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New Contract — New Books Coming!

March 4, 2018 by emcoop 2 Comments

Hi Friends!

I’m so thrilled to announce a new upcoming historical fiction series for which I’ve recently signed a contract. My new publisher will be Burnett Young Books and I am Over-The-Moon excited! This series is set along the Long Island Sound coast of Connecticut in 1779-1780. There was a lot going on there during the American Revolution!

Book 1 is complete and should be released in 2018. More details to come.

Thanks for all your support of my books and I will keep you all updated on this new series. Be blessed!

Mocha helps me with my historical research of New Haven, Connecticut. 😉

Valentine’s Day in Colonial America

February 14, 2018 by emcoop 2 Comments

Love surely abounded in Colonial America since the population grew quite steadily through the years. But was there an official day set aside for love called Valentine’s Day? The answer is “yes”…and “no.”

While Valentine’s Day had existed for centuries, not all of the colonies celebrated the holiday. The New England colonies were known for avoiding any celebrations they deemed unscriptural, including Christmas. But many of the European immigrants, especially the Dutch, carried the romantic tradition to the New World.

Celebrations of a holiday focused on love go waaaay back in history—all the way to the pagan festivals in Rome. Eventually the celebration became more civilized through the tale of a priest named Valentine, who secretly married lovers who had been banned from matrimony by a military leader. Valentine was subsequently imprisoned. As legend has it, the grateful lovers brought gifts of cards and flowers to the prisoner while he was in his jail cell. Unfortunately, the defender of love was martyred in AD 278. Definitely not a happy day for Valentine.

Some of the ways the Colonial Americans celebrated St. Valentine’s Day were downright peculiar to our modern sensibilities. For instance, in Marriage Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons, by George Monger, he quotes an excerpt from The Connoisseur, a series of essays published from 1754 to 1756 where some interesting Valentine’s Day traditions were described:

“Last Friday was Valentine’s Day and the night before I got five bay leaves, and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow and the fifth to the middle; and then if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. But to make it more sure, I boiled an egg hard and took out the yolk and filled it with salt, and then I went to bed and ate it, shell and all, without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote our lovers names upon bits of paper and then rolled them up in clay and put them into water, and the first that rose up was to be our valentine.”

Betty must have been a trustworthy authority on love.

There was also a tradition that the first man that a maiden would see on Valentine’s Day would be the one she would marry. This practice undoubtedly caused numerous stubbed toes while girls with tightly-shut eyes waited for the signal from a friend that the one they desired was in close proximity.

While the first known written valentine message was sent in 1684, handwritten notes to celebrate love on February 14 became popular in 1750. The homemade sentiments were replaced by mass-produced cards in the mid nineteenth century.

So you can celebrate Valentine’s Day like the colonials with some bay leaves and eggs. But I would prefer a few chocolates myself. And if my valentine wants to make me a handwritten sentiment, I will feel like a blessed colonial woman indeed.

I will end with a quote from Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day,

All in the morning be-time,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Happy Valentine’s Day! May your day be filled with the company of those you love.

Image of rose courtesy of Khumthong via freedigitalphotos.net

On This Date: Shay’s Rebellion

January 25, 2018 by emcoop Leave a Comment

Lovers of history may view the end of the American Revolution in 1783 as a resolution to all the conflict in the new nation. Sadly, it did not lead to perfect peace in the American colonies.

The eight-years-long struggle for freedom from the Mother country left the new United States of America in desperate economic times. It was felt deeply in the state of Massachusetts and led to the uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion on January 25, 1787.

In the rural areas of western and central Massachusetts, soldiers returning home were faced with multiple financial stresses. Not only was the federal government unable to pay them what they were owed for their tenure in the army, but they had little in the way of assets. Most of the needs of their families were met through bartering for goods or services. Most were in debt and owed creditors for taxes.

The European business partners of Massachusetts merchants refused to extend lines of credit, insisting on being paid hard currency for goods. Yet real money was in short supply. Governor John Hancock of Boston refused to collect on delinquent taxes from poor borrowers and did not prosecute. He resigned in 1785, citing health reasons.

Hancock’s replacement, Governor Bowdoin, was elected in his place and the situation soon changed. Bowdoin increased actions against those who owed taxes, and the legislature made the situation worse by levying an additional property tax to help pay back foreign debts. John Adams declared these taxes to be “heavier than the people could bear.”

