Jim Morris was born and raised in the Owens Valley, with parents and grandparents I earned BS, MBA, and PhD degrees in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and taught finance at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Houston, and the University of Colorado, Denver, where I retired as a Professor Emeritus. I live in Denver, but a part of me will always belong to the Owens Valley.Even though my academic training and career were in finance, I have an enduring interest in history, particularly the history of California. As a child, I listened to the stories of the people who experienced the events fictionally portrayed in this novel. I have enjoyed translating some of those accounts into what I hope is an interesting and fun-to-read story. I hope you, the reader, will forgive the liberties I have taken with reality to paint a picture of the conflict over water in the early 20th Century. ---- Jim Morris