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
Colonial America
Love’s Kindling—Selah Award Finalist!
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.
The Day the First Americans Died for their Country
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Romance Stories for Valentine’s Day
Every day should be a day to celebrate love, but Valentine’s Day is a reminder to treasure all the people in your life who fill you with joy and, of course, love.
For everyone, that person might be different. It might be your parents, your close friend, your spouse, or that new love interest who makes your heart beat a bit faster whenever you greet them. But I encourage you to not let Valentine’s Day pass by without letting them know you love them. Life is too short to miss out on saying, “I Love you.”
For those who love romance stories (that are clean but swoony!) and are filled with lots of American history, my latest releases have a bit of romance to make your toes tingle. 😉
The stories begin with a prequel novella, War’s Respite:
The next book in this 4-book series is Love’s Kindling. Here is a quote:
Mesmerized by the dancing beams in the distance, he stared at the
glimmering light. The unexpected flashes of lightning added sudden
bursts of illumination, both frightening and beautiful. But it was the
sharp burst of thunder that drew Aurinda to lay her head on his
shoulder, clutching the whimpering Hannah. It could thunder all
night if it meant Aurinda would remain close to him.
For the first time in his life, he thanked God for a storm.
Ah. The storms in life that draw us to cling to those we love. 🙂
War’s Respite is just .99 on Kindle: War’s Respite
Love’s Kindling is available on both Kindle and in Paperback: Love’s Kindling
Celebration Day—Books Release!
It does not matter to me that I have been through book-release-days before. Six times before, to be exact.
If you ask a mother with many children, she will likely fawn over each and every new baby that she births. Every child is a treasure.
For authors, the birth of every book is a joy that is the culmination of months, and sometimes, years of work. And today, I am birthing TWINS! The release of both War’s Respite and Love’s Kindling, are especially treasured as they are my first published books since 2016. That year, I spent many months of treatment for an infection that pushed my writing schedule behind. Way behind.
So today, to experience my first releases since 2016, is beyond a joy. Coming back after a seemingly endless hiatus is both exhilarating and comforting. It’s a relief to know the inspiration still exists. And I praise the Lord for it.
Today is the release of the first two books in my new series entitled Dawn of America. Book 3 is entitled Winter’s Ravage and Book 4, Courier’s Return.
War’s Respite is the prequel novella to the series and will only be released in E-book format. Love’s Kindling will soon release in paperback form as well as E-book.
This series is set on the shores of Connecticut in 1779, when a little-known attack by the British occurred during the American Revolution. This unexpected discovery while doing online research immediately piqued my writer’s muse. This history needed to be told.
I hope that these stories are a blessing to you as you follow the lives of the fictional families who are impacted by the events that turn their lives upside down.
Thank you for being my readers!
Link to order War’s Respite: click here
Link to order Love’s Kindling: click here