Jackson Speed and the Fugitive Slaves is now available on Kindle.

The fifth book in the Jackson Speed Memoirs series is now available on Kindle!

This novella finds our rascally hero in the unlikely role of conductor on the Underground Railroad. And you’ll know it was a woman who led him down this improbable path.

I’m excited about getting this story written in part because it explores a time in Speed’s life that I’ve only touched on in the past.

In my mind, Speed’s life divides into four distinct periods.

The first is what I think of as the Mexico and California years – his service in the Mexican-American War and his adventures in the California Gold Rush. Obviously, the first book in the series takes up a portion of this time of his life.

The second period in Speed’s life is roughly the 1850s – the decade between the Gold Rush and the Civil War. This is a strange time in America’s history and an equally strange time in Speed’s life. Bizarre events, little known today, occurred on a national scale during this time, and Speed will eventually be involved in a fair number of them.

The third period in his life is the Civil War, and most of the Jackson Speed novels, so far, are all about this period of his life. Of course, this was the defining time of anyone who lived through it, so it’s right and proper that three of the first four novels are set during or just before the American Civil War. And there are more to come.

The fourth period of Speed’s life is the post-war period. I’ve written nothing about this time yet, but those stories will come, too.

This fifth book – Jackson Speed and the Fugitive Slaves – is set in 1853, so takes place during that second period. The only other thing I’ve written in this time period is the short story Jackson Speed and the Da Ponte Diamond (found at the front of Jackson Speed on the Orange Turnpike).

I am simultaneously writing about the California Gold Rush and writing other shorter novellas that fall around the same time period as Jackson Speed and the Fugitive Slaves, and I’m hoping in the next few months there will be a lot more Jackson Speed stories out there. And, if you’ve been following the blog, you know I am also working on a re-brand of the books. I’ve finished changing out the covers for all the Kindle books, but I still haven’t finished changing the print versions yet.

As always, if you enjoy the story, please give it a review on Amazon.com and feel free to reach out to me. I love hearing from readers!