Friday, September 27, 2024

'Tho I Be Mute


Good morning, dear readers! Heather Miller is here to share an excerpt from her novel, 'Tho I Be Mute. You may remember her visiting before, with a snippet from Yellow Bird's Song. Based on a true story, Miller's novels dig into the history of the Ridge family and their removal from Cherokee Territory in the early 19th century.

Welcome, Heather!

~ Samantha
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Tho I Be Mute: An Excerpt

Guest Post by Heather Miller 

“Fly,” Clarinda Ridge Skili

I awoke to shaking floors from the successive beats of wooden-heeled boots against the hardwood. The vibrations were weighty, not the same as those made by my skinny brothers running through the house with calloused feet. The shakes came from intrusive brutes gathering strength from their unified purpose. 

In our room, ten-year-old Susan woke and picked up a crying Flora from her pallet on the floor. She swayed with Flora, listening at the door. I rose and brought both to my bed. We scurried under the covers and curled into one another, while I held onto their shaking shifts. We were too frightened to go outside; we were too frightened to move anything more than our eyes, staring at the lighted gap under the door.

Susan’s body shook when bare feet followed the boots. The first were Mama’s. Another pair followed. My brother Rollin was at her heels.

Susan’s body jolted at another sound I couldn’t know. Then, she covered her face with the quilt and held it against her ears with her hands. She heard what I could not. Mama was screaming.

Susan’s first tear ushered in sobs when stillness and sunlight peered under the crack. ‘Tho I be mute, I knew then that more than the morning sun slid under our bedroom door. The Angel of Death arrived with no warning, like a Passover ghost, and cast us in mourning night with its light.

Papa flew to the Nightland, June 22, 1839. Twenty-five men drug him from his pallet on the floor and tried to kill him, but the gun misfired. So, they unsheathed their knives and drug him outside. Mama and Rollin ran after them, but the warriors, still wielding pistol and rifle, surrounded her and my brother, crossed the barrels, and held them back. 

Mama’s hysterical tears did nothing to deter the assassins. 




Clarinda faces a moment of profound reality—a rattlesnake bite, a harbinger of her imminent mortality—and undertakes an introspective journey. In her final days, she immortalizes not only her own story but that of her parents—a narrative steeped in her family’s insights into Cherokee heritage during the tumultuous years preceding the forced removal of Native communities.

In 1818, Clarinda’s father, Cherokee John Ridge, embarks on a quest for a young man’s education at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. Amidst sickness, he finds solace and love with Sarah, the steward’s quiet daughter. Despite enduring two years of separation, defamatory editorials, and societal upheaval due to their interracial love affair, the resilient couple weds in 1824. This marks the inception of a journey for Sarah as she delves into a world both cherished and feared—Cherokee Territory. As John Ridge advocates for the preservation of his people’s land and that of his Muskogee Creek neighbors against encroaching Georgia settlers and unscrupulous governmental officials, the stakes are high. His success or failure hinges on his ability to balance his proud Cherokee convictions with an intricate understanding of American law. Justice remains uncertain.

Grounded in a true story, ‘Tho I Be Mute resonates with a compelling historical narrative, giving an intimate voice to those heard, those ignored, those speechless, urging readers to not only hear but to truly listen.

Connect with the Author:

History is better than fiction.
We all leave a legacy.

As an English educator, Heather Miller has spent twenty-four years teaching her students the author’s craft. Now, she’s writing it herself, hearing voices from the past. Heather earned her MFA in creative writing in 2022 and is teaching high school as well as college composition courses. 

Miller’s foundation began in the theatre, through performance storytelling. She can tap dance, stage-slap someone, and sing every note from Les Miserables. But by far, her favorite role has been as a fireman’s wife and mom to three: a trumpet player, a future civil engineer, and a RN. Alas, there’s only one English major in her house.

Heather continues writing the Ridge Family Saga. Her current work-in-progress, Stands, concludes the Ridge Family Saga. 

Connect with Heather on her websiteTwitterFacebookAmazon Author PageGoodreadsTikTok



Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Bandy: An Excerpt


Hello, dear readers! My guest today shares an excerpt from Bandy, a story of a boy so lonely he befriends a pigeon and a young enslaved girl who plans to escape through the Underground Railroad. Sounds like a unique and touching adventure!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bandy: An Excerpt

Guest Post by Craig R Hipkins

The afternoon dragged along. Every cracking branch put Isaac on his guard. He kept the derringer loaded and at half cock. Joy had another episode and this one was longer than the one she had earlier in the day. Isaac had kept her as comfortable as possible next to the fire.

As nightfall approached, she felt much better, and they each ate a stale biscuit and a few slabs of bacon. It was a lean meal, but enough to give them energy to continue on their way.

They decided to use the railroad. There was a stillness in the air, and they would be able to hear the clomping of hooves if any horses approached. Isaac prayed Joy wouldn’t have another one of her headaches. They seemed to come on with little warning and were debilitating.

