Long Journey Home

About the Book

    The air was crisp and cold that morning when Charles Feldon and his friend Jed Brice rode off in the early morning Vermont sunlight, towards a new life in the uncharted territory of Oregon. . The two young men traveled by horseback to Ohio, to join a wagon train out of St. Louis, where to their surprise they would meet distant cousins who were also traveling west. In that group of travelers was a young minister and his bride Lucy Baldwin.

    By the time they reached Fort Laramie for the winter season a deep friendship had grown between Charles and Lucy. It was only natural that Lucy would try to comfort him when he receives some bad news from home and as a result she becomes pregnant. In the spring time the weather permits and they resume traveling west. The wagon train now splits in two with Lucy’s family beading towards California by way of the Overland Route, while Chancy continues to lead his group through the mountains towards Oregon.

    After the birth of Lucy’s baby there was a series of circumstances where the child was declared missing and presumed dead. The loss nearly destroys them but nevertheless they continue to try to establish a new life for themselves in spite of the difficulties. There is much more to the story for there are many characters and story lines woven through out the chapters. They help move the adventures along with all the problems that life can bring. First and foremost this is Charles and Lucy’s love story.

About the Author

   Although it would appear to some people that Mickey Westman began writing rather late in life, that simply is not true. In reality she had been writing in some form or another most of her adult life.

   In her early years she wrote amusing personal “Odes” to folks who were celebrating life’s milestones and was responsible for creating the text used at her church’s Madrigal Feast which was performed during the next 10 different Christmas seasons.

   It was during that period that one of the highlights of her life happened when she had the opportunity of condensing the Broadway score of “Godspell” into one hour time frame thus enabling the choir to perform it during several church services. It proved to be so well received that she decided to create some dialog for another musical work called” Lightshine.”

   About that time she decided to take a course in Creative Writing at her local college in Illinois but found that she was less interested in writing poems and short stories than writing and rewriting the first few pages of a longer story. Mickey’s professor told her that she obviously had a book inside her and should begin writing with that thought in mind.

She had always been interested in American History and so she began to write the story about her Great Great Uncle Charles Felton who ran away from home to join a wagon train in 1850’s. Mickey happened to have in her possession two of his letters. The first one was written to his mother explaining why he had left home to go to Oregon and the second one was to his brother explaining his disappointment and his desire to return home. With these letters to inspire her she began writing her novel of Charles’s adventure as she saw it to be.

It took many years to complete his story, rich in American history and full of local geography. With a sense of loss she ended his saga and was now ready to begin a new challenge in her life.