Wixumlee Is My Salvation

Book excerpt: Wixumlee Is My Salvation is the second book in Georgia Ann Mullen's Canal Tales Series. After a brutal fight with slave catchers, Tess, her brother Cooper, and Beany travel the Erie Canal to its end in Buffalo, New York. When a fearsome woman named Wixumlee kidnaps Beany, Tess and her friend Lucy become entangled in the daring slave rescues of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Tess is not the bold young woman she was a month ago. Pushed by the formidable Wixumlee, she struggles and fails as a reluctant Railroad conductor. Tess ranks at the bottom of Wixumlee's gang of abolitionists in terms of both skill and acceptance. The loyal Larkin, a pistol-packing gypsy named Mariana, and the heavily tattooed Quin offer more insults than encouragement. Only young Talbot and his one-eyed mama Savannah are sympathetic to Tess' many mistakes. Tess' anxiety swells when no one but she believes the puzzling Nicky Pappo is a slave catcher. Turned cowardly by bloodshed on the towpath, Tess toils against Wixumlee's dubious influence over Beany to win back her friend and regain her own lost courage. Georgia Ann Mullen is the author of A Shocking & Unnatural Incident, historical fiction about the First Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Tess, Beany and Lucy's lives reflect the issues leading up to that convention. Read how temperance, abolition and female sovereignty influence their lives at www.georgiamullen.com. Georgia has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer and editor. Living in western New York and writing articles about the Erie Canal and local history sparked ideas for her Canal Tales Series. She is writing the third book, Beau Maas at Stop 99, at home in Wilmington, North Carolina.