Hi friends,
Ever wonder what a difference ten years can make? When it came to the years of 1765 to 1775, it made all the difference in the world.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2020/03/from-stamp-act-to-revolution.html?s
Historical Fiction That Grabs Your Heart and Feeds Your Soul
Hi friends,
Ever wonder what a difference ten years can make? When it came to the years of 1765 to 1775, it made all the difference in the world.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2020/03/from-stamp-act-to-revolution.html?s
by emcoop 3 Comments
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.
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
This movie will be on my mind for a long time. No not “Godzilla.” “Unplanned”
I couldn’t find the appropriate poster at the theater where it was showing. For the sake of this review, I posed by a promo for the monster flick, “Godzilla.” You can draw your own conclusions as to why I chose this particular poster…
Since there has been so much determined effort to prevent advertisement of “Unplanned,” I assume the poster scrolls for this anti-abortion flick were perhaps cast into a bin somewhere. We wouldn’t want to reveal the truth about abortion, the blank walls seemed to scream.
If you truly want to understand the full scope of abortion, I encourage you to go see this movie. It will be impossible to pretend any longer that the process of emptying the womb of “fetal contents that have no feeling” is the truth.
In fact, this whole movie is about lies. The untruths that the main character of Abby Johnson tells herself to justify working in a clinic that provides abortions. The lie that certain clinics are in existence to help women’s healthcare when, in fact, it’s main goal is to abort babies. The misinformation that abortions are relatively easy and cause mild discomfort.
The deception that there is no pain felt by a “clump of cells” in early development is quickly dashed into oblivion as you watch an ultrasound of an abortion: A fully formed baby trying to escape the suction tube that first pulls off one leg, then another limb, until finally the whole head is sucked into the oblivion of a medical waste container. All the while the infant is fighting for its very life.
I will never forget the words spoken by the abortion doctor in the movie as he turns on the suction machine. “Beam me up, Scotty,” he says, as he watches the tiny human disintegrate into the cold, plastic tubing. I’ll never watch another episode of “Star Trek” without feeling pain when I hear that line.
It was this visualization of an abortion via ultrasound image that finally broke through Abby Johnson’s self-deception. These are not fetal cells. These are babies, with heartbeats, and brains, and a central nervous system that registers pain.
“Unplanned” offers a message of hope and forgiveness for those who have had an abortion. There are millions of women around the world who carry the pain of aborting their little ones. They need to know that God loves them. And if they ask for forgiveness, they are indeed forgiven.
Please go see “Unplanned”—and put an end to the lies.
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!
Note from Elaine: I am re-posting this blog by Kathleen Maher because my website was under construction when it first appeared and most of my subscribers did not receive it!
The challenge for historical fiction writers is to avoid anachronism. In other words, it must be historically and culturally accurate for the time period in which the story is set. Author Kathleen Maher understands the challenge and is my guest blogger today. Kathleen has not one, but two, novels releasing! Here is her post with some awesome giveaways! — Elaine
The historical writer has the unique challenge of making characters interesting and appealing by today’s standards without sacrificing authenticity. We strive to stay true to historical detail in all things. Transportation, even city maps showing which roads existed back then. Clothing, furnishing, popular music and literature of the times. But what about the character itself? Obviously, one wouldn’t write about a NASCAR driver in the 1800’s. But what about attitudes, beliefs, values? Societal expectations on ladies and gentlemen were quite strict. Writers live in one world but try not to allow modern ways to influence their story world. It’s easy to slip into social anachronism.
I have the thrill and chaos right now of two books launching simultaneously. That’s a lot of characters. A lot of personalities vying for attention. So, for simplicity’s sake I’ll focus on my two heroines. Both are from the mid 1800’s. Both have high ideals and strong faith. Both seek to “push the envelope” of women’s roles in their society. But the *how* and the *why* is critical.
In The Abolitionist’s Daughter, Marietta Hamilton is a passionate idealist. She has been raised by parents active in politics—her father serves Senator William Seward who becomes Lincoln’s Secretary of State– and further, her family offers their home as a station on the Underground Railroad. She has unique positional influence and predisposition to the desires burning within her heart. Desires to help the helpless, to champion the downtrodden. To rescue those trapped in slavery, poverty and disadvantage. And those desires have been fueled by the church she attends, the faith she holds, the speakers she has heard. Her world has conditioned her for the work. All except for one factor—women in the Victorian age, especially young ladies seeking their social debut and of marrying age—were expected to be demure, retiring, winsome, and skilled in feminine arts. Not little firebrands or social activists.
