Arkansas Valley is a series of Christian Western novels by California native R. William Rodgers. The first novel of the Arkansas Valley series was Toward a New Beginning that was first published in 2002 to be the first of the still popular and ongoing series. While he was born in a relatively urban town of California, Rodgers moved to Colorado in 1981 and draws much of the inspiration for his Westerns from his life there. Even as the series was his most popular it was not his first endeavor at writing as he started writing fiction in 1997 while he was vacationing in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. His desire to pursue a career in fiction writing was inspired by reading the novels of Al Lacy the Evangelist/Author. It was after his wife, friends …show more content…
Despite his success he envies the many people he sees heading for the West and wants to join them. It is not long before he manages to convince his wife to pack up their bags, leave their profitable business and together with their three year old son go into the vast unknown of the West. It turns out to be one of the most fun adventures they have ever had or even imagined. It is journey of survival and hardship that is punctuated by romance, courage, vengeance, water shortages, hunger, Native American raids, raging river crossings, clash of personalities, dangerous weather, and biblical principles. The travelers’ ability to protect themselves from all the dangers of the Wild West is tested to the limit as the Indians mercilessly attack and harass the wagons sometimes causing devastation on the weary traveler’s trains. At one time four children are taken by the warriors severely testing the spirit of the pioneers even as a handful of them volunteer to go try to rescue them. It does not get any better when the men are thoroughly beaten in their attempts at rescue forcing them to come back with nothing. It is a truly trying time as the travelers do the unthinkable and continue on their journey even as they do their best to keep off the villages the Indians are known to inhabit. With hopes of ever being reunited with their loved ones fading every day, it is up to the women to cheer up the camp with beautiful songs of better days to