I’ll be at the Daytona Beach Barnes & Noble (1900 W International Speedway Blvd.) from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18, to celebrate the release of Angel Falls. I’ll be signing books throughout that period, with a short reading and Q&A session around 2:30.

The Historical Novel Society had this to say about my second novel: “This well-written western has suspense in every chapter. … A page-turner that is difficult to put down.”

You can read more about the book and listen to an audio interview in this Q&A from The News-Journal.

If you prefer to just jump ahead and read a sample first, you can do so here.

And if you can’t make it to the signing, you can buy online.

Buy Angel Falls at Barnes & Noble.

Click on the book cover to buy Angel Falls on Amazon:

I will be back at Barnes & Noble in Daytona Beach from 1-5 p.m. on Oct. 14 for the store’s “local authors afternoon.” We’ll still be a month out from the release of “Angel Falls,” but I’ll be signing copies of “Trail Angel” for those who haven’t picked one up yet. You can also pre-order copies of the sequel and get news of a third book in the works. Hope to see you out there.

Here’s the ad copy for the sale of Angel Falls, which will be out in mid-November.

Here’s the synopsis: 

In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Trail Angel, award-winning journalist Derek Catron weaves a thrilling tale of three unforgettable characters: Josey Angel, a Union cavalryman struggling to set aside a violent past and make a life with the woman he loves; Annabelle Rutledge, a Southern war widow who came west to rebuild her family’s fortunes and found love but little peace; and a young Sioux determined to preserve his people’s way of life and earn his warrior name — Crazy Horse.

After Annabelle is seized in a bloody Indian attack, Josey goes on a soul-searing rampage in a daring effort to rescue her. While Crazy Horse plots to kill the white men who have trespassed on his people’s land, he’s tormented by an unrequited love that tears at his sense of honor. The roiling conflicts climax on the bloodiest day of Red Cloud’s War, when Josey and Annabelle must come together to escape tragedy.

You can pre-order a copy of Angel Falls on Amazon.

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While we’re still a few months away from the Nov. 15 release date for Angel Falls, I’m thrilled to see how good the advance reader copies look. These are early paperback prints of the book used to help generate advance publicity and reviews. I’ll be mailing these out to reviewers soon in hopes that we get the same kind of positive feedback we had for Trail Angel.

Booklist called it “A finely constructed, well-told western.” And the verdict from Kirkus was “A timeless tale of love and adventure on the American frontier.”

Don’t forget, you can pre-order a copy of Angel Falls on Amazon. And if you haven’t gotten Trail Angel yet, it’s still available online in hardback and e-book formats. Order it here from Amazon. Or here from Barnes and Noble. A large-print copy is on the way. Check back for more news on that.

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[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″] [et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] I’m thrilled to announce that the contract has been signed, the book has been edited and production is underway to publish Angel Falls, the sequel to Trail Angel in November of 2017.

While we don’t have a cover yet, I thought this image might help capture some of the mood for the second adventure with Annabelle and Josey Angel. Here’s the synopsis that will appear on the book jacket:

In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Trail Angel, award-winning journalist Derek Catron weaves a thrilling tale of three unforgettable characters: Josey Angel, a Union cavalryman struggling to set aside a violent past and make a life with the woman he loves; Annabelle Rutledge, a Southern war widow who came west to rebuild her family’s fortunes and found love but little peace; and a young Sioux determined to preserve his people’s way of life and earn his warrior name — Crazy Horse.

After Annabelle is seized in a bloody Indian attack, Josey goes on a soul-searing rampage in a daring effort to rescue her. While Crazy Horse plots to kill the white men who have trespassed on his people’s land, he’s tormented by an unrequited love that tears at his sense of honor. Annabelle finds she must thwart a ploy that would slaughter every soldier at the frontier fort where Josey and her friends have taken refuge.

Sympathies will shift. Loyalties are betrayed. The roiling conflicts climax on the bloodiest day of Red Cloud’s War, the only war in which the Indians defeated the army. To survive, Josey and Annabelle must come together to escape the threat of an unprecedented defeat for the army — and a victory at terrible costs for the Indians and Crazy Horse.

At turns thrilling, romantic and poignant, Angel Falls is a page-turner throughout — a worthy successor to a powerful debut.

