCKASEEGEE CHRONICLES (1750-1776) are a long series of short novels, a multigenerational saga following the Scottish MacNeills as they interact with the Cherokee during a time of political upheaval when the Cherokee Nation is at war with other Indian tribes and has become a pawn in the conflict between England and France for control of the Atlantic seaboard.
__The MacNeills gradually discover that Cherokee clans are not unlike Scottish clans, both culturally and spiritually, and that friendship, love, and loyalty can cross cultural and racial boundaries.
__The chronicles should be read in chronological (numerical) order and are available as single chronicles and in volumes of multiple chronicles (large novels).

From Publishers Weekly____
“Set in the American colonies in 1750 (and beyond), this is a tale of discovery, acceptance, war, love, and cultural awareness. A realistic historical piece, this novel is fraught with danger and heartbreak, but buoyed by romance and the hope for survival into future generations. A meticulously researched, exhaustive look at the uneasy coexistence of early settlers and native populations, the novel fully immerses the reader in a foreign world. Historical fiction buffs especially will want to know what happens to the MacNeills and the Cherokees in the next installment. The prose is flawless and the characters are robust and believable. Impressive.”

About the Author____
Betty Cloer Wallace is a tree farmer in Western North Carolina and a former instructor of literature and writing at a North Carolina community college that serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the largest concentration of Scottish descendants outside of Scotland. Her British ancestors settled in the Great Smoky Mountains in the 1700s and intermingled with the Cherokee who have a heritage in the region going back thousands of years. A former school district superintendent and principal in North Carolina and Alaska, Wallace spent ten years in Eskimo villages in the Alaskan Arctic—Bering Strait, North Slope, and Northwest Arctic—which greatly influenced her interest in how indigenous populations are impacted by immigrant cultures.