About the Book

Book: Texas Divided

Author: Sherry Shindelar

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release date: March 25, 2025

He thought he was rescuing her from the Comanche. Now the Civil War soldier must prove he isn’t the villain she thinks he is.

Driven by the looming expectation of becoming a suffocatingly proper lady, Morning Fawn is determined to escape the confines of her uncle’s plantation and return to her adoptive Comanche tribe. But with each failed attempt, her hopes dwindle, and she wonders if she’ll ever find her way back home or if that world is forever lost to her.

Devon Reynolds, disillusioned by the price of affluence and the horrors of war, leaves his privileged life to join the Texas Rangers and later the cavalry. In the military service, he finds purpose . . . until he loses his wife during childbirth while he is away. In an attempt to redeem himself, he takes one last fateful mission to rescue Morning Fawn from the Comanche. But the results force him to question the righteousness of his actions and the cause he serves.
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When Devon returns to Texas as a Yankee spy, his path crosses with Morning Fawn once more. Determined to save her from the prison of her uncle’s house and to recover Texas from the Confederacy, Devon is drawn to her fierce spirit and unwavering resolve. But can two wounded souls, each fighting their own battles, find solace and love amidst the chaos of war?

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About the Author

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. She is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. When she is not busy writing, she is an English professor working to pass on her love of writing to her students. Sherry is an award-winning writer: 2023 Genesis finalist, Maggie finalist, and Crown finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of thirty-eight years. She has three grown children and three grandchildren.

More from Sherry

The Cotton Road

I loved the opportunity to tie the Texas frontier and the Civil War together in Texas Divided, the second book in my Lone Star Redemption series.

I have been an avid student of the Civil War for a couple decades. However, until I started researching for Texas Divided, I had no clue that the Yankees ever invaded Texas. But they did in November 1863. Why? It was because of cotton. By 1863, the Federal blockade of the Confederate coastline was fairly secure, and Texas became the golden gateway for funding the Confederacy.

Cotton from Arkansas, western Louisiana, and east Texas traveled the Cotton Road. This dusty trail ran from the railroad terminus in Alleyton, TX (about seventy miles west of Houston) by way of King’s Ranch near Corpus Christi to Brownsville and across the Rio Grande to Matamoros, Mexico, the largest cotton market in the world during the war. In regards to commercial activity, it rivaled pre-war New Orleans or Baltimore.

A young teamster wrote that from the watchtower at King’s Ranch, the main stop on the way to Matamoros, he could see hundreds of wagons on the road at one time, a long train of dust rising up as they traveled toward Brownsville and the Rio Grande.

At some points the trail was almost a mile wide due to traffic, and more than one hundred miles of it was desert with no water. Puffs of cotton clung to the sagebrush and cacti along the way and lingered for years after the war.

When the cotton reached Matamoros, it was loaded onto steamboats and/or wagons owned by Mexicans and transported to the mouth of the Rio Grande at the Gulf of Mexico. International ships from Britain, France, and other countries hovered there, sometimes hundreds at a time, waiting to fill their hulls with cotton. And the Yankees couldn’t stop them. If a Federal ship fired on a British, French, Mexican, or ship of another nationality, it could have been considered an act of war.

By 1863, cotton, which had sold for .10 cents a pound in 1860, now sold for as much as $1.89 a pound, and one bale averaged 450 – 500 pounds. The money made on the sale of cotton was the financial bloodline of the Confederacy. For example, in just one week in August, twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder arrived in Brownsville, purchased with proceeds from the sale of cotton.

That’s why the Federal Army invaded Brownsville in early November 1863. Their mission was to stop or at least seriously hinder the cotton trade. Doing so could save lives on the battlefield and perhaps bring an earlier end to the war.

The Yankees reached the city without any resistance. However, they found a meager one hundred and fifty bales on the Texas side of the river and could only gaze at the more than ten thousand bales stacked along the Mexican wharves. The Rebs had moved or destroyed everything of value.

The invasion lasted for several months and forced the Confederates to improvise and find new trails for the cotton shipments, hauling the loads via San Antonio to Eagle Pass and Laredo. Unfortunately, the Yankees only netted a hundred or so bales here and there.