A short time later, they passed by another small village of ramshackle houses. Isaac noticed a blacksmith’s shop. The smithy, a raw-boned man with bulging biceps was hard at work at the forge and did not even notice their passing. The glowing light of a furnace left them longing for the warmth of a fire. With any luck they would be in Portsmouth by midnight.

They were about a mile past the forge when the sound of a neighing horse grabbed their attention and they quickly darted off the tracks into a stand of pines. They crouched down behind some brambles and waited.

A lone horseman came into view. He was a thickset man with a dark beard riding a large stallion, his menacing profile bathed in the moonlight. Isaac immediately felt a gnawing wave of fear in the pit of his stomach. The mounted man had obviously seen them. He had stopped and was peering in their general direction. He was most certainly a bounty hunter.

Isaac quietly pulled his derringer from his small holster and capped it. He felt Joy’s hand find his free one. They glanced at each other nervously.

“Come on out, yuh murderin’ boy! I done seen yuh along with that little slave girl yuh travelin’ with!”

Isaac’s pulse began to race. If he were older, he would pull this man from the saddle and pummel him for that comment.

“Let’s go, boy! I ain’t got all day now. Yuh come outta those bushes and don’t give me no trouble and ah’ll make sure yuh git a fair trial. If not, it ain’t gonna go well with yuh!”

Isaac weighed his options. The way he looked at it, he had three. He could surrender—an option which he immediately dismissed. His second option was to fight it out with the man. He had the drop on him but surely the bounty hunter had a weapon of some kind on his person, almost certainly a revolver, which would neutralize his one-shot derringer. His third and final option was to sit still and do nothing. Let the bounty hunter come to them. There was a chance, albeit a slim one, that he would not find them in the darkness. He chose option number three and quietly whispered his intentions to Joy, who wholly agreed with him. They waited. They would let their pursuer make the next move.




Isaac’s only friend is a passenger pigeon named Bandy. He deludes himself in believing the bird talks to him. Bullied, he is resigned to a life of being the misunderstood bookworm by neighboring boys until a disastrous fire kills his parents and little sisters, sparing only his younger brother, Thomas. He and Thomas are taken in by their Uncle Raymond, an abolitionist, who plans to send Isaac to Virginia to buy Joy, a young slave with debilitating health, from her slave owner, Wil Jericho. Shortly after arriving in Virginia, Isaac learns the ugly truth. The butler who accompanied him on the journey killed his uncle before leaving and plans to do the same to Isaac to steal Raymond’s estate.

Isaac, with Joy, escape into the backwoods of Virginia. Discovering passages of the Underground Railroad, stowing away in carriages, hiding in churches, and outwitting the mercenaries hired by Jericho, the two teens fight tooth and nail to make it to Boston before they’re caught. Will Joy be taken from this life by sickness before she’s found freedom? On their journey, they learn a lot about each other. Isaac promises to bring Joy to Bandy's pond, a heavenly place where peace and serenity reign.



Connect with the Author

Craig R. Hipkins grew up in Hubbardston Massachusetts. He is the author of medieval and gothic fiction. His novel Adalbert is the sequel to Astrolabe written by his late twin brother Jay S. Hipkins (1968-2018) He is an avid long distance runner and enjoys astronomy in his spare time.




Thursday, September 12, 2024

A Slice of Medieval

I had great fun chatting with Sharon Bennett Connolly and Derek Birks on this "Going Rogue" episode of A Slice of Medieval. When Sharon first contacted me, I thought she would want to discuss the Wars of the Roses, but we did a REALLY rogue talk about women of the American Revolution instead! So, here I am talking to my British friends about us winning our independence. 

Give it a listen!



Friday, September 6, 2024

New Trilogy!


Hey, dear readers! I'm thrilled to announce that I have signed a contract with Sapere Books to write a Wars of the Roses trilogy. I'm excited to return to the era that first got me writing and take a deep dive into the experiences of women like Cecily Neville, Margaret of Anjou, and Anne Beauchamp - just to start with. As we progress through this tumultuous era, more women's voices will be heard, and you might start having trouble deciding if you're a Lancastrian or a Yorkist.

Can you think of any 15th century women who don't typically have their story told? Let me know in the comments below, and I will do my best to work them in. 

In the meantime, you can check out my Plantagenet Embers series, starting with the story of Elizabeth of York.

If you like to be the first to get news like this, sign up for my newsletter. You can also follow me on Facebook or Instagram. Happy reading!

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

A Most Unsettled Man

 


Good morning, dear readers! Today, I'm happy to welcome Lily Style with an excerpt from her new biography of George Matcham, A Most Unsettled Man. Happy reading!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt: A Most Unsettled Man

Guest Post by Lily Style

George’s life had been mapped and pinned down from the moment his parents sent him to school in England. His further education in the Company’s required subjects of double-entry bookkeeping and mathematics had been part of his preordained career. When he’d returned home to Bombay, the Company viewed him as a freshly-milled cog to strengthen the workings of their ever-expanding, capitalist empire machine.

