"Whenever I begin work on a new book, I am reborn into a new world."
  Woman of Courage.

Mary Ingles was a twenty-three, happily married, and pregnant with her third child when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement in 1755 and kidnapped her, leaving behind a bloody massacre. For months, they held her captive. But nothing could imprison her spirit.

With the rushing Ohio River as her guide. Mary Ingles walked one thousand miles through an untamed wilderness no white woman had ever seen. Her story lives on  extraordinary testimony to the indomitable strength of one pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her own people.


Authors Note: "Among the annals of Indian captivity there are many which recount suffering and tortures one can hardly imagine, and there were several escapes that seemed all but incredible. But the one I have treated in this book is, to me, the most amazing and inspiring. It is one of those focused demonstrations of what the human spirit not just the hardened, trained spirit of the professional soldier or adventurer, but the spirit of a vulnerable, frightened, "ordinary" person  can endure."



Home
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About my Life
Writing Historical Fiction
Warrior Woman
St. Patrick's Battaltion
Sign Talker
Panther in the Sky
Follow the River
Long Knife
The Children of First Man
From Sea to Shining Sea
Staying Out of Hell
Red Heart
Spectator Sport
The Spirit of the Place
Dark Rain Thom
Kohkumthena's Grandchildren The Shawnee
Kohkumthena's Grandchildren The Shawnee
By Dark Rain
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New Information
                                  THOM NOVELS GOING ELECTRONIC                                  

             Six of James Alexander Thom's historical novels have been selected to be included in Random House's Electronic Book (ebook) publishing program.
             The titles chosen for such formats as Amazon Kindle, iPod, and
         the Sony Reader are:
           LONG KNIFE
           FOLLOW THE RIVER
           THE RED HEART
           SIGN-TALKER
           FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
           PANTHER IN THE SKY 

             The author finds the news good, but ironic, musing, "I use every bit of my skill  and imagination to take my readers hundreds of years into the past -- and now they'll visit those old days through the screen of an electronic gizmo." 


I am returning to the internet after a long absence.

My new email address is docthomdotcom@gmail.com
Contact me by email for book orders, lecture requests, etc.

In the Spring 2014, I was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame (I was a newspaper and magazine journalist and a lecturer at the Indiana University School of Journalism before becoming a full-time auther.)

My textbook "The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction," first published by Writer's Digest Books, was selected by the Indiana State Library in 2011 as Best Book on Nonfiction.

In 2009, I was the inaugural winner of the annual Indiana Authers Award, National Category.

A memoir is in progress; it will be published in 2015 by Hawthorne Press. Part of the memoir will be a reprise of the textbook "the Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction," which sold out in its Writer's DIgest edition.
First Editions are available
SIGN-TALKER -$20 inc. postage
WARRIOR WOMAN-$20 inc. postage
both in hardcover
SAINT PATRICK'S BATTALION - $20
inc. postage
STAYING OUT OF HELL- is out of print
reissue will be announced.
Autographed for the reader.
Designate the person to whom you want it signed and order at:
docthomdotcom@gmail.com
or send order and check to
James Alexander Thom
6276 West Stogsdill Rd.
Bloomington, IN 47404
email me
email me
Fire in the Water
“It takes a rare individual not only to see that history can live, but also to make it live for others.  James Thom has that gift.” – The Indianapolis News