Elaine Marie Cooper Author

Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul

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Thank you to my Friends

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I’m often reminded of the blessings of friends. This year with my leg in a cast for 3 months, my husband unable to drive due to a previous stroke, and a new book releasing, friends have become an even brighter light in my life. From taking me to doctor appointments, to taking me out for a meal, to helping me promote my book, so many have pitched in and said, “I can help.”

I sometimes remember the quote from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Clarence the Angel reminds George, the man who has dealt with one struggle after another and wants to give up on life, that “no man is a failure who has friends.” I have never understood those words more than I have this year. The more difficulties I have faced, the more the Lord has provided friends to help meet my needs. Praise God!

I’m the kind of person who loves to be a giver. I am a retired nurse and helping others seems to come naturally. Being on the receiving end is humbling and I’m learning to have a meek spirit and accept other’s kindness. It’s not always easy for me, but God is teaching my “take-charge” personality to be still and submit to the situation. It has allowed my wonderful friends to shine.

As Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” By allowing my friends to help me, they are doing good works that shine with the love of the Lord; that allows them the gift of receiving a blessing.

I’m so grateful that God is blessing them, although I admit, I’d still rather be on the giving end. 😉

But in this month of Thanksgiving, I am so very grateful for my many friends who shine with the love of Jesus. According to Clarence, I guess I am not a failure. I know my friends certainly are not.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Scarred Vessels released on October 20, 2020 and is available on Amazon in kindle or paperback.

Here is the Back cover blurb:

In 1778 Rhode Island, the American Revolution rallies the Patriots to fight for freedom. But the slavery of black men and women from Africa, bartered for rum, is a travesty that many in America cannot ignore. The seeds of abolition are planted even as the laws allowing slavery in the north still exist.

Lydia Saunders, the daughter of a slave ship owner, grew up with the horror of slavery. It became more of a nightmare when, at a young age, she is confronted with the truth about her father’s occupation. She is burdened with the guilt of her family’s sin, as she struggles to make a difference in whatever way she can. When she loses her husband in the battle for freedom from England, she makes a difficult decision that will change her life forever.

Sergeant Micah Hughes is too dedicated to serving the fledgling country of America to consider falling in love. When he carries the tragic news to Lydia Saunders about her husband’s death, he is appalled by his attraction to the young widow. Micah wrestles with his feelings for Lydia while he tries to focus on helping the cause of freedom. He trains a group of former slaves to become capable soldiers on the battlefield.

Tensions both on the battlefield and on the home front bring hardship and turmoil that threaten to endanger them all. When Lydia and Micah are faced with saving the life of a black infant in danger, can they survive this turning point in their lives?

Love’s Kindling—Selah Award Finalist!

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Dear friends, It may seem as if I’ve been AWOL from my website but, in fact, I’ve been having work done on it to get it updated. Thank you, Angie Hammond at Pixel Dust!!

The update is just in time to announce something unexpected and exciting: My most recent historical romance, Love’s Kindling, is a Finalist in the prestigious Selah Awards.

Unexpected because it took awhile to see Love’s Kindling published. It was rejected by more than one publisher and I began to think no one cared about the love story between my characters, Zadok and Aurinda. But I was wrong. The manuscript was published by Burnett Young publishing, has received excellent reviews (thank you reviewers!!), and is now an award finalist. All I can say is, praise the Lord!

Thank you to my publisher Meaghan Burnett, my author care rep Jessie Anderson, and my editor Alycia Morales. You encouraged me along the way and I am grateful.

Thanks to Eva Marie Everson and the judges who deemed it worthy of being a finalist. I am truly grateful.

Mostly I thank all of my readers who have followed my books through the years. I count you all as precious and pray I can continue bringing you stories worthy of your interest. May the Lord bless you.

What We Do For Love

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As an author of Christian historical romance, I love a good love story. Ever since I watched “Old Yeller” as a preschooler and the parents hugged and kissed when reuniting, I became enthralled with the thrill of not just a sweet embrace, but the commitment and love behind that affection.

Through the years, I’ve cried and sighed, watching and/or reading love stories. Some have been tragic, some with happily-ever-afters. All involved commitment to the one true love, through thick and thin, good times and sad. That commitment extended to the next generation born and the next.

As I grew older and made a personal relationship with Christ, I realized that element of commitment comes from God. He loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us. There is no greater love story than that.