Cotton continued to reign until the war efforts in the East bled the Confederacy dry. But for those few months at the end of 1863, hopes were high, especially amongst the two regiments of Texas cavalry fighting for the Union, Texans who abhorred the Confederacy and who had left Texas to avoid being forced into the Reb army. These men returned with the Federal troops in November 1863 to restore Texas to the Union and wreak havoc on the Cotton Road.

Lieutenant Devon Reynolds is one of these Texans, loyal to the Union, and determined to do his part to rescue Texas from the grip of the Confederacy. Except in his case, he trades his Yankee uniform for that of a Confederate and dons an eye patch, operating as a spy and saboteur. But his life becomes complicated and his mission uncertain when he runs into Morning Fawn, the woman he kidnapped from the Comanche eighteen months before. As far as she’s concerned, he ruined her life by sentencing her to her uncle’s plantation. Can he complete the mission and right the wrong? Texas Divided is a story of redemption, faithfulness, and perseverance. The characters come to an end of themselves and discover that God can make a way where there was no way.

Interview with Sherry

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I have been in love with stories since I was a child. I’d swing for hours on my swing set, pumping my legs back and forth, dreaming up stories in my head. Even then, I had a flair for romance, creating new love interests and episodes for Star Trek’s Captain Kirk.

My favorite possession at age nine was a set of author-playing cards (a matching game with photos of famous authors). I knew I wanted to be an author when I grew up and bring stories to life on the written page, stories that would impact my readers.

What is your real-life work schedule like when writing? 

I’m a full-time English professor and combining that with my writing career is definitely a challenge. The summers are great. I devote myself full-time to writing, except for traveling to see family. In summer, I write outside as much as possible, alternating between my backyard and a park by the lake which is only a five-minute drive away. (After the brutal northern Minnesota winters, I enjoy soaking up every ray of sunshine possible.)

The school year is a marathon. I squeeze in every bit of writing, revising, and researching time I can, devoting evenings and weekends to writing. I have to make choices and limit social time, TV, volunteering, housework, etc. I believe writing is my calling, and it is my passion. At this point in my life, I couldn’t not write. I’m very thankful to have a husband who fully supports my desire to pursue this dream.

Have you experienced writer’s block, and how do you handle it?

Yes. I pray and ask the Lord for help. I struggled with Texas Divided more than I had with any previous book. It was the first time I was writing under contract with a deadline. Plus there was the pressure of knowing how much everyone loved Texas Forsaken and being concerned that the maybe the second book in the series might not live up to those high expectations.

I came to an end of myself. I realized I couldn’t do it all on my own. The inspiration wasn’t flowing. The characters weren’t behaving. I couldn’t do it, but God could. That realization made a world of difference! Strangely enough, I spoke with an author friend who won a Christy this past November, and she said the very same thing about writing her second book under contract, even though she’d written several books before.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

While researching for Texas Divided, I discovered that the part of Texas where my story is set had a castle! Robert Robson, a Scot who immigrated to Texas, built a concrete castle in the 1850’s in Colorado County. Robson’s Castle had a moat, a drawbridge, a garden on the roof, and indoor plumbing (pumps drew the water from the nearby river). Guests traveled from faraway communities to enjoy lavish champagne dinners, card parties, and balls. Unfortunately, the foundation was destroyed by a flood in 1869.

Any current or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

I’m currently working on the third book of my Lone Star Redemption series, Texas Reclaimed. The story takes place on the Texas Frontier in 1866. After the Civil War, Ben McKenzie, a Yankee soldier with soul-deep scars, travels to Texas to make good on a promise he made to his friend who died in Andersonville at his side.

After years of war and a father who wasn’t much count, Cora Scott has lost everything, except for her family’s abandoned ranch and her little brother who is half Comanche. She is determined to hold onto her ranch at all costs unless it means falling for the man whose wounds might be deeper than she can heal.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 20

Texas Book-aholic, May 21

Blossoms and Blessings, May 22 (Author Interview)

Pause for Tales, May 22

Locks, Hooks and Books, May 23

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, May 24

Artistic Nobody, May 25 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, May 26

lakesidelivingsite, May 27

Books You Can Feel Good About, May 28

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, May 29 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, May 30

Holly’s Book Corner, May 31

Stories By Gina, June 1 (Author Interview)

Book Butterfly in Dreamland, June 1

Bizwings Book Blog, June 2

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Sherry is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54224