Bo Henry's family and characters in this and the subsequent novels evolved from my grandfather's tales and my family legacy. Analogous to the writing of my previous books, as I composed this story, I could not predict the content of the next scene. I witnessed Bo's adventurous life unfold as it was revealed to me upon the screen of my computer.


When writing a story, I do not know beforehand what form it will take. I am simply the conduit through which the story is revealed. In 1988, one afternoon while working as a consultant for Sandia National Labs, I gazed at the Edmunds Scientific Catalogue cover on which was depicted a kit for a super conducting ceramic disc to demonstrate magnetic levitation. I immediately thought of a story where this scientific phenomenon could be applied to space travel. As I sat at my office desk, the story flowed forth. Five hours and eighteen pages later, I was interrupted by a phone call from home. Thus began my passion for writing.
 
Over the next several years, I wrote three more science fiction novels in that series. Between 2011 and 2014, I wrote three children's books; the last was inspired by an actual event involving my eleventh great-grandfather, William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony.
 
BO HENRY AT THREE FORKS (Savant 2018), the first of five stories in my new western series, is set in the upper Midwest where my grandfather, a blacksmith, traveled throughout Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and the Dakotas, shoeing horses for farmers, cattlemen and loggers. He provided for his family of eleven children while regaling them with tales of his adventures. My father relayed to me the stories of my grandfather's struggles in harsh climates during those difficult times.