How many of you remember the song “I’ve got a mule, and her name is Sal…Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.” ? I remember singing that in elementary school.

A few years ago a friend and I drove north from Kentucky to Amish country in Central Ohio, and on our way passed a canal boat in Ohio near the village of Roscoe and Coshocton, Ohio, off Hwy 81. My friend Jane said she had always wanted to ride it but couldn’t get any of her family or friends to do it with her, so I said I would do it on our way back, and I am so glad we did .  It was a very relaxing, serene trip down the canal in a wooden boat pulled by a horse. The only sounds were the lapping of the water against the sides of the boat and the hooves of the horse—no engines or machines.

Little did I know that a couple years later I would be travelling that same highway to research a book for Barbour Publishing about a canal boat driver and the girl he fell in love with. I had read about a non-fiction book about the building of the Erie Canal and sent a synopsis for a fictional collection to Rebecca Germany of Barbour. She told me to put one together and send it to her, so I did. Now that book is releasing today— on March 1^st, all in The Erie Brides Collection.

My novella Pressing On is one of seven in the collection from 1817 when the canal was first being built in Little Falls, New York, until 1859 in the town of Albion, New York.

In between those stories are three more set in New York, and two more in Ohio where my story and one by Johnnie Alexander both take place.

Pressing On:  As a child, Amanda Mack loved her life in Zoar, Ohio where she was born to Separatists who had helped build the canal. Now an adult (1857), she starts to chafe at its many restrictions. After meeting riverboat captain Daniel Jeremiah, they both must make decisions about their futures.

About the Author

Rose Allen McCauley has been writing since she retired from teaching school and joined American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). She is thrilled for this to be her third collection with Barbour and her seventh published work. She and her spouse just celebrated their golden anniversary with their three children and their spouses and now six grandchildren! She loves to hear from her readers.

https://rosemccauley.com/