December's Tea Party - Andrea Boeshaar, Elaine Marie Cooper, and Angela Couch

Welcome to our December Tea Party!

'Tis a festive time of year to celebrate new historical book releases! We're celebrating in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley!

Newly Released: A Thousand Shall Fall: A Civil War Novel

 A story of love, hope, and healing set in the midst of the Civil War

Nineteen-year-old Carrie Ann Bell is independent and spirited. The only thing she really fears are the Union soldiers fighting against her Confederate friends. When her youngest sister runs away from home, brave Carrie Ann is determined to find her and bring her back. Disguised as a soldier, she sets off–only to find she’s fallen into the hands of the enemy. 

TO PURCHASE BOOK CLICK HERE!

Her childhood friend Confederate Major Joshua Blevins has warned her against these Yankees: they’re all devils, ready to inflict evil on unsuspecting young women. When Colonel Peyton Collier arrests her for her impersonation of an officer, it seems to confirm all her fears.

Soon, though, she finds herself drawn to the handsome, gallant colonel. He rescued her, protected her, and has been every inch the gentleman. Carrie Ann discovers that her foe has become her ally–and more than that, someone she could love. But the arrival of Joshua in the Union camp as a spy will test her loyalties. Will she protect someone who has been like family or be loyal to this stranger to whom she wants to offer her heart? When her world is being torn apart around her, whom should she trust?

Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, A Thousand Shall Fall is framed around compelling characters and a very romantic setting in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Andrea Boeshaar’s extensive research guarantees historical accuracy and romance genre enthusiasts and Civil War buffs alike will enjoy the Christian perspectives on actual historical events.

Bio: Andrea Boeshaar is a co-founder of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and runs “Steeple View Coaching & Writer’s ER." She is the author of thirty published works, including Threads of Faith, a finalist in the Inspirational Readers Choice Awards. Andrea is also the author of a popular devotional and
regularly blogs on a number of sites.

Make your Christmas even merrier!
From now until December 10th, enter to win a Kindle Fire HD 6"

To Enter CLICK HERE!

You might also enjoy Andrea's Civil War Christmas novella Everlasting Light. The e-book is only .99 in celebration of today's tea party. It's also available in audiobook edition. 

To purchase, CLICK HERE!

Also releasing this month is Road to Deer Run by Elaine Marie Cooper.

About the book:
War is in the air in 1777 in western Massachusetts. The able-bodied men have all left Deer Run to fight the battle at Saratoga, New York, leaving the Colonial women and the elderly behind to tend the families. While news of the American victory is heartening, the personal losses are already felt by the Thomsen women in Deer Run.

Still reeling from the loss of her brother, young Mary Thomsen comes upon an unexpected and terrifying discovery: A wounded King's soldier. Her heart wants to hate, but her compassion and sense of Christian duty overcome her grief. But becoming a Good Samaritan takes a terrifying toll, and brings Mary on an adventure of fear and passion that she could never have anticipated.

Road to Deer Run first appeared in 2010 but has been given new life with a new publisher, new edits and new book cover. This new release will be available on December 10, but the paperback can be pre-ordered through CrossRiver Media here. If you use the code DEERRUN25, you will get a 25% discount through release day. You can pre-order the kindle version at Amazon here.

GIVEAWAY: Elaine Marie Cooper will send a signed copy of Road to Deer Run to one person who leaves a comment today.


Elaine's Bio: Elaine Marie Cooper is the award-winning author of Bethany’s Calendar and Fields of the Fatherless. Her re-release of the Deer Run Saga begins with Road to Deer Run this month and will be followed by Promise of Deer Run (June 2016) and Legacy of Deer Run (December, 2016). Saratoga Letters will be released by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas in October, 2016. Elaine's passions are her faith, her family, and the history of the American Revolution, the era in which her historical fiction novels are set. You can read her blog on her website here Elaine is represented by Cyle Young of Hartline Literary Agency. 

And last but not least... (Though perhaps they are least--I mean, they are short stories.)

 A Bit of Christmas and A Kiss is Still a Kiss are short story anthologies with one thing in common...stories by Angela K Couch!

I Head the Bells (Dec 1, 2015)

Virginia, December 1864:
Three years ago, Gabriel Morgan left his home in Virginia to fight for the Union army, despite his family and his fiancée’s loyalties to the South. Now, with battle fresh in his mind, and the war still raging, he chances a quick trip home with one prayer…to make peace this Christmas.

Shackled (Nov 1, 2015)

Arizona Territory 1883:
He came west to find freedom and ended up shackled to a chair. She’s not sure she ever wants to let him go.

Bio: Angela K Couch is an award-winning author for her short stories, and a semi-finalist in ACFW's 2015 Genesis Contest. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in there, as well. Angela lives in Alberta, Canada with her "hero" and three munchkins. www.angelakcouch.com

Find her books on Amazon or Goodreads! 
GIVEAWAY: Both an e-book and a print copy of A Bit of Christmas!

Colonial Cradles

Hush! my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed!

Heavenly blessings without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,

House and home, thy friends provide;

All without thy care or payment:

All thy wants are well supplied.

— From “A Cradle Hymn” by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748)

The first time I saw a colonial cradle, I was visiting the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne in Concord, Massachusetts.

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne Home, Concord, MA

I was just a young girl and I can still see the rich, dark wood, so smoothly crafted with loving care. I remember imagining the children of the household that were rocked to sleep within the comforting confines. Seeing that cradle brought to life tender traces of the love and care of the people who had lived there. I cherished that memory long into adulthood, when I named my own son “Nathaniel.” And I still eagerly drink in the images of antique cradles wherever I see them.

Peregrine White's Wicker Cradle

The first cradle in America came over on the Mayflower in 1620. It was the Dutch wicker bed that soothed the first child born to the Pilgrims in the New World: Peregrine White. The young boy was birthed onboard the wooden vessel as it docked in Cape Cod Bay. It can still be seen at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Most of the cradles made in the colonies were wrought from wood and the designs ranged from plain, solid boards, to engraved embellishments along the panels, to spindled sides similar to modern crib designs.

Author Eric Sloan in American Yesterday wrote, “At one time or another, cradles have been attached to butter churns, turnspits, dog mills, and even windmill gears to give them automatic movement, but the simple rocker cradle remained in the American household for over two centuries before its disappearance.”

A rather unique cradle, thought to have multiple uses for nursing mothers, twins or invalids, was the “adult cradle.” These wooden cradles were about the size of a single bed, but built closer to the floor.

According to Jack Larkin in The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790 – 1840, not every infant slept in a cradle in Early America. “…it was common, noted the physician and reformer William Alcott in 1830, for an American mother to ‘sleep with her infant on her arm,’ and children often shared the parental bed until they were weaned.”

Cradle from Storrowton Village Museum

But whether some infants shared their parents’ bed or not, the cradle seemed to be the predominant shelter for little ones while they slept.

Shirley Glubock in Home and Child Life in Colonial Days writes:

“Nothing could be prettier than the old cradles that have survived successive years of use with many generations of babies….In these cradles the colonial baby slept, warmly wrapped in a homespun blanket or pressed quilt.”

How much better thou’rt attended

Than the Son of God could be,

When from heaven he descended

And became a child like thee!

Soft and easy is thy cradle:

Coarse and hard thy Savior lay

When His birthplace was a stable

And His softest bed was hay.

— From “A Cradle Hymn” by Isaac Watts (1674 – 1748)