James D. Shipman is a northwest author and attorney. He has two current titles "Constantinopolis," a historical novel of the fall of Constantinople and "Willie-Washer's Local No. 38," a fantasy comedy. Mr. Shipman graduated from the University of Washington with a history degree in 1995 and from Gonzaga University in 1998. He practices law in Everett, Washington. He has also published a number of short stories and poems.

Joseph Forsyth is the Irish immigrant son of a jobless alcoholic. Indentured to a printer as an apprentice at age 11, Joseph is subject to abuse and alienation before escaping to join his extended family in update New York. Forced to pay his father's debt to save the family farm, he sacrifices his own happiness and freedom, but wins admiration in his small town due to his hard work and gentle nature. Joseph courts and wins the hand of Lucy Hastings, a young woman from a wealthy and well-established family, but he soon learns she is spoiled and narcissistic. Ultimately, he is forced by the financial strain of his wife and family to take a bounty and join the 186th New York Regiment. The regiment is rushed through minimal training and into the siege of Petersburg where he experiences the horrors of the civil war.  When he awakes in the hospital from grave wounds sustained in battle in Petersburg, Virginia, he learns his family has been tragically killed in an arson fire, set by thugs pursuing his father to settle a gambling debt.

Despite having fallen deeply in love with his nurse, he decides to make his way back to Macomb to help his family. He learns that his wife Lucy was not at the Forsyth home the night of the murders, as she was giving birth to their new daughter Lucinda.  Joseph is relieved but still facing the loss of his father, step-mother, step-sister, and his three-year-old daughter. Faced with the choice of moving in with his wife's family or starting fresh, Joseph finally confronts Lucy with a choice: come and live a new life with me or go home to your father and your childhood luxury.  Lucy chooses Joseph. Finally free of the burdens he has suffered from, Joseph starts his over with Lucy.