A soaring chronicle of an Appalachian family torn between blue and gray.
On the frozen banks of Troublesome Creek in Breathitt County, Kentucky, young Shadrach "Rebel Shade" Combs grows up wild and fearless, the second son of the county's first judge. Alongside his brothers Henderson and Jeremiah, Shade knows a world of snowball fights, one-room schoolhouses, and the rugged rhythms of Appalachian life. But the America beyond their mountain hollow is fracturing, and a war is coming that will force neighbors, friends, and even kin to choose sides.
When the Civil War reaches the hills of Eastern Kentucky, the Combs, Noble, Allen, and Landrum families find themselves swept into a conflict that defies simple loyalties. Some choose blue. Others choose gray. The reasons are as tangled as the creeks that carve through their homeland. For Shade, the war will demand everything: his youth, his certainty, and nearly his life. Three marriages, decades of hardship, and secrets buried in separate cemeteries mark the long toll of a nation divided.
A Time For Every Season is a sweeping, meticulously researched novel drawn from real family histories and oral traditions passed down through generations. In a story that stretches from 1850 to the scarred aftermath of Reconstruction, one question echoes across the mountains and across the centuries: when a house divides against itself, what survives?
Paul David Combs is a retired international educator who dedicated forty years to serving as a Teacher, Principal, and Head of School across seven countries. His extensive career in education cultivated a lifelong commitment to research, storytelling, and bringing history to life for diverse audiences. Combs's passion for history runs far deeper than events and dates. Drawn to the human stories beneath the surface, he spent years researching his own great-grandfather, Rebel Shade Combs, and the families who helped settle Breathitt County, Kentucky. That research became A Time for Every Season, a historical novel that illuminates the historically marginalized communities of Appalachia during the nineteenth century. The book explores why some families chose blue and others chose gray, weaving together the emotions, physical challenges, and demanding environment of Eastern Kentucky from 1850 to 1891. In doing so, Combs breaks new ground in Civil War fiction by centering voices and experiences too often left out of the broader narrative. An avid traveler, Combs and his wife, Antoinette, have experienced the sights, sounds, and cultures of seventy-one countries around the world. That global perspective deepened his appreciation for how communities everywhere navigate conflict and reconciliation, themes that pulse through every chapter of his writing. Follow Paul David Combs for updates on new releases.
