Alva Review-Courier -

Choose a familiar location, but set the time back to the late 1800s. Add a batch of historical research to family stories. Then develop a mostly fictional family and weave a story around their characters and the unfolding events in the area for nearly a century. These themes in the skilled hands of author Rock Neelly form a fascinating picture of life along the Salt Fork River in northern Woods County, Oklahoma.

"It's about my family. My great-grandfather homesteaded on the Salt Fork River, about four miles south of Kiowa, Kansas, during the Oklahoma land run of 1893," Neelly said. "He and...