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Across the Seasons

by Laura Rugel Glise

215 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0027; ISBN 1-55212-625-0; US$22.50, C$26.00, EUR18.50, £13.00

A woman trades for a mythical blanket that will take a horse and its rider 'across the seasons'. She travels back in time and meets a trapper on his way to the Rendezvous of 1838 on the Wind River.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book Sarah Hanley and Osborne Russell live in different centuries, but their lives are connected in time. Russell began his journal (Journal of a Trapper) in 1834 when he joined Nathaniel Wyeth's second expedition of trappers to the wild regions of the Rocky Mountains. Sarah Hanley was given a copy of Russell's journal in 1984. Sarah writes: In my mind's eye I could see Russell, poised and frozen in time. He was sitting on his horse early in the morning, when the clouds lie down around the shoulders of the great mountains, and the air smells as if God has just created the earth. There, quiet and still, I could see him listening to the symphony of the wilderness and dreaming of the trail he was destined to carve across the mountains. When Sarah trades for a mythical blanket that will take a horse and its rider across the seasons, she travels back in time and meets Russell on his way to the Rendezvous of 1838 on the Wind River. Although there are no known photographs of Russell, in her first novel, Glise paints a vivid portrait of Russell and other legendary mountain men estranged from the comforts and privileges of civilization. Across the Seasons is a timeless love story. In the tradition of the finest historical fiction, Glise has written an adventurous tale that is guaranteed to please lovers of western history. What Dr. Fred R. Gowans and Lyn Clayton of Brigham Young University are saying . . . "The grandeur of the central and northern Rocky Mountains of the American west is the setting for the hisorical novel, Across the Seasons. Laura Rugel Glise's dynamic twist of the wilderness career of legendary 19th century mountain man, Osborne Russell, is guaranteed to keep the reader in suspense and be overwhelmed by the startling conclusion. The previous concept of most readers, pertaining to the life and times of Osborne Russell, will be greatly altered by this unique work."

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About the Author "If you want to change the course of your life," says Glise, "begin writing a novel." When she began researching her first novel, Across the Seasons, five years ago, it took her on an amazing journey. On a somewhat autobiographical note, which Glise uses in her novel, she was given Osborne Russell's Journal of a Trapper years ago. "As I moved over the years I would always come across Russell's Journal and face the question, keep it or discard? I could never let it go." Her fascination with Russell and other men of the Rocky Mountain fur trade led her to new friendships as she conducted the extensive research essential to historical fiction. "The more I learned, the more overwhelmed I became by what I didn't know. At one point I had an almost paralyzing fear that I was going to make an honest mistake but, nonetheless, a mistake and I would make a fool of myself. I have met extraordinary individuals over the last few years. They generously shared their knowledge and enthusiasm for this incredible time in our nation's history." Her desire for accuracy took her to the original 1838 Rendezvous site near present-day Riverton, Wyoming. "When I showed up that first summer, I am sure the organizers thought I was more qualified to write hysterical fiction. I was a real greenhorn, as Osborne Russell would have referred to me. The 1838 Rendezvous Association has welcomed me with genuine hospitality over the years. I am looking forward to returning in July to participate in the annual reenactment and sign copies of my novel." Glise was born and raised in Texas and moved to Tennessee where she earned a B.F.A. in painting, printmaking and sculpture from the University of Memphis. She met and married her husband at MSU and moved to Newnan, Georgia in 1981. Glise earned a M.Ed. in media education from the State University of West Georgia in 1992. She has worked as a media specialist for six years. After she finished her novel in 1999, she and her family moved to Washington. She presently lives in Olympia, Washington with her husband and daughter. Glise is a member of the American Association of University Women, the American Library Association, Washington Education Association, National Education Association, the Washington Library Media Association, and Women Writing the West. She is also an associate member of the Western Writers of America. She is currently writing a non-fiction book for young adults on the Rocky Mountain fur trade which includes the biographies of ten trappers.

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Sample Excerpt

They rode hard. Late afternoon they arrived at the location Russell had been telling her about for two days. He was true to his word, Sarah saw the panoramic view of the five mountain ranges and felt their raw power. She had been drawn to the mountains as if they were a magnet. By rising above the dwellings of men she had left behind all low and earthly regions. She had climbed above herself. She had seen pictures of the earth from the moon, but she had never witnessed the infinite horizon line of the life God had given her. She felt as though God, like her Father when she was a small child, had hoisted her on His shoulders to gaze at His handiwork. She was reminded of Genesis, "On the second day God created the land, and it was good."

The mountains, each slightly different in their persona, were over-whelming in their size and grandeur; a great presence seemed to hover over the ranges. They possessed unimaginable mystery and splendor, and were the home of the fierce, powerful, natural elements beyond human control and the dangerous haunts of the gods. As far as she could see the horizon receded in the distance, revealing ridge after ridge of mountain ranges without end; a pathway to heaven, to the moon, and to the stars. Ruskin described mountains as great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by continual stars. Soon Albert Bierdstadt would capture the rugged wildness of the Rockies in his paintings, and America would have its first glimpse of their majestic grandeur.

Perhaps it was the danger inherent in the mountains that fueled the mythology of their wild regions. Sarah was sure it was not simply financial gain that brought men like Osborne to the Rocky Mountains. Careless individuals did not live long; a slight mistake or a disregard for the weather cost a man his life.

"Think of the years that went by," said Russell in a whisper, "without any man watching."

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Catalogue Information

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