Tomorrow, Next Year

In the mid 1800’s, the forward movement within the interior British Columbia lands were cattle, with their ’drovers’, from as far south as Wyoming.

TOMORROW, NEXT YEAR is a fictionalized, historical novel, centered in the beginnings, on Charles Donovan and Thomas Greenhow’s arrival, with their hundreds of animals, driven north, through their many month cattle drive toward the grasslands of the central Okanagan Valley. Today much of that ranch land is now enriched by grape vines and the growing picturesque cities of Vernon and Kelowna. It was no easy task to endure the ups and downs of cattle prices, the unforseen weather changes during the 115 years which the novel follows, as the ranchers in low tone resignation whispered: ’tomorrow? next year? prices will be better. The novel follows the changes of the valley from sternwheelers to steamships, to the railroad, from the activites at the Father Pandosy Mission, the early Fintry dairy farm, to the gatherings at the Naramata Theatre, through the losses of two World Wars, and through the trends for more focus on fruit growing, and the loss of cattle ranges; as these two stalwart ranchers try to hang on through three more equally dedicated generations.