…With Scindia’s imminent return hovering as an ever-present black cloud, George set about overseeing the profitability of Broach’s calico production. This may, initially, have felt like an easy option compared with facing the Maratha army. However, the cloth-making process required the labour of thousands of local workers to churn out piece-goods in a similar fashion to present-day sweatshops. Though mercantile and privileged, George was deeply moved by “the misery of the people, and waste of fine agricultural land.” He filled journals with ambitious plans to improve conditions for Broach’s cotton workers.

On top of this, when not worried for the local workforce or the thunderous approach of Scindia’s elephants, young George likely felt bored stiff of being stuck, month after month, and year after year, in the backwater of Broach. After all, he was so innately restless that, in later years, Horatio Nelson’s wife described him as “ever the most unsettled man alive”.


George Matcham, dubbed the most unsettled man alive, was born in East India Company controlled Bombay and undertook three epic overland treks between Asia and England before marrying the favourite sister of the not yet famous Horatio Nelson. Intimate details about George's life have been preserved because of his close relationship with Nelson and his famous paramour Emma Hamilton, whose rises and falls he observed first-hand.

Packed with period press clippings and eyewitness accounts, A Most Unsettled Man provides an unprecedented glimpse into the private life of a modest 18th century English gentleman, as well retelling the enduring love story of Nelson and Emma from an entirely new perspective.

A Most Unsettled Man is available from Historium Press on Amazon US and Amazon UK.



Connect with the Author


Lily Style is the direct descendant of famed lovers Admiral Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton and also Nelson's sister, Kitty Matcham (because their grandchildren married).

Lily is the founder of Emma Hamilton Society and writes regularly for Nelson-related publications. She is also a keen genealogist with an interest in piecing together real human stories lying behind dry facts. 

One of these stories is of her 4th great-grandfather, George Matcham, whose story she's traced from his mid eighteenth-century birth in East India Company controlled Bombay through to his intimate involvement with Nelson and Emma's rise and fall.

Connect with Lily on her Website, Facebook, Amazon Author Page, and Goodreads.



Saturday, August 3, 2024

Election of 1824


If you think today's politics are getting a bit crazy . . . well, they are, but it's not the first time. Two hundred years ago, the election of 1824 was dramatic in a way that hasn't been repeated since. 

To start with, voters chose between four candidates, who were all nominally part of the same party. The Federalists had faded into obscurity, so everyone was a Democratic-Republican, with neither of those words meaning exactly what we mean when we use them.

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson, famous for his victory at New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812, put himself forward as the "common man" choice, and voters have proved time and again that they love a good war hero. He was bombastic and authoritarian. (There's a reason you see articles claiming that Trump is bringing back Jacksonian politics.) Jackson did win the popular vote, though that is misleading because not all states selected electors through popular vote in 1824. He did not have enough electoral votes to win.

As another side note - I feel like this article might have lots of side notes. That big win in Louisiana? It actually happened AFTER the treaty was signed to end the war. However, thanks to slow moving news, the two events seemed to occur at the same time and give the public the impression that Jackson had won the war. 

John Quincy Adams


John Quincy Adams was possibly the greatest statesman of that day or any since - seriously, the man started working for the ambassador to Russia at 14 and served the country until he collapsed on the House floor 66 years later. He was of the old school that believed campaigning was in poor taste, a philosophy I wish more modern politicians bought into. JQA became the president when the House of Representatives selected him after no candidate received enough electoral votes. (Incidentally, Adams would have won the electoral college outright if it had not been for the 3/5 compromise then in place that gave slaveholding states a significant advantage over free states.) Unfortunately, Adams was too far ahead of his time, lobbying for national improvements and educational facilities that the American people just weren't ready to support. His failure to connect with the people the way Jackson did caused JQA's reelection campaign to fail in 1828.

Henry Clay


Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser who kept America out of Civil War until after he died, was the third candidate. A slaveholding westerner like Jackson (Kentucky & Tennessee were considered the west then), Clay was popular but never quite grasped the presidency. A case of everyone wanting a moderate until they're given the choice of a moderate, I guess. You don't get a nickname like the Great Compromiser by being too extreme. When it was clear things wouldn't go his way, he threw his support to JQA, infuriating Jackson who called it a 'corrupt bargain.' Oh, what would these guys think of the corrupt bargains we see being made today? And, of course, Jackson made plenty of them himself once he was president.

William Crawford


Finally, the fourth and least remembered candidate was William Crawford. He had been serving as Treasury Secretary, which is likely why James A Hamilton supported his candidacy, though he also admired Adams and Clay. In 1824, the most important issues to James were the nation's finances and strict adherence to the Constitution. James thought Crawford was 'intelligent, well informed, and scrupulously upright.' Crawford died in March 1825, so it is probably best that he didn't win.


