A Thread of Gold - A historical fiction novel

A Historical Novel by R. Reed Johnson

Short Biography

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Shadycroft Farm

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by Steve Voynick,
Colorado Central Magazine

Author and his beloved 1954 Willys Jeep - both have explored a lot of
Colorado High Country over the years. Keith Clerihue, Photographer

I am a third generation Coloradoan, born at Saint Lukes Hospital in Denver on December 25th 1921. I grew up on Shadycroft Farm in Littleton, Colorado. I received the first twelve years of my schooling in Littleton and Denver schools and my college education at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Initially I was enrolled in the journalism department and later changed to pre-med. My medical training was at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, where I graduated in July 1945. After completion of my internship at the naval hospital at Balboa Park in San Diego in July of 1946, I spent the following two years on active overseas duty in the navy.

Reed and Tee Upon returning, I completed two years of residency training in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in Denver, after which I spent the following forty years in the practice of pediatrics in southeast Denver. In 1956, after my mother died, my wife, Tee, our three children and I moved back to Shadycroft Farm in order to be able to live near my father, Julius, who was living on a fifteen acre remnant of the old farm – the remainder of it having been sold in 1948. We built a home on a five-acre site given us by my father – including a new pond that my dad and the soil conservation people had created. There, we raised our three children to maturity – mainly my wife’s doing, I fear, for I was kept busy with my practice until I retired in late 1989.

Since that time, I have been largely occupied by maintaining our five acres. Fortunately, I am an avid landscaper and flower gardener, although as I grow older I have begun to question the “avid” part of that statement somewhat. For the last twelve years, when not gardening, I have been engrossed in writing and editing my novel. It is my first literary effort since my early college days in Boulder, and I regret that I didn’t start writing sooner, for I truly enjoyed researching and writing this novel. Partly, I suspect because the Robby Johnson in the story and I are one and the same. I must say, however, that Robby had a far more exciting time of it back in 1932 than I ever recall having. When I began to write this novel I didn’t realize the amount of time and effort it takes to research such a large amount of historical fact and to work it into the fabric of the story. If I hadn’t enjoyed doing it so much I probably would have quit. But fortunately – or unfortunately, I’m not quite sure which -- I tend to be a compulsive perfectionist as well as stubborn, so I finally brought it to completion.

R. Reed Johnson

A Thread of Gold is available now. Ordering information can be found here!

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