The challenge for me, then, was to create a crusading female within the context of the times. Women WERE encouraged to participate in charity. Women were praised for making social alliances and exerting influence through their feminine wiles. Charm, beauty and persuasion went a long way, even for the high society of a very visible Washington family with a mother who watched her only daughter with an eagle eye. Much could be accomplished, playing the piano and entertaining guests, in diverting unwanted matchmaking attempts. And maybe pushing her boundaries by writing letters to the Virginia-born horseman who has stolen her heart, with or without her parent’s awareness.
And then there are the ways society itself began to change during this time. Women had begun to gain traction in educational opportunities. Marietta seeks to escape the noose of finishing school and attends a female college with a very rigorous academic standard. The school places harder social strictures on her than her mother did, so again, she must navigate these expectations in an authentic way to achieve her goals. All the while keeping the spark of the forbidden romance with her “common” cavalry soldier alive.
My second heroine, SarahAnn Winnifred from Love Brick by Brick in Victorian Christmas Brides Collection, has very ambitious goals for a woman of her times. In 1857, she has been taken under the wing of a husband and wife doctor team and is being apprenticed to become a female doctor. Her mentor, Dr. Rachel Gleason, is a real historical figure who was only the fourth woman in history to earn her MD. SarahAnn works at the Gleason’s health resort, a Victorian invention called a Water Cure, which employed the use of mineral springs, baths, tonics, and wraps for the perceived curative powers of water.
SarahAnn is determined to elevate herself from humble beginnings as an orphan, and education and new opportunities for women in careers was an increasingly authentic means. Though historically accurate, I weighed her character goals and motivations carefully. Women then simply were not driven by the same ambitions as women of today. Some modern women delight in rocking the boat and stretching boundaries. But not so much with Victorian women. I believe the natural progression of women’s roles in history followed genuine need and not so much want. For example, when husbands went off to war or died, women had to fill roles that under other circumstances would have been unlikely or inappropriate. In my character’s case, she works because a gracious lady has offered to take her under her wing, to grant her a better future. My heroine has chosen to pursue a career because she finds love and marriage unlikely due to her social standing. A chance acquaintance at the Water Cure may open doors to a yuletide romance she never considered possible.
The Abolitionist’s Daughter
1860-1864 Shenandoah Valley, and Elmira, NY
When a fiery social crusader interrupts a slave auction, a horse trader and his twin brother are set on a collision course with war—brother against brother. Can the passion that severed ties inspire a love strong enough to overcome hate?
Purchase link: Click here
The Abolitionist’s Daughter book trailer link: Click here
Love Brick by Brick by Kathleen L. Maher in The Victorian Christmas Brides Collection
1857 Elmira, New York
SarahAnn Winnifred overcomes orphanhood apprenticing with pioneering doctors. Rufus Sedgwick, relocating his English estate, seeks help for his ailing Mum. Christmas reveals the secret wish of both hearts—for love.
Purchase link: Click here
Pinterest board:Click here
Kathleen L. Maher has had an infatuation with books and fictional heroes ever since her preschool crush, Peter Rabbit. She has a novella in BARBOUR’s 2018 Victorian Christmas Brides collection, featuring her hometown of Elmira, New York. She won the 2012 ACFW Genesis contest for her Civil War historical romance, releasing this summer under a new title The Abolitionist’s Daughter. Her debut historical, Bachelor Buttons, blends her Irish heritage and love of New York history. Kathleen shares an old farmhouse in upstate New York with her husband, children, and a small zoo of rescued animals.
Follow Kathleen
on Facebook Click here
on Twitter: Click here
on Amazon: Click here
and on Pinterest: Click Here
Thanks so much once again for having me today, Elaine. I look forward to interacting with your readers.
To contact Elaine Marie Cooper for speaking engagements, interviews or questions about her books, click here to fill out the form on her contact page.