The Long Shadow is a Spur Finalist in the Western Writers of America 2019 Spur Awards - Best Western Historical Novel When Alice Sanborn and best friend Jerushah cross paths with a bounty hunter in rural northern Vermont, the teens stage a daring rescue for former slave Sarah Johnson—but winter weather, politics, and challenges of mountain life bring more danger. It's March 1850 in small-town Vermont, and tempers flare over the "right kind" of Abolition. When the two fifteen-year-olds suspect Alice's older brother William is taking dangerous risks to shelter a fugitive hiding at the inn, they see Sarah's safety at risk. With help from the skillful but mysterious Solomon McBride, the girls head toward the wilder countryside along the Canadian border. Perils abound, including back at home. Is it all Alice's fault? What should she do? Even a teen can take strong action—but which way is right, and how can she choose?
Storytelling is Beth Kanell's native language - and she learned it from her mother, who taught her to fill in the blanks as a story emerged. As a single parent in Vermont, for years she told stories "on the side" and developed a specialty in tales for teens (always starting with something scary!). Endlessly in love with Vermont, she began bringing the most fascinating parts of its history into her narratives, and discovered that what she really likes after all is writing fiction that explores the lives of young people caught up in the force of change. She is also a non-stop mystery reader, so she grapples for new and unusual plot twists, as well as the magic of the Green Mountain state.
ABOUT MY WORK
Beth Kanell's first Vermont historical novel THE DARKNESS UNDER THE WATER began as a form of ghost story and got scarier. Along with years of historical prowling for the book, Beth relied on family narratives from the residents of small Vermont towns like Waterford, St. Johnsbury, West Barnet, Barnet, Peacham, and Danville. She loved re-discovering the days of log drives on the Connecticut River. Recently she's been digging into how people washed dishes in 1850, why there are so many fires in small towns, and Vermont's unsolved murders. She writes as if she were braiding: one strand for the flow of history, one for the controversies involved, and the biggest strand, of course, for the characters who take over her inner life. She outlines on brown paper pinned to the walls of her small writing room, and depends on chocolate, candles, and music to get her through.