Individuals began to lose their lands and other possessions when they could not pay their taxes. Many of these who lost their homes were veterans of the war. They’d sacrificed and fought for years for a nation now turning their backs on them.

Daniel Shays was one of these soldiers and a farmhand by profession from Massachusetts. He had resigned from the army—unpaid—in 1780, only to go home and find himself in court for nonpayment of debts. When he realized he was not alone in this desperate financial situation, he began organizing protests against these conditions in order to fight for tax relief.

For several years, dissent grew to the point where Gov. Bowdoin issued a proclamation against the increasing protests. Unrest spread to several Massachusetts communities. James Warren wrote to John Adams in October of 1786 declaring, “We are now in a state of Anarchy and Confusion, bordering on Civil War.”

Several ringleaders were arrested in November and other protestors started to organize an overthrow of the state government of Massachusetts. On January 25, 1787, the rebels, with Daniel Shays at the helm, targeted the federal armory in Springfield in an attempt to seize weapons and overthrow the government. An intercepted message alerted the local militia to the planned attack, and the insurgents under Shays—some 1,500 men—faced the militia cannons. Grape-shot mortally felled 4 of the protesters while twenty were wounded.

The rebel forces fled to other towns and occasional conflicts ensued. The bloodiest battle occurred at Sheffield in February, thus ending the insurgency.

Four thousand people signed confessions as participants in the events of the rebellion in exchange for amnesty. Several were indicted but most were pardoned. Two men were hung.

Daniel Shays was pardoned in 1788 and returned to Massachusetts. Vilified by the Boston press, he eventually moved to New York where he died poor and obscure in 1825.

Shay’s rebellion became the catalyst for the formation of the United States Constitutional Convention which drew the retired George Washington back into public life. This renewed involvement of Washington in government policy led to him to being elected first President of the United States.

Excerpt from Promise of Deer Run:

“Bloody war.” The voice came from the man sitting by himself at the bar.

Nathaniel glanced at the poorly shaven face almost resting on the tip of his tankard. “Yes. Yes, it was.” Nathaniel took a bite of the stew and closed his eyes and moaned in pleasure. “Fine stew, sir.”

The man at the bar was not finished with his sad laments.

“Fought eight years for this ungrateful country. Came home to my farm and lost it to bloody Bowdoin. Governor indeed. Calls out the militia to shoot at decent citizens trying to spare their farm.” The man’s voice grew louder the angrier he got.

(Featured Image is the Springfield Armory as it looks today)

The Great Snow of 1717

January 6, 2018 by emcoop 4 Comments

I first wrote this post a few years ago and it ran at Colonial Quills Blogspot. It seemed an apt year to run it again! 😉

During the frigid winter in much of the country this year, it seems a logical time to search the Colonial American era too see if they had any memorable winters on record. Indeed, I quickly discovered a terrible blizzard dubbed, “The Great Snow of 1717.”

Although there were not official weather records kept at the time, there were sufficient diaries of the day describing a winter that began in December of 1716 with five feet of snow, then climaxed in the Great Snow from February 27 through March, 7, 1717. The area blanketed by the frigid white flakes was the colony of New York and the other colonies throughout New England. It was certainly possible the snow was more widespread but white populations had not spread much further west at that point.

In “Historic Storms of New England” written in 1891, author Sidney Perley noted that even the oldest Native Americans of that day said that their ancestors had never seen such a storm.

Beginning on February 27, the Great Snow was actually four snowstorms that began with a typical, New England nor-easter, dropping a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. But by March 1, the major snowstorm hit. Then another storm on March 4. Then the worst of the three hit on March 7.

The cold colonists huddled in their homes, no doubt praying for relief. Many single story homes were completely buried by the additional five-feet of snow, plus drifts of up to 20 feet.

In Hampton, Massachusetts, some residents could only escape the confines of their homes through a window on the second floor. The chimneys in some dwellings were even covered with snow.

One widow in Medford, Massachusetts was trapped in her single story home. Her residence could not be found for many days until, finally, an eager rescuer observed a small plume of smoke. Neighbors brought their shovels to dig a pathway to the widow’s window. They discovered her supply of firewood had been depleted so she’d resorted to burning furniture to keep her children warm.

