Thom's commitment to obtaining factual evidence as a basis for his novels leads him to seek out not only public documentation of historical events, but also those individuals, such as members of the Shawnee nation, who have preserved the past through generations of oral history. Believing that "character is a product of one's landscape," Thom uses his respect for and knowledge of the skills, resourcefulness, and self-reliance of contemporary "hill people" to re-create a visceral sense of living in the past. Filmed before the scenery of his rural Southern Indiana homestead, novelist James Alexander Thom talks about the philosophies and methods that frame his historical fiction.
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