It is ironic that James A Hamilton is often referred to as a Jacksonian for serving as that president's temporary Secretary of State and advising him throughout his presidency after Jackson had a huge revenge win (oh no, that also sounds familiar) in 1828. A more careful study of Hamilton's writing reveals that he was not a great supporter of Jackson before or after his presidency. James wrote to almost every president who served during his lifetime, offering his services and advice. Perhaps this is the kind of bipartisanship we can all learn a little bit from.

James A Hamilton believed Jackson's election 'was an event in our country of vast importance, because it violated a course of public policy which received the sanction of the wisest men of the country of all parties, from the adoption of the Constitution. He was elected only because he had been a successful soldier, not having that familiar acquaintance with public affairs which can only come from a stateman.' Jackson was 'wholly uneducated and without talent' though 'his intentions were upright, his integrity unyielding.' He also had some prime words for Jackson's cabinet, but I will save those for another day.

The election of John Quincy Adams in 1824 was controversial with some people never accepting that the result was fair or the will of the people. There truly is nothing new under the sun. It didn't stop each of these men, well other than poor Crawford who died soon afterward, from leaving their marks on history and making a difference in the formation of the United States. 


If you would like to read more about Jackson, Clay, John Quincy Adams, and the drama of the early 19th century, pre-order my biography of James Alexander Hamilton, who had a unique position to observe it all.

Now available for pre-order through my bookshop, Amazon UK, Waterstones

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

The Virgins of Venice


Good morning, dear readers! Join me in welcoming author Gina Buonaguro to the blog today to introduce her novel, The Virgins of Venice. It's a great opportunity to lose yourself in the 16th century.

Welcome, Gina!

~ Samantha 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

The Virgins of Venice

Guest Post by Gina Buonaguro

In sixteenth-century Venice, one young noblewoman dares to resist the choices made for her.

Venice in 1509 is on the brink of war. The displeasure of Pope Julius II is a continuing threat to the republic, as is the barely contained fighting in the countryside. Amid this turmoil, noblewoman Justina Soranzo, just sixteen, hopes to make a rare love marriage with her sweetheart, Luca Cicogna. Her hopes are dashed when her father decides her younger sister, Rosa, will marry in a strategic alliance and Justina will be sent to the San Zaccaria convent, in the tradition of aristocratic daughters. Lord Soranzo is not acting only to protect his family. It’s well known that he is in debt to both his trading partners and the most infamous courtesan in the city, La Diamante, and the pressure is closing in.

After arriving at the convent, Justina takes solace in her aunt Livia, one of the nuns, and in the growing knowledge that all is not strictly devout at San Zaccaria. Justina is shocked to discover how the women of the convent find their own freedom in what seems to her like a prison. But secrets and scandals breach the convent walls, and Justina learns there may be even worse fates for her than the veil, if La Diamante makes good on her threats.

Desperate to protect herself and the ones she loves, Justina turns to Luca for help. She finds she must trust her own heart to make the impossible decisions that may save or ruin them all.






Connect with the author

Gina Buonaguro is the co-author of The Wolves of St. Peters, Ciao Bella and The Sidewalk Artist, as well as several romance titles under the name Meadow Taylor. The Virgins of Venice is her first solo novel.

She has a BA in English from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and earned an MA in English from the University of British Columbia while on a Fulbright Scholarship. Born in New Jersey, Gina Buonaguro lives in Toronto.

Connect with her on her websiteFacebookLinkedIn






Thursday, July 4, 2024

Cover Reveal!

Dear readers, I'm excited to finally share this with you! The cover art for my James A Hamilton biography was designed using a family portrait owned by one of his descendants. I am so thankful that I was put in contact with them through Columbia University during my research. Columbia holds James A Hamilton's former estate, Nevis, and it is now their Nevis Laboratories campus. They have been very supportive of my research, and I loved my visit to James's home. 

The image of the portrait that I was provided with was one that I had not found online or in any library collection during my research, so I was beyond excited when Helen Hamilton Spaulding gave her permission to use it for the cover design by Pen & Sword.


You might also notice James's signature in the background. I've spent so many hours trying to read his letters that I am going to need to schedule an eye exam, but I loved how he ALWAYS included his middle initial reminding everyone of the father of whom he was so proud. 

This book is in the editing stage right now and scheduled for publication in January 2025. I really can't wait to share it with you. It not only examines the life of James Alexander Hamilton, but through his experiences and connections you will relive the early republic era. James was born in the year of the Constitutional Convention, served in the War of 1812, watched his son and nephew leave to fight in the Civil War, and advised countless presidents and leading men of the early nineteenth century. I hope you will enjoy learning more about him and our country's roots.

You can preorder your signed hardcover copy directly through my bookshop.

Thank you for your ongoing support of my writing and this project!


