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.)