J.J. Haefner
The Shaman faces his last great battle to save his peoples’ land and way of life. His greatest ally? Reverend Peyton Pendergrass Phillips. Phillips is the most unlikely of heros. He is skinny, intellectual, effeminate and duped by the greedy elite bent on the destruction of the Shoshone and confiscation of all lands legally owned by “half-breeds” such as the Markees who have inherited the most bounteous land in the Sweetwater Range.
The Markees, Rusty, Sarah, Jenny and Isaiah Cale find themselves once again pitted against Deke Sleighton, Colonel “Buck” Williams and their gang of murderers and renegades. Colonel Williams has a new “militia” and is driven by old scores he wants to settle with Isaiah. Williams’ militia invades the lands of the Markee Ranch intent on destroying the remaining Shoshone and the Markees.
Williams hedges his bet by plotting with Deke to make it look as if the Shoshone have murdered Reverend Phillips. Phillips finds himself a captive of the Shoshone and challenged by the Shaman. That is where the Shaman’s Law is pitted in the final conflict with the militia and Deke’s gang of thugs.
J.J. Haefner was born and raised in Southwestern Wisconsin where playing among effigy mounds and along clear streams are fond memories. He began skipping school at an early age to play in the woods along Turtle Creek, and nurture a vivid imagination. Those early habits and daydreaming days eventually developed into a love of reading and writing. His interest in Westerns began at a young age when he discovered Zane Grey at his grandmother’s house. He pursued these interests into college graduating with degrees in Literature and History.
Raising and providing for a family side-tracked much of his writing; as did completing an advanced degree in Engineering. Though he has been writing professionally since 1984, with several articles published nationally and internationally, he has finally come back to writing fiction. His works incorporate local histories with historical events and characters woven into the fabric of his stories. It is with this that J.J. Haefner offers the Saga of the Markees, a trilogy of Westerns.
Jenny was terrified. Her and hands and legs were tied to two posts and she was powerless. Her captor built a fire in front of her and was performing a ritual; chanting and repeating a swooping motion with his arms as if pulling something into him. Whatever the ritual Jenny was sure that she was the culminating event. She hoped it would be over quickly. Once before she’d faced burning at the hands of a madman and miraculously survived, but it didn’t seem possible that fate would be so kind twice. She vowed to be as brave as possible until she could endure no more.
Jenny thought of her mom, Little Isaiah and her grandfather Rusty. There was great love in her family and they lived in joy. Jenny cursed aloud at the militia and greedy politicians that had hounded her family her entire life. She cursed the Apache. He heard her swear, knew what it meant and looked up puzzled. Jenny sneered at him and cursed again. “God damned Apache.” He was expecting a scared girl. He did see fear, but he also saw anger and strength. All the better for the sacrifice he tried to convince himself, but there was power about her. Still, she had broken his concentration and the first ritual did not fill him with the power he needed to possess. He had to start over.