Also available for pre-order at Waterstones and Amazon UK!

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip


Good morning, dear readers! As soon as I read the premise of this novel, I knew it was one to share with you. Gail Ward Olmsted has found a fascinating historical woman to feature, and you all know how I love the kind of story that shines a light on a lady who has been left too much in the historical dark. Read on about Katharine Prescott Wormeley, a Civil War Nurse and road trip adventuress!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip: An Excerpt

Guest Post by Gail Ward Olmsted

The history behind the story:

In the fall of 1907, Katharine decides to drive from Newport, Rhode Island, to her home in Jackson, New Hampshire. Despite the concerns of her family and friends, that at the age of 77 she lacks the stamina for the nearly 300-mile journey, Katharine sets out alone. Over the next six days, she receives a marriage proposal, pulls an all-nighter, saves a life or two, crashes a high-society event, meets a kindred spirit, faces a former rival, makes a new friend, takes a stroll with a future movie mogul, advises a troubled newlywed, and reflects upon a life well lived; her own! 

Join her as she embarks upon her remarkable road trip.


Here's a sneak peek from Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip!

The lighter side of serving as a volunteer nurse on a hospital ship during the Civil War

“But it wasn’t all bad,” I told him. “When things settled down a bit, we nurses were able to chat with the soldiers or read to them. We even wrote letters to their loved ones for them.” I smiled brightly. “That was my favorite activity, the writing of letters. Just to know that they could tell their families back home how they were faring . . . well, it was quite the rewarding experience I can tell you that.” 

I felt tears well up in my eyes, and I quickly wiped them away. Many of those letters would have arrived at their intended destination long after the soldier who had dictated it had died from his injuries. I hoped that the last words they received had provided some solace to the grieving families. It had been an honor and a privilege to be involved in their lives in that way. I remembered trying and failing to imagine what it would have been like to receive a letter like that, dictated by a loved one, transcribed by a well-meaning stranger.

Keep reading Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip


More about the remarkable Katharine:

Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908) was born into affluence in England and emigrated to the U. S. at the age of eighteen. Fiercely independent and never married, Kate volunteered as a nurse on a medical ship during the Civil War, before founding a vocational school for underprivileged girls. A lifelong friend and trusted confidante of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, she was a philanthropist, a hospital administrator, and the author of The Other Side of War: 1862, as well as the noted translator of dozens of novels written by French authors, including Moliere and Balzac. She is included in History’s Women: The Unsung Heroines; History of American Women: Civil War Women; Who’s Who in America 1908-09; Notable American Women, A Biographical Dictionary: 1607-1950 and A Woman of the 19th Century: Leading American Women in All Walks of Life


Get your copy of Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip 

 or read FREE with Kindle Unlimited!


Connect with Gail Ward Olmsted

Gail Ward Olmsted was a marketing executive and a college professor before she began writing fiction on a fulltime basis. A trip to Sedona, AZ inspired her first novel Jeep Tour. Three more novels followed before she began Landscape of a Marriage, a biographical work of fiction featuring landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, a distant cousin of her husband’s, and his wife Mary. After penning a pair of contemporary novels featuring a disgraced attorney seeking a career comeback (Miranda Writes, Miranda Nights) she is back to writing historical fiction featuring an incredible woman with an amazing story. Watch for Katharine's Remarkable Road Trip on June 13th.

Connect with Gail on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Book Bub, Amazon Author Page, and Goodreads



Monday, June 3, 2024

Saving the Union


James Alexander Hamilton wrote extensively about the issues connected to the US Civil War, including slavery, constitutionality, and preservation of the Union. The evolution of his thoughts on these topics helped me understand the mindset of Americans - or at least Northerners - of the early 19th century. From our modern point of view, it is easy to argue that the Civil War was a single-issue war, but, of course, the truth is much more complicated. 

My guest today has delved into the challenging task of discerning the attitudes and mindsets of a past generation in order to write their stories as accurately as possible. What did preservation of the Union mean to Northern soldiers? Author Richard Buxton digs into this question with some great insights.

Welcome, Richard!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saving the Union

Guest Post by Richard Buxton

As a writer of historical fiction, I’m constantly fearful of misrepresenting the past. In practice, it’s impossible not to. The wonderful Hilary Mantel, in her 2017 Reith lectures reminded us that, ‘History is not the past, it’s the method we’ve evolved for organizing our ignorance of the past.’ Even where you have first-hand accounts, written at or close to the time, they all have their own spin. Hilary, never one for understatement, went on to say that history, ‘is the multiplication of the evidence of fallible and biased witnesses combined with incomplete accounts of actions not fully understood by the people who performed them.’

We might think of the American Civil War, the backdrop for my trilogy, as on the cusp of modern times; it’s end at Appomattox just shy of one-hundred and sixty years ago. There are very extensive army records, both official and unofficial, some photographic evidence, and lots of newspaper coverage. So getting most details right (the weather, the uniforms and equipment) should be achievable. Events tend to be presented subjectively, so are a little harder. How then to deal with a broadly held attitude or motivation?

