HOWIN' THE CORN

One childhood. Two loyalties. A past neither can escape.

Before they wear different uniforms, Andrew May and Byram Combs are two boys growing up on the same ground in eastern Kentucky.

Andrew belongs to a family of wealth and standing. Byram is the son of a hired farmhand. Between chores, river adventures, and secrets kept from their fathers, they build a friendship that seems stronger than the differences between their homes.

But beyond their childhood refuge lies a world shaped by slavery, unequal power, and expectations neither boy fully understands. As they grow into men, family obligations and political convictions push them toward opposing sides of the American Civil War.

The boy who once knew every secret becomes a man whose loyalty can no longer be taken for granted.

As war reaches into their mountain communities, suspicion turns familiar faces into threats. Decisions made in the name of duty carry consequences that follow them beyond the battlefield. And the friendship that once offered shelter becomes inseparable from the memories, grief, and guilt neither man can leave behind.

Set amid the rivers, farms, and mountain roads of Appalachia, Howin' the Corn blends Civil War historical fiction with psychological suspense in a story of friendship tested by class, betrayal, and the struggle to live with what cannot be undone.

When the person across the divide knows you better than anyone, what does it mean to call him an enemy?