Postal delivery was temporarily halted but resumed after several days with post boys travelling on snowshoes. One New England carrier found the snow in the woods to be five feet deep while in some places, six to fourteen feet.

Not only were the humans impacted by these storms, animals both domestic and wild suffered tremendous losses. Even weeks after the storm, cattle were found dead, some still standing in their frozen state.

The greatest loss in wildlife appeared to be the deer that became victims of the starving bears and wolves. Estimates cited that nineteen out of every twenty deer were killed that winter. It was such a huge loss that towns elected officials known as deer reeves to protect the survivors and allow for the forest population to increase.

Deer reeves had the authority within their jurisdiction to inspect private homes for the presence of fresh venison or deer hides. Fines were levied for those who broke the law.

The Great Snow damaged many orchards. Crusty ice broke branches, while surviving cows, wandering along the frozen crust of snow that stood many feet tall, munched on the tops of tender fruit trees. The bovines suddenly had access to choice morsels on the upper branches, thus injuring the future crop.

The storm, however, did not stop romance. Young Abraham Adams of Newbury, Massachusetts was homebound for a week when he could take no more: He missed the object of his affection, Miss Abigail Pierce, who lived some three miles away. Undaunted by the prolific snow outside his door, Mr. Adams donned his snowshoes and walked outside through an upstairs window onto the snow. He found his way to the home of his love, entering through an upstairs window in Abigail’s house. He was the first visitor the family had received since the storm.

The Great Snow may have delayed the mail delivery that week—but it could not halt the delivery of love. 🙂

Photo credits:

Rick Kraft Photos

Robin Bowen

Vicky Sluiter

Tina Rice

Angi Griffis

New Beginnings

January 1, 2018 by emcoop 2 Comments

The New Year is always a time for reflection. While others may commit to resolutions or one word to focus on for the new year, I tend to make it more of a time to contemplate many things: My writing, my goals, my relationships, my planner schedule! So much to be considered!

And as I think about starting a New Year, I want to be, more than anything, an obedient servant of the Lord. I want to pray more about each and every decision, trusting that God will show me the way.

While I want to attend every writer’s conference that I can, I pray for wisdom to choose the right ones.

While I want to write every novel idea swimming around in my head, I want to actually pen the ones that the Lord guides me to write.

While I want to do so many things this year, I need His wisdom to do that which pleases Him.

This may sound so simple. Yet in my busy life, which only seems to get busier, I need discernment. And I must pray for that and for wisdom, and for obedience to God’s direction.

To try to pick just one word for 2018 seems nearly impossible. And that’s OK. It may be a trendy post on social media to choose “one word” for the year but life is filled with many things, including my family who I treasure so very much.

One thing I know is that I have great anticipation for 2018. Somehow 2017 left me with many insecurities and yet I know if I entrust even this to God, He will refresh me with being secure in Him.

On Monday January 8, I’ll be participating in a nine-author Facebook party with books that contain the theme of “New Beginnings.” My 2^nd Deer Run Saga book seems to fit that category, so I’ll be adding that book to the prize package. But for those who read this blog post and leave a comment, I will choose one winner of a signed paperback of Promise of Deer Run. Just a way to say “thanks” to my many supporters as we begin the year of our Lord, 2018! May your New Year be blessed!

To join the Jan. 8 party, go to this link.

If you’d like to subscribe to my blog, enter your email address in the appropriate box on the upper right of this page.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and WELCOME, 2018!

Thanksgiving Tips from the Deer Run Saga

November 21, 2017 by emcoop 6 Comments

With one hand in a cast from surgery, I am re-running a Thanksgiving post from a few years past. Hope you enjoy!

If you are blessed enough to be gathering with family and friends this Thanksgiving, you might be thinking that it’s a mixed blessing. We love our families, but they can sometimes say the wrong thing…or share an embarrassing story….or be grieving and need encouragement. So how can you handle these situations?

Perhaps Thanksgiving stories from the Deer Run Saga can give all of us a few pointers. When it came to family gatherings, the Lowe family could spark plenty of conversation!

Handle embarrassing moments with humor:

Children can say the most unexpected things, which can cause deep embarrassment, as well as hilarity. There was just such a moment in Road to Deer Run when six-year-old Sarah blurts out a phrase she has heard her mother say—without understanding it might be inappropriate in front of a male guest.