One issue I struggled to understand is what Union meant to soldiers fighting for the North in the American Civil War, the Union being the collection of states then constituted. Today we just call it the U.S.A or the States. I played with it in the title for the trilogy, Shire’s Union; Shire fights for the Union but it also hints at his often-forlorn hopes for a future with Clara. But the idea of Union meant much more to the people at the time. It’s very evident that the long-standing irritant of slavery was the underlying cause of the war, but preservation of the Union was a far more widely cited motivation than abolition for the early volunteers in the Union Army. It was also the principal objective of the government. Lincoln famously said, ‘If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.’ This was written well over a year into the fighting. Only later would an end to slavery get equal billing with saving the Union. And those were the two great outcomes of the struggle: slavery was abolished and the Union was restored.

Image reference:
Library of Congress 2003674570;
Created/Published New York
by Currier & Ives, c1861

But what did Union mean to the soldiers of the North? It’s hard to get at, especially for someone who’s British, where we have our own – often conflicted – ideas of Union. When the young America partially dissolved and went to war with itself, it was only eighty-five years old. The very identity of America was bound up with the idea of Union, with a hard-won rejection of old European monarchies. The Union represented a new consensus about freedom. America’s frontier was a little way west of the Mississippi at the outbreak of war, ‘the states like multi-coloured fields reaching across a half-finished farm,’ as Shire thinks when tearing a page from his father’s atlas. States like Ohio, Illinois and Iowa, were on the frontier themselves just a few decades before. Many soldiers were first or second-generation immigrants, whose spoken language was other than English. Their own or their parents’ escape from the European experience was not so distant. Most believed that preserving a Union of states bound together by freedoms for the individual was worth battling and possibly dying for. It’s subtly different than fighting for your country. It’s fighting for an idea. An end to Union – disunion - meant backsliding towards autocracies and suffering that they believed they had left on the other side of the Atlantic.

Distilling any of this into a novel through the thoughts and actions of your characters is challenging to say the least, and is best done with a very light touch. Shire’s squad in the 125th Ohio all have their own reasons for fighting. One is out to revenge his parents’ deaths at the hands of pro-slavery bushwhackers, another is a furnace worker after the sign-up bounty. Shire himself primarily sees the army as a means to get south and closer to Clara. Mason, a part-Iroquois lawyer, is perhaps the most nobly motivated, fighting for equality for all and seeing the Union, flawed as it was, as freedom’s best chance.

You might consider that the case for the Union is made easier by exposing the argument for succession made by the new Confederacy: the smaller collection of states who decided to begin and then fight a long war to preserve and extend slavery. Against that lowest of benchmarks, it’s not too hard to see why people would fight for the other side. Common humanity isn’t exclusive to our century. Ultimately, after Lincoln made his emancipation proclamation in the middle of the war, the case for the Union and for abolition were effectively merged. Winning the war would deliver both.

I was researching in Tennessee the day of the Brexit vote, the UKs decision to leave the European Union. The day before, I’d been reading firsthand accounts from the 1860s in the archives of the East Tennessee History Museum in Knoxville.  Disunion – secession – came in via democracy. Each southern state voted to depart, leaving American patriots, notably in Eastern Tennessee, high and dry, forcing them to leave a Union they fervently believed in. What came after was horrific. Outside the killing of a generation on the battlefields, at home there was imprisonment, murder and fratricide. The grief and the strife lasted for decades. Even today, over a hundred and sixty years later, you can still easily find echoes of the war.

As I sat in Eastern Tennessee, the day after the vote, reading the voices from America’s time of disunion, the parallels with the problems in Europe were frightening: a Union arguing over its own imperfections, hotheads on both sides exaggerating dire consequences, freedoms of the individual clashing with economic imperatives. Different sorts of Union often only come about after schism: the United States after the war of independence, the League of Nations after World War I, the European Union has its roots in the ashes of World War II. Sadly, disunion is rarely any less painful.

Ultimately, people don’t read historical fiction to brush up on constitutional matters. We read it to empathise with the characters, their struggles and triumphs, to enjoy the odyssey and the climax. Perhaps, above all, to be transported to another time. To achieve the latter, a writer is obliged to strive to see their characters’ world through their hearts and minds and try to understand the wider questions and motivations of their age.

Shire's Union Trilogy

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty.

Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that creeps ever closer.

The Shire’s Union trilogy is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Written by award winning author Richard Buxton, the Shire’s Union trilogy begins with Whirligig, is continued in The Copper Road, and concludes with Tigers in Blue.


Read Shire's Union Trilogy through Amazon or Amazon UK!



Connect with Richard Buxton

Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. He travels extensively for research, especially in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio, and is rarely happier than when setting off from a motel to spend the day wandering a battlefield or imagining the past close beside the churning wheel of a paddle steamer.