 

If you still haven’t gotten your copy of Trail Angel, there’s still time to order in time for Christmas. 

Buy Trail Angel on Amazon

Buy Trail Angel on Barnes & Noble

Read a sample here.

 
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Here’s a link to a story I wrote for True West magazine about some of the real-life events that form the backdrop for Trail Angel and its sequel, Angel Falls. The story is about how two women shaped history’s view of one of the worst defeats the Army ever suffered at the hands of American Indians.

by DEREK CATRON

As the small train of wagons drew within sight of Fort Phil Kearny, the weary travelers rejoiced. “I could have clapped my hands for joy,” one wrote of the moment.

On the wind-blown hill overlooking the fort, a picket guard waved a signal flag to announce their arrival. He waved a second signal the newcomers did not understand.

A mounted escort fell in line with the wagons, halting just outside the eight-foot-high pine trunk stockade that encircled the fort near present-day Buffalo, Wyoming. A “strange feeling of apprehension” came over the travelers as another wagon entered the fort ahead of their party. In that wagon, the travelers saw the scalped and naked body of a man “scarcely cold.”

Frances Grummond swallowed back the scream that filled her head: “Let me get within the gate!”

In the nearly four months she lived at the fort, Frances never shed her feeling of apprehension. The comely Southern belle was 21, married for little more than a year to one of the officers newly stationed to the fort. She was three months pregnant when she arrived and within another two months, she would be a widow.

Yet her account of what happened 150 years ago this month—along with that of her friend Margaret Carrington—would foster one of the great and enduring myths of the American West. …

Read the rest of the story here.

Buy Trail Angel 

Buy Trail Angel on Amazon

Buy Trail Angel on Barnes & Noble

Read a sample here.

After Hurricane Matthew washed out my scheduled book signing at the Daytona Beach Barnes & Noble, we’ve rescheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15. Come out and join us at 1900 W. International Speedway Boulevard. Just this month the Daytona Beach News-Journal published a feature story and review of Trail Angel. The story included the news that a sequel, Angel Falls, is scheduled for the fall of 2017. The review called Trail Angel “a fast read with lively writing and a gripping plot.”

Newspaper editor’s first novel hits bookstores

After four years, seven drafts and many weekends at the keyboard, “Trail Angel,’ News-Journal Managing Editor Derek Catron’s tale of romance and danger on the Bozeman Trail of 1866 is now in the hands of readers.

By Mark Lane

About four years ago, Derek Catron was unsure about diving into the whole book-writing thing for real.

The News-Journal managing editor had an idea for a novel. He had a compelling main character. And telling stories to pass the time while traveling in Spain, his wife told him he should write a book.

Catron took her up on it, but not before warning her that she’d become “a book widow.” What followed were seven drafts and two years of weekends spent at the keyboard.

The result, published Aug. 17, was “Trail Angel,” (Five Star Publishing, 357 pages, $25.95 hardback), a novel of the old West. Kirkus Reviews called it “an unsentimental but moving tale, composed with emotional intelligence and historical insight” and “a timeless tale of love and adventure on the American frontier.” … (READ the rest of the story here.)

Book Review: “Trail Angel” is a romantic and gripping Western tale

By Cory Lancaster

The Civil War left Annabelle Holcombe a widow, devastated her beloved hometown of Charleston and ruined her family business. She and her parents become swept into a tide of people heading West after the war to find gold and make their fortunes in Montana.

This is the setting for New-Journal Managing Editor Derek Catron’s first novel, “Trail Angel,” released last month. Catron is a good storyteller. This is a fast read with lively writing and a gripping plot.

It’s a fertile time period for a historical novel and love story. The scars of the Civil War lie just beneath the surface as Southerners and Northerners intermingle in the caravan of wagons making the dangerous, months-long trek on the Bozeman Trail. …

Catron artfully describes the characters’ inner worlds and uses colorful writing to set these scenes.

“So many things weren’t the way she imagined them when she lived on a cobblestone street lined with houses, a place where Indians seemed no more real than Amazons or centaurs,” Catron writes of Annabelle. “The world seemed small then. Now she lived in a place where the sky stretched forever, where it seemed she could walk in any direction and never reach an end, where even the most fantastical story sounded more real than the news in the papers at home. Anything could happen.”

(READ the full review here.)