The Raven Trail Novella

Hey guys! My last entry was about the mythology behind the CD, but what about the book I wrote with the same name? As far as I'm concerned, the novella is a natural extension of the song and CD because I felt that more background was necessary for my fictional characters. The Raven, or Kaw La Na as he was called in actual Cherokee, was an African-American man who was raised by Cherokee Indians from my made-up Yona(Bear) tribe. This group originated from the tribe that avoided the Indian Removal in the 1830's and was led by the legendary leader, Yonaguska, head of the Eastern Band of Indians. Yonaguska actually existed and led the North Carolina Cherokee who evaded US soldiers.My fictionalization is from the first four letters of his name and I made it into a tribe that followed his legacy. My Raven character's father was named Chinmay, which in Cherokee, means wisdom. He was mentioned a few times in the song but never by name. Maybe in the back of my mind, I did that on purpose because I wanted people to find out more about the characters in another form. In the book, Raven, like his foster father, received a Christian education from an Irish priest, Father Doyle, who traveled to Indian reservations to spread the gospel. Doyle's name comes from an author whom I admire, Roddy Doyle, who wrote the Barrytown Trilogy of books which include "The Commitments." (which, of course, was made into a popular movie). There are other real life characters that show up in the book like Senator Dawes who was famous for the Dawes Act of 1887 (the year in which my story takes place) that offered Indians US citizenship if they renounced their tribes and accept assimilation into modern society, and Bass Reeves, possibly the first African-American sheriff and perhaps the finest lawman ever.Then, of course, the book talks about the real premise of the Raven's Trail, which is t protect the lost treasure from one of Columbus' ships (actually, one of his famous ships did sink during a voyage).Well, I hope that you enjoyed my blog. If you did, please check out some of the chapters from my book that I would like to be published in the near future in the SHORT STORIES section of this website. thanks for reading!:) BKT

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