The Journey Continues
The second novel in The 500-Year Journey has officially arrived.
The 500-Year Journey Series
The Night the Bells Burned
Book I - Every family has a beginning. This one begins in fire.
In 1544, Cornelis Schutt gave his wife his word: their children would grow up free. Now the Spanish Empire is teaching him what that promise will cost.
A neighbor is dragged from his home in the night. A baker’s family burns in the square. Cornelis believes that if he stays quiet, bows his head, and endures, his family might survive.
He is wrong.
From the blood-soaked snow of Naarden to the siege of Alkmaar, The Night the Bells Burned follows one family driven into a world of fear, faith, sacrifice, and impossible choices. As Spanish occupation tightens its grip, the Schutts must decide what can be endured, what must be risked, and how much a father can lose before silence becomes surrender.
Empire’s Cost: Forged in Paper
Book II - The fires of empire have passed. The age of commerce has begun.
The Schutt family survived the fires of persecution. Now empire has found colder weapons.
Amsterdam, 1595. Ships crowd the harbor, fortunes change hands in counting houses, and the newly formed Dutch East India Company promises ordinary families a share in an extraordinary future. But every voyage carries a cost—and every signature leaves a mark.
Continue the journey that began with The Night the Bells Burned.
Eight books. Five centuries. One family carrying its name through history.
The River Carves the Stone
The Schutt family crossed an ocean to escape the old world. But the new world keeps its own ledgers.
Jan Willemszen Schutt — called Hawk by those who cannot hold his Dutch name — arrives in New Amsterdam with tools, debts, children, and a wife who sees danger before he can name it. The Atlantic has taken enough from them already. Now the West India Company measures every mouth, every nail, every name, and every man by what he can produce.
The river promises land. It also promises exposure.
Book III - The fire burned. The debt was counted. Now the river takes its due.
Watchfires on the Hill
The Schutts’ ancestors fled an empire in search of freedom. Now their descendants must decide what that freedom is worth defending.
As the American Revolution divides colonies, communities, and families, the Schutts find themselves caught between loyalty and independence. War reaches beyond the battlefield, threatening their home, their livelihood, and the bonds holding one generation to the next.
Across the hills, watchfires signal danger. Within the family, another struggle is unfolding over duty, sacrifice, and the meaning of the name they have carried through centuries.
Watchfires on the Hill is a sweeping historical novel about a family enduring revolution and discovering that independence is never inherited without cost.
Book V - An empire was escaped. A nation is being born. The family must endure both.
Reviews of The Night the Bells Burned
Watch the trailer…
Book trailer for The Night the Bells Burned by William H. Brothers
Coming soon: The 500-Year Journey, Book III
The River Carves the Stone
New Netherland, 1638…
Rich in frontier danger, family stakes, and historical atmosphere, The River Carves the Stone is a gripping historical thriller about survival, identity, land, and the cost of beginning again.
The fire burned. The debt was counted. Now the river takes its due.
