posted June 12, 2009
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Valley of the Mules is the story of developing America during the turbulent days of the early 1800s.
The War of 1812, the Creek Indian War of 1813-1814, slave revolts and the Trail of Tears are seen through the lives of fictional characters mixed with the titans who built the nation.
John Ross, Andrew Jackson, Aaron Burr, Davy Crockett and their contemporaries join the people of the author’s imagination.
The trade paperback is published by IPS Publishing of Chattanooga in collaboration with Graphic Web of Trenton. It sells for $14.95 and will be available through local bookstores and over the Internet.
The story begins in 1784, when the leaders who had just won the war for freedom were wrestling with drafts of a constitution and reaches to the Trail of Tears in 1838 and the birth of Chattanooga. It follows two immigrant families from Europe settling on the Georgia coast and migrating to the Lookout Mountain area.
“More truth can be told through fiction than non-fiction, where known facts limit the complete telling of a story,” said Mr. Chaney, who has edited local Commercial Network magazine. “I wanted an unvarnished story of the stormy days that saw America’s beginning. There were times of pride, and of shame.
“My research stripped many icons, like Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, of their legendary status, and showed their Machiavellian side. I wanted to show the times with honesty, not a fairy tale of happy slaves and peaceful settling of Indian lands.”
The author said the shame of slavery could only be matched by the disgrace of the seizure of Indian lands when they were forced to migrate to Oklahoma in the dead of winter, with thousands dying along the way.
“I am very grateful to Dave and Alison Hixson of Graphic Web for seeing the potential of the novel and joining in the publication,” said Mr. Chaney. “I am thankful for them and I hope the readers will appreciate the effort to put this story in print.”
A writer and newsman who began his career in 1950 as a copy boy with the Norfolk Virginian Pilot and has been a daily editor and published weeklies, he spent some 20 years researching and writing Valley of the Mules. Mr. Chaney also wrote the million seller One Day at a Time, the biography of singer Cristy Lane for her husband Lee Stoller.
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