The commitment to loved ones is what drew my husband and I to relocate nearly 2,000 miles to be close to our son and his family. Distance causes too much pain, too many lost opportunities.

All of this work was supported by wonderful friends in Iowa who helped us in so many ways. When I had no energy left, our friends sustained us and pitched in, in numerous ways.

Despite the work and aching muscles, we donated many items and trashed others, whittling down our worldly goods into a cubicle and a car-full. At times, we were overcome with exhaustion from it all. At times, we still are.

Like Moses’ trusted friends, Aaron and Hur in Exodus 17:12, our friends helped strengthen us for the daunting task. We will never forget their faithfulness.

Upon arrival, our son and his friend helped us unload. It’s amazing the strength of the young! We are so grateful for everyone’s commitment to us. Commitment based in love.

The love of friends. The love of family. The love that brings a husband home to kiss his wife and be welcomed by her embrace.

This is the core of a love story. The love that carries on to the next generations.

The Day the First Americans Died for their Country

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When I was a child, I walked by the Jason Russell House on my way to school in Arlington, Massachusetts. Looking at the empty two-story dwelling, I somehow could feel its history—and its fear.

“There’s still blood on the floor in there,” my brother had told me.

Blood? I quivered at the thought.

I felt as vulnerable as Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird” when her brother and Dill, the curious friend visiting from out of town, discussed Boo Radley, a mentally-challenged neighbor that they feared.

I viewed that dwelling in a whole new light when I learned that people had died there in the American Revolution.

The story of my hometown of Arlington is often swallowed up in the historical accounts of the Revolution. The focus has always been on the “shot heard round the world” and the initial battles in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

And though my brother/sister conversation gave me the creeps, it also instilled in me a fascination for the war that birthed our nation. History had come alive for me while on my way to the classroom.

One of the reasons that Arlington has not received as much acknowledgement on that first day of the war was that it went by a different name in 1775. It was known as Menotomy, from an Indian word for “swift running water.”

Situated between Boston and Concord, Menotomy Village was actually called “the bloodiest half mile of all the battle road.” More redcoats and patriots were killed or wounded there on April 19 than in all the other towns combined. This occurred when the British troops were marching back to Boston after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.

The Jason Russell House stands as a living memorial to those who died there that day.

Russell was a 59-year-old farmer, loyal to the cause of freedom. He owned a large farm—120 acres—right on Concord Road, the path upon which the British troops journeyed. Prior to the battles, Paul Revere and William Dawes both rode by Russell’s house on their way to warn the Minutemen.

When the Redcoats retreated from Lexington, word reached the villagers in Menotomy that the enemy was coming. Russell sent his wife and children to a neighbors’ house for safety.

It became a brutal battle.

A group of rebel Americans running from the British regulars sought refuge in Russell’s house where they could make a stand against the Redcoats. Russell, who had a lame foot, was the last to reach his doorway and was wounded by British bullets. He was bayoneted numerous times. Several other Americans were wounded.

Eight survivors ran into the cellar and shot and killed the first two regulars to come after them. The battle went on, to the Russell orchard and beyond.

In Victor Brooks’ The Boston Campaign April 1775 to March 1776, he describes the horrible scene:

“The ‘battle of Menotomy’ became the most brutal engagement of the day as house-to-house and room-to-room fighting resulted in Regulars and militiamen clubbing and bayoneting one another, pistols flashing, men swinging tomahawks and hunting knives and dozens of casualties on each side.”

Wow. No wonder my brother claimed there was still blood on the floor of the Jason Russell house. Even if it was not still visible, surely the floorboards echoed the carnage.

There still are several holes from musket balls visible in the house today.

Jason Russell was buried nearby his home, in the Old Burying Ground. His inscription reads:

“Jason Russell was barbarously murdered in his own house by Gage’s bloody troops on the 19th of April, 1775. Age 59. His body is quietly resting in this grave with eleven of our friends who in like manner with many others were cruelly slain on that fateful day. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”

In 1923, the Jason Russell house on the corner of Jason St. and Massachusetts Avenue was acquired by the Arlington Historical Society and restored. In 1974, it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Tours of the home are still given and a museum has been added.

My novel, Fields of the Fatherless, depicts the story of Jason Russell and the events of April 19, 1775. It is available at Amazon and other book outlets. You can purchase it here

An April To Remember

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The residents in and around Boston thought it might happen. But they didn’t realize just how bad it would be.

