Finding Home

By: Claudia Ryan-Smith

Though there’s talk of a coming war between the North and South, young, beautiful Ingrid strikes out on her own to begin her teaching career. On the train, she meets a stranger who makes a suspicious and odd request of her, one that she agrees to.

Thus begins Ingrid’s adventure out West. An adventure that spans years of intrigue, danger, loneliness, friendship, loss, and love; as she and the two most important men in her life struggle to support the Union, while she also searches for her real family and a place where she truly belongs.

About the Author

Claudia Ryan-Smith grew up listening to stories of the Old West from her grandfather and her mother. Ryan-Smith’s mother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse teaching boys older than herself. Grandpa was a rancher in South Dakota who had everyday dealings with Native Americans. The living conditions of the 1800s and general moral code are interesting to Ryan-Smith. People are very much the same no matter the time period. All want love, comfort, peace, and enough to live on. And there has always been hate, greed, war, and immoral behavior.