Brief Interview with Best-Selling author M.B. Tosi
1) Tell us about your second book, The Secret Path of Destiny.
Throughout all centuries, people wonder who they are, why they’re here, and what their purpose is. It is no different for Isolde, a young German-American woman in 1865 in The Secret Path of Destiny, which is Book Two in The Indian Path Series about Native American tribes in the late 1800s.
Life is tough for Isolde. She has a disability, her father has just died, and she and her mother are destitute in New York City. Suddenly, they’re offered a lifeline by a widower in the German town of Fredericksburg, Texas, and the two travel through the aftermath of the Civil War. But another war is brewing, this time with Native Americans, and Isolde and her mother unknowingly head into the heart of Comancheria, the homeland of the Comanche.
It is not the Comanche Isolde comes to fear, but her mother’s new employer, who becomes her stepfather. Isolde realizes he is a cunning man who is not who he pretends to be. As the situation worsens, Isolde is forced to make a life-changing decision to escape; desperate, she seeks refuge with a Comanche Indian, who befriends her at first, but later joins a warring band of Comanche. Her wicked stepfather pursues her across Texas, turning her life upside down.
In the midst of her troubles, Isolde wonders the same things we all wonder at some time in our lives. Why is my life so hard? Is this rocky path my destiny? Isolde’s journey to understand her life becomes our journey to understand our own lives. And it comes down to the same basic questions–Can you choose your destiny, or does your destiny choose you?
2) What do you like about writing?
I love to do research! Although my goal is always to present a captivating fictional story that wraps up a reader’s interest from beginning to end, I also want to present historical settings vividly and accurately. I want readers to feel the authenticity of the setting and that they’re really there walking the same dusty paths. So, if I describe a town like Fredericksburg in the 1860s, I’ve based my descriptions on records from that period which told about the buildings and businesses. If I tell about a peace conference, I’ve based it on eyewitness accounts of what the encampment actually looked like and what the participants did during the conference. In my first book when I described the Sand Creek Massacre, I relied on Congressional testimony of eyewitnesses. I hope my readers come away from my books not only with a thought-provoking and inspirational story, but with a sense of history and actually being there.
3) What’s down the road for you in writing?
The next two manuscripts of The Indian Path Series are finished and ready to be published, and Book Five is well underway. Book Three is called The Crimson Path of Honor, and it is about a young Boston teacher who is headed to teach in the Oregon territory by stagecoach. She is captured by a band of Lakota (Sioux). In Book Four, The Thundering Path of Spirit, the defining historical event is the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Crow Indian involvement as scouts for the military. Book Five, which I’m currently working on, is about the Nez Perce in Idaho and their final battle before surrendering. All of my books have the element of romance with characters being thrust into life situations not of their choosing, yet making the best of their circumstances. The theme of The Indian Path Series is how to find a path of peace, love, faith, and courage in times of trouble.
About Tracy Riva
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