Rumors and secret meetings abounded in Lexington, Concord, Menotomy Village and other small towns nearby the British-held port city. Quiet talk of war permeated conversations, increasing the anxiety of the colonists as they knew conflict approached closer every day. When it exploded into full scale skirmishes on April 19, 1775, the dye had been cast. The American Revolution had begun.

The British regulars first left Boston, then travelled west through Charlestown before they marched in the dead of night through Menotomy Village, MA. As the local residents awakened to the vibration of soldiers marching down the main road on their way to Concord, bells sounded the alarm and residents seized their muskets, prepared to make their stand. These lands were their homes and they intended to defend their families and farms to the death, if need be.

Buckman Tavern, Lexington, MA

The first shots were fired on the Lexington town green. The color of the spring lawn was watered with the red blood of the local men and boys who had risen before dawn to defend their town. Eight patriots were killed and several wounded. One British soldier was also injured.

The British forces proceeded towards Concord, where gunpowder and arms were rumored to be hidden for use by the colonists against the regulars. Wise patriots had actually moved the weapons elsewhere before the enemy troops arrived. But that didn’t stop the confrontation immortalized in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem, “Concord Hymn.” Two British soldiers were killed in the battle at the Old North Bridge. Their graves near the bridge are decorated with flowers to this day, courtesy of the British Embassy.

Old North Bridge, Concord, MA

As the exhausted British troops retreated down the road toward Boston, colonists who had learned to fight behind trees and stone walls, picked off numerous red-coated soldiers along the way. In the meantime, reinforcements for the Brits were on the way down the main road from Boston. Once they joined forces west of Menotomy Village, the battle grew even uglier. By the time the conflict reached the Jason Russell farm in Menotomy, the fiercest battle of the day—and the deadliest for both sides—occurred at the Russell House.

Jason Russell House, Arlington, MA

Menotomy Village is today called Arlington, Massachusetts. When I grew up there, I frequently walked by the Jason Russell House. It was now designated a historical site with a sign out front and, as a young girl, I wondered what had occurred there. It was not until I grew up that I learned the full story of this major incident, hidden from most history books. I was so moved by what I learned, I determined to write about it in novel form. I wanted to bring the characters alive on the page through words that would help my readers understand that these were living, breathing humans who sacrificed so much for the birth of America.

I’ve written this story in the multi award-winning Fields of the Fatherless. You can purchase the book on either e-book or paperback. I hope that reading about this little-known battle will help you appreciate our ancestors who shed their blood to create a free America.

April 19 is now a public holiday called Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts and Maine. In Wisconsin, schools are required to teach students about the events and notable people of the American Revolution.  

It is regrettable that most of these United States do not commemorate the first day of the war that birthed America. We should never forget. I will do my part to help Americans remember.

To purchase Fields of the Fatherless in Paperback, click here.

In E-book, click here

Online Party to Celebrate American Historical Novels

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Tonight is the night to visit a Facebook party that features 10 authors who have written novels set in historical America. These parties, hosted by author Tamera Lynn Kraft, are so much fun!! I hope you can come, starting at 4:00 pm EST and ending … whenever they end! Actually, prize winners will be announced later that evening so recipients will not be left holding their breath, wondering. 🙂

If you can’t arrive when it starts, drop in anytime. You are always welcome!

The Grand Prize is a $50 Amazon gift card plus a copy of each author’s book. But there are several smaller prizes offered along the way, with individual offerings from the authors.

I’ll be featuring both War’s Respite and Love’s Kindling between 8-9 pm EST (7-8 CST) and giving away either an e-book or paperback of Love’s Kindling plus a 4×6″ leather writing journal with a vintage nautical design. It will fit into one’s purse when the muse strikes and you want to make notes. Or perhaps, write a novel. 🙂

Here is the link to join the party: click here Hope to “see” you there!

  • Leather Journal

Today is Release Day!

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It seems like I’ve waited a long time to announce the release of “Scarred Vessels” but it has been worth the wait! 

I am so pleased to see this novel about the black soldiers in the American Revolution come to life. I learned so much in my research for this book. Much of the historical facts surprised and saddened me but I am pleased with the results and I pray this book blesses you!

To order the kindle version, go to https://www.amazon.com/Scarred-Vessels-Elaine-Marie-Cooper-ebook/dp/B08KL1JTK1/ 

To obtain the paperback, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Scarred-Vessels-Elaine-Marie-Cooper/dp/1649170025Â