Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul
As we remember the untold numbers of veterans who have lost their lives defending America as well as those who still defend her, let us honor them today on Veterans Day.
From those who fought with ancient weapons…
To the warriors of recent days…
May we NEVER forget the sacrifice they made and STILL make…
To KEEP this the LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE.
Freedom is not free.
Today, October 20th, 2013, marks the tenth anniversary of our daughter Bethany’s Homecoming. Not a college homecoming event, mind you. It was her final homecoming to heaven.
The discovery of her brain tumor shortly after her 23rd Birthday was a shock, to say the least. Months of treatment followed. Our lives were flung into a pit of despair, exhaustion, and grief, while our desperate faith clung to the hem of God’s garment as He said to us, “Trust me.” And we did. And we still do.
God never promised that our lives would be without sorrow or challenges that would feel much worse than a blow with a two by four. But He did promise He would never leave us or forsake us.
While many of my friends and even distant relatives only know Bethany as “my daughter who died from a brain tumor,” she was so much more.
She was the short one in the family, nearly a foot shorter than her older brother, Ben. But Bethany had what I always described as a “tall personality,” with more spunk and determination than all the rest of us put together.
When she was only two-years-old, her Daddy taught her the Shel Silverstein poem about a Polar Bear in the Frigidaire. The words still play in my mind as I can envision her rise to her full, midget-like stature and say the entire poem to amazed listeners. She delighted in the performance!
When her little brother, Nate, was born, she wanted to mother him to the point where I had to intervene. “If you do everything for him, he’ll never learn to do it himself,” I would gently say to her. She backed off—just a bit! The two of them were close their entire lives.
She admired her older brother, Ben, so much. In her last months she told him that she’d be watching him from heaven as he flew his military jet. I overheard her say to him, “I’ll tell everyone up there, ‘Look, there’s my brother!’” She was so proud of his service to our country.
Rather than just remember her as a cancer patient, I love to remember Bethany’s delightful legacy. She was a defender of the weak, a friend to the friendless, a comforter to the elderly in nursing homes, a brilliant student, a hilarious jokester, a believer in Jesus Christ, and as genuine a person as they come.
Her writing awed and amazed me. She dreamed of being a writer but those dreams were not in God’s plans.
I never dreamed that I would carry on her hoped-for legacy by becoming an author. I wish that she could have become the writer instead. But our ways are not God’s ways.
Bethany’s favorite Bible verse was Jeremiah 29:11: “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
Reading that verse on her tombstone, her brother Ben said, “In a way, God did take care of her future by bringing her home to Him in heaven.”
Indeed. And someday we can all be united again in the heavenly realm. That is our ultimate hope—our ultimate joy as we remember my daughter, Bethany, on this day of her Homecoming Anniversary.
About a month before the battle in Menotomy Village, Massachusetts in 1775, the Reverend Samuel Cooke preached a sermon to the Minutemen of that small town. Many excerpts from that sermon, taken from the minister’s hand written notes and transcribed by Samuel Abbot Smith in West Cambridge 1775 (published by the Arlington Historical Society) are quoted in Fields of the Fatherless.
My friend and fellow author, Tammy Doherty, took one of those quotes from Reverend Cooke and produced this memorable photo.
In just a little over two weeks, Fields of the Fatherless will be released. To say that I am excited is an understatement. To say that I am heartened and overwhelmed by the reviews appearing on Goodreads from advance readers is absolutely true. And I am so very grateful for each and every one. Here is another review:
After reading this epic tale, I immediately sat down to write my review. I had to get it down while this story was fresh in my mind.
I am totally spent after reading Fields of the Fatherless, all my emotions are either at the surface, or have spilled over. Elaine Marie Cooper has truly shown what it was like during this terrible time in history. I found myself vividly envisioning such unthinkably, vivid scenes, yet I kept reading because I needed to ‘witness’ it until the end.
I appreciate Elaine’s writing so much, as she doesn’t hold anything back. She not only tells the story, but she ‘shows’ the story through her words.
This story is based on fact and Elaine did a great job incorporating her own imagination into it all.
I simply love this quote from the story…it spoke to my heart.
“T’would not have mattered, if I had died doing the right thing.”
She paused. “If I did not do the right thing, it would mean something
inside my soul had died. Nothing is worth that. Not even my life.”
Such powerful words and so true.
Whether you are a history buff or simply enjoy a great novel, I highly recommend this book to you. You will find yourself totally immersed in the time…..and find yourself learning a very important lesson in forgiveness and what if truly means to show compassion and love to everyone…including your enemies.
Thank you, Elaine, for writing this story. And thank you for including your Author’s note. It added to the impact of this story.
I was allowed to read this story in advance in exchange for my honest review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review.
Thank you, Deborha Mitchell!
It is now less than three weeks until Fields of the Fatherless releases. I have been so humbled and honored by the reviews at Goodreads. Here is one of them from a pre-release reader:
Fields of the Fatherless is an engaging fictionalized retelling of a true historical event. The author skillfully wove the facts together with her characters giving the story a richness many historical reenactments lack. The addition of fictional, yet authentic-looking, diary snippets “authored” by Betsy Russell rounds out her personality, making her more accessible and genuine to the reader. Ms. Cooper doesn’t play down the bloodiness of colonial war—instead many scenes are told in grim, honest detail sharing the horrors as well as the victories. We are given glimpse into the heart of man, the goodness and the ugliness on both sides of the battle. I’ve read many fictionalized biographies—and this one is right up there with the best. I highly recommend it.
— April McGowan, Author, “Jasmine”
Thank you, April McGowan!
If you’d like to pre-order Fields of the Fatherless, you can order it by clicking here.
It is only three weeks and two days until Fields of the Fatherless releases. A PDF copy of the book was sent to dozens of pre-readers for reading and reviewing. Several are already posted on Goodreads. Here is one:
Ms. Cooper’s Fields of the Fatherless can be summed up in one word–Wow! As an author, I enjoy the research I do to make my novels as true to the era I write as possible. But Ms. Cooper has gone above and beyond the norm, taking a small thread from an historic era and transforming it into an intense read. And by intense I don’t mean the shoot ’em up scenes from a Jason Statham move. I’m talking intense as to actually smelling the fear and grief her heroine does throughout the entire novel.
The story begins with Betsy’s ears ringing from her sister-in-law’s agonizing screams during child birth, and from the roar of gunfire and cannons outside her door. The British are storming through her hometown and the male townsfolk are ready to defend their land and country from England, including Betsy’s crippled father. Ms. Cooper than takes the reader back a few months where Betsy struggles to make sense of the impending war, where she fears for the well-being of her family and her neighbors, where she has an urgent need to possess some type of weapon to help keep safe everything and everyone she loves, including herself. Where she falters in her relationship with God to understand right from wrong, love from hate, and most of all, forgiveness.
Without the gruesome visual of battle depicted in Saving Private Ryan, Ms. Cooper gives just enough description to allow the reader to imagine on his own the ravages of war. Chilling in reality, Fields of the Fatherless precisely conveys the devastating effects of war on both sides and how, as humans, we must band together to protect what is most precious–life. As you cheer, weep, cringe, pray and even learn, you’ll come away from this novel with the same feeling as I did–Wow!
***Note–This book will be available for purchase in October 2013. I received an advanced copy from the publisher to write this review.
Thank you, Julie Lence! I am so honored by this review! If you’d like to pre-order Fields of the Fatherless, you can do so by clicking here