It was a statement by her midwife/mother that started the verbal exchange:

“Well, I am so relieved that Missus Stearns did not begin her travail before I could partake of this Thanksgiving bounty.” The midwife sat back from the table, obviously satiated. “She should be sending for me any day now.”

“The husbands come home from war,” Sarah interjected, “and nine months later they are calling for the midwife. That is what mother always says.” Sarah resumed eating her cake, wiping crumbs off her blue woolen bodice.

Mary’s eyes opened wide and her cheeks turned bright red.

Widow Thomsen glared at her young daughter and said tersely, “That is what we say in the company of females only, Miss Sarah.”

“I am sorry, Mr. Lowe.” The girl paused in her eating and stared at her lap. “I did not realize that men did not know this was the way of it.”

Everyone stifled a laugh and Daniel nearly choked on his piece of cake, so amused was he by this exchange.

“That is quite all right, little miss. I am grateful to be informed of the ‘way of it.’” He stole a glance over toward Mary, who looked even more lovely with the scarlet in her cheeks. “Your cake is delightful.”

It was a brilliant strategy on Daniel’s part by not allowing Sarah to be humiliated and by changing the topic to diminish Mary’s embarrassment.

Allow those who are grieving to share their sadness:

In Promise of Deer Run, veteran James Thomsen, home from the Revolutionary War for several years now, is still plagued by the years away from Deer Run. He missed so many moments with his family while defending his country—moments in time lost forever. It was the sharing of a hilarious family memory that occurred while he was away at war that abruptly brought a stab of regret to James’ heart.

Her older brother abruptly stopped laughing and gazed with fondness at his little sister. “I did miss a great deal of your childhood, did I not? So many years at war… “ He stared into the distance with a sober expression.

Hannah took his hand. “We all missed you so, James. We knew why you needed to be gone. And we are so proud of you.” She leaned over and kissed her husband.

He smiled but the joy did not reach his sad eyes. “Thank you, Hannah, but those years with all of you are gone forever. That is what I regret the most.” He took a sip of wine from his tankard and sighed.

Everyone was quiet for several moments. It was Widow Eaton who broke the silence.

“Let us not dwell on the sad past but on our joyous and bountiful future.” She held up her tankard of wine. The others raised theirs as well.

“Hear, Hear!” The chorus rang out from all.

A hearty, “hear, hear” to Hannah for acknowledging her husband’s pain, for the group for not trying to diminish his loss, and for the widow who encouraged the group to have hope for a peaceful future and not dwell in the past.

Don’t spoil family conversation by speaking about politics:

In Legacy of Deer Run, Thanksgiving dinner is filled with fine food and delightful conversation—until Susannah’s brother, Stephen, brings up politics.

“So what do you think of the election next month, Father?”

Mr. Dobbins scowled. “I think our country is in for another precarious attack upon our freedoms. With that extremist Jefferson in the running, no telling where our country is headed.”

Stephen nodded. “The newspapers are filled with attacks on President Adams—accusing him of being a monarchist, senile, vain and having an ‘ungovernable temper.’ ‘Tis getting fractious and ugly. And that beastly Burr running with Jefferson.” Stephen shook his head and took another sip of wine.

“Well, when the Electoral College meets December3, let us pray they remember Jefferson’s zealous support of the French, despite their attacking our naval vessels. I think Jefferson was in France far too long. His arrogance smacks of sedition.”

The room became very quiet.

Susannah grew very pale and she rested both hands on the table, gripping the tablecloth. Eyes narrowing, her voice trembled when she spoke.

“Do you think we will have another war, Father?”

What started out as the perfect Thanksgiving meal quickly morphed into a setting ripe for indigestion—and fear. The political conversation was halted by the men at the table, but it was too late to assuage Susannah’s anxiety. Words once spoken cannot be retrieved.

So when you gather with your family and friends this holiday, try to be sensitive to others who may be grieving, be careful to avoid distressing political talk, and by all means, keep a sense of humor if and when embarrassing moments occur. And if your family is anything like the Lowe’s, something unexpected can always happen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Contract — New Books Coming!

Valentine’s Day in Colonial America

On This Date: Shay’s Rebellion

The Great Snow of 1717

New Beginnings

Thanksgiving Tips from the Deer Run Saga

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