Richard’s short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award. His first novel, Whirligig (2017) was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award. It was followed by The Copper Road (2020) and the Shire’s Union trilogy was completed by Tigers in Blue (2023). To learn more about Richard’s writing visit www.richardbuxton.net.




Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Women in the Civil War


I'm pleased to welcome Kinley Bryan as my guest today. She shares insight into the roles of women during the American Civil War, a subject I find interesting because James A Hamilton's daughters participated in some of the work described. James was in his seventies at the time, but he still served as an advisor to President Lincoln and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase. The Hamilton women had long been involved in charitable work, so they naturally answered the call for help when war broke out between the states. Before I get carried away talking about the Hamiltons, I will turn it over to Kinley!

~ Samantha

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Women in the Civil War

Guest Post by Kinley Bryan

As both a reader and writer of historical fiction, I’m always interested in women’s experiences of historical events. My latest novel, The Lost Women of Mill Street, offers a look at the American Civil War from the perspective of southern female mill workers. It’s one perspective of many, for women took on myriad new roles during the war. In the North, women of all races and social classes contributed to the Union war effort by organizing sanitary fairs and working as nurses. They also served as spies and—though forbidden—combatants. And some southern Unionist women courageously helped Union soldiers in times of danger.

Sanitary Fairs

Soon after the start of the war, women began organizing soldiers’ aid societies. In June 1861 the United States Sanitary Commission was formed under the authority of the government, although it was privately funded. Women and girls throughout the North knitted socks, sewed shirts, and collected money to support the USSC. Women also organized sanitary fairs in cities throughout the North to raise money for the sanitary commission. These fairs featured art, parades, dances, museums, merchandise sales, and auctions, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nursing

Before the war, few female nurses publicly practiced medicine. In the first couple months of fighting, both the Union and Confederate armies preferred having men serve as nurses, believing women did not belong in hospitals. However, the armies were soon overwhelmed with wounded soldiers and those in charge reconsidered their views. 

In June 1861, Dorothea Dix was appointed Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army and led the recruitment of women to serve in the nursing corps. According to the Army Heritage Foundation, roughly 3,300 women served as nurses for the Union Army during the war, overcoming their male colleagues’ objections “through appeals to national pride, patriotic duty, and through hard work and dedicated service to the sick and wounded soldiers that filled the nation’s hospitals.”

Southern Unionists

The South was not unified in its view on secession. In Women of the War by Frank Moore, published in 1866, the author recounts the experiences of a number of women from seceded states who courageously helped the Union Army. In one instance, two Tennessee women in the dark of night waved lanterns at an approaching Union Army train; after the train slowed to a stop, the women warned them that Confederate guerillas had destroyed the railroad bridge up ahead.

Moore also describes how, in 1862, a Kentucky woman whose husband fought for the Union was home alone when eleven Confederate soldiers raided her property. As they relaxed by the fireplace, she stole their muskets, shot and killed one who tried to get them back, and the next morning marched the rest at gunpoint to a nearby Union camp.

Spies and Combatants

Though women were barred from military service, there were some who, disguising themselves as men, served in the Union Army. Others served as spies. Harriet Tubman, the formerly enslaved woman known for leading hundreds of people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, was also a Union spy. Having volunteered for the Union as a cook and nurse, she was recruited by Union officers to establish a network of spies behind enemy lines. Disguised as a field hand, Tubman led scouting and spying missions and reported valuable intelligence to Union officers. At the same time, she continued to help enslaved people flee to freedom.


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The Lost Women of Mill Street

1864: As Sherman’s army marches toward Atlanta, a cotton mill commandeered by the Confederacy lies in its path. Inside the mill, Clara Douglas weaves cloth and watches over her sister Kitty, waiting for the day her fiancé returns from the West.

When Sherman’s troops destroy the mill, Clara’s plans to start a new life in Nebraska are threatened. Branded as traitors by the Federals, Clara, Kitty, and countless others are exiled to a desolate refugee prison hundreds of miles from home.

Cut off from all they've ever known, Clara clings to hope while grappling with doubts about her fiancé’s ambitions and the unsettling truths surrounding his absence. As the days pass, the sisters find themselves thrust onto the foreign streets of Cincinnati, a city teeming with uncertainty and hostility. She must summon reserves of courage, ingenuity, and strength she didn’t know she had if they are to survive in an unfamiliar, unwelcoming land.

Inspired by true events of the Civil War, The Lost Women of Mill Street is a vividly drawn novel about the bonds of sisterhood, the strength of women, and the repercussions of war on individual lives.




Connect with Kinley Bryan

Kinley Bryan's debut novel, Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury, inspired by the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 and her own family history, won the 2022 Publishers Weekly Selfies Award for adult fiction. An Ohio native, she lives in South Carolina with her husband and three children. The Lost Women of Mill Street is her second novel.

