CK Van Dam is a daughter of the Dakota prairies. With degrees in History and Journalism, she has embarked on a second career to create stories about the strong women who have built our nation and our world.

Her debut novel, Proving Her Claim, received two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America: Best Western Romance and Best First novel. The inspiration for the book came from historical records that found 42 percent of women homesteaders successfully proved up their claims, while only 37 percent of the men received title to their lands.

Lone Tree Claim, the second book in the “Claim” series, tells the story of a Civil War widow who comes to Dakota Territory after the devastation of war. As a woman alone on the frontier, she fought nature as well as powerful cattle ranchers.

She is currently working on the story of another pioneer woman in Dakota Territory.