Connect with Kinley on her website, Twitter(X), Facebook, Instagram, Book Bub, Amazon Author Page, and Goodreads.  










Sunday, May 26, 2024

Pairings: Historical Fiction & Nonfiction

I recently saw a brilliant library post suggesting nonfiction books related to popular novels, and I thought it would be fun to do the same with my own books. If you've read one of my novels, you might have noticed that I include a list of sources at the end. Looking for something simpler? Just one (or two) suggestions per book? I hear you, so here are my nonfiction recommendations to pair with each of my novels.

But One Life, my most recent novel, explores the life of American patriot Nathan Hale. I wanted to find out more about this young man, who became famous for announcing that his only regret was that he had but one life to give for his country before he was executed by the British as a spy in 1776. One of the best sources of information about Nathan Hale was the collection of documents by George D Seymour, the same man who purchased the Nathan Hale Homestead and had it established as a historic site. However, most readers are not particularly interested in flipping through hundreds of pages of documents, so I'll suggest a biography by M William Phelps, Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy.

I also cannot mention this novel without giving a shoutout to Digital Yarbs for the reconstruction of Nathan Hale's image based on the statue of him in New York's City Hall Park. I'm thankful for this unique image for my cover art. Since we're talking cover art, the artwork for the rest of my novels was created by my oldest son, Tyler, so that is also pretty awesome!

I started writing Luminous because I was so inspired by Kate Moore's The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, so I can't imagine recommending anything else as its nonfiction pairing. I was in the middle of writing a novel set in 12th century England when I casually listened to Moore's book on Audible. I stopped everything I was doing, ordered it in paperback to take notes, and traveled to Ottawa, Illinois to learn everything I could about Catherine Donohue, the dial painter I had decided to focus on for my novel. Catherine's story is equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring, and I was greatly moved by her perseverance and faith. I will always be thankful that Moore's work raised awareness of these women's fight. 

And, no, I never have gone back to that half-finished manuscript. Maybe someday...

Before my detour over into American history, my books were all early Tudor era. I have a habit of deciding what I'm going to write sort of on a whim. I had no intentions of writing about Queen Mary I until one of my beta readers for Faithful Traitor commented that it would be nice to read about what happened to the poor, little princess who Margaret Pole had served as governess. When I set out to prove that novels like that had already been written, well, I guess you know the rest of the story. I wrote Queen of Martyrs because Mary seemed like a woman who deserved to have her own story told instead of always appearing on the sidelines of books about her father or younger sister. I can't recommend only one nonfiction pairing for this, because I found both of these books to be priceless resources on understanding Mary as a person and as a Catholic. Linda Porter's The First Queen of England and Eamon Duffy's Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor are the books I recommend if you would like to learn more.


Mary had already shown up as part of Margaret Pole's story in Faithful Traitor, and I loved the idea that Margaret and Katherine of Aragon had discussed a possible marriage between Mary and Margaret's son, Reginald. Now that I've started recommending two nonfiction reads, I may as well continue. One can never have too many books! At the time I was writing about Margaret Pole, Hazel Pierce's biography was the only one available, so I scoured it for details. Since then, Susan Higginbotham has written Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower that is probably more accessible than Pierce's. I haven't read it, but I have enjoyed several of Higginbotham's novels and feel confident enough to recommend seeking it out. Also very academic but a great resource is Thomas Mayer's Reginald Pole: Prince & Prophet

I find Reginald so fascinating that I also have written a novella about him called Prince of York. Did you know he was almost pope? And he was friends with Michelangelo? Maybe I should extend that novella into a full-length novel. (Yes, dear reader, this is how my writing decisions are made.)

Now we have made our way back to my first novel. When I wrote Plantagenet Princess Tudor Queen, I had no idea that it would be the first of a series of three novels and three novellas. I'm not much of a planner and tend to decide what I'm writing when I finish what I'm working on. (No, it is not a habit I recommend.) So, when I was researching Elizabeth of York, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. This book remains my most frequent best seller, and I'm very happy to have shined a spotlight on the first Tudor queen, who is often overshadowed by the bombastic men she was surrounded by. My favorite resource when writing this was actually a biography of Elizabeth's husband, Henry VII. If you write about historical women, you often find yourself reading biographies of men and hunting for tidbits about the ladies in their lives. Of course, Henry's story was a very important part of Elizabeth's, so Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England was a great read. For more about Elizabeth, you can try Alison Weir's Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World. I enjoyed some of the detail in this, but you'll also have to get through Weir's oft repeated rant about Richard III. The biography includes more information than the one by Amy Licence, so I'll keep it here.

These are just a few of the resources that I have used for each of my novels. If you are interested in additional reading, take a peek at the final few pages in any one of my books, and you will find a longer list. Perhaps, I should have also suggested a wine to pair with each read? Ah well, select the beverage of your choice and happy reading!