Terrific Trio Takes Tea - Authors MaryLu Tyndall, Laura Frantz and C.J. Chase

Tea Party Time!




Join authors whose new releases came out in August.  Hurricane Irene blew our last tea set off the table!  


CJ Chase - Redeeming the Rogue

This is what CJ is wearing!!!


Laura Frantz - The Colonel's Lady
MaryLu Tyndall - Surrender the Dawn

Pull up a chair to the table and join our authors as they "dish" about their new books!  Welcome!



This is what MaryLu usually wears - very pretty: 

Laura's lovely Roxanna prefers this hat and locket:

GIVEAWAYS: EACH AUTHOR IS GIVING AWAY A COPY OF THEIR NEW RELEASES, OUT IN AUGUST!!!  Leave a comment with your email address.

The Doctor, the Lawyer, and the National Anthem

By C. J. Chase


With no territory gained or lost, America's War of 1812 would be all but forgotten but for one major consequence — “The Star Spangled Banner.” Enter the unlikely catalyst for America’s future national anthem.

Dr. William Beanes was born January 24, 1749 on a large estate in Prince Georges County, Maryland. He learned medicine by apprenticing with a local doctor and used those skills in the General Hospital at Philadelphia during the American Revolution. By the summer of 1814, the 65-year-old physician owned a gristmill, extensive property, and the largest house in Upper Marlboro, the Prince Georges county seat, where he served as an elected official.

On August 16, 1814, 22 British vessels invaded the Chesapeake Bay, the large body of water between the U.S. mainland and the eastern portions of Virginia and Maryland. Fear that the British would attack Maryland’s capital Annapolis prompted state government officials to move records inland from the city to Beane’s Upper Marlboro home, about eight miles east of Washington, DC. But the British bypassed Annapolis, instead targeting the nation's capital.

With the British army marching through his town, Beanes invited Major General Robert Ross to use his home. What better way to protect the state archives (and Beanes’ home) from a British bonfire than to have the general staying on the premises!

After routing the American forces at Bladensburg on the afternoon of August 24, the combined British army and naval forces entered Washington, DC, unopposed. Captain Thomas Tingey, the American in charge of the Washington Navy Yard, torched the supplies stored there lest they fall into enemy hands. The British soon copied his example, burning public buildings including the Capitol, the President’s House, and the Treasury building. A summer breeze carried the flames to nearby residences, sending homes up in flames. From forty miles away, Baltimore residents watched the fires light the night sky.

Capitol after the fire

Unable to hold the city and fearing an American counteract, Ross ordered his army to fall back to the Chesapeake Bay, once again passing through Upper Marlboro. But not all of them returned. Over 100 men vanished, many of them deserters who decided to remain in America rather than sail back to Britain. With some of these deserters now pillaging local farms, residents decided to act. Former Maryland governor Robert Bowie, Dr. Beanes, and several other men set about capturing the stragglers. They had imprisoned six of them in the county jail when one escaped and returned to General Ross.

An angry Ross sent a detachment to Upper Marlboro where the soldiers arrested Beanes, Bowie, and two others. A swap followed, with the British getting their deserters back in exchange for three of the Maryland men — all of them except Dr. Beanes. No one knows why Ross refused to release Beanes. Historians speculate Beanes may have offered Ross some sort of pledge during their earlier meeting. Whatever the reason, Ross had the old man detained in the brig of the HMS Tonnant.

Beanes' influential friends began to pressure the American government into negotiating for his release. But American General John Mason feared that exchanging the old doctor for captured British soldiers would encourage the British to take civilian hostages. With official channels moving too slowly for Beanes’ friends, his neighbor Richard West decided to try a new tactic. He asked the assistance of his wife’s brother-in-law — a Washington lawyer named Francis Scott Key.

Key and John Skinner, the American prisoner of war exchange agent, received President James Madison’s permission to negotiate for Beane’s release. General Mason organized their transportation and also compassionately arranged for them to deliver letters from wounded British prisoners. Sailing on the Royal Oak under a flag of truce, Key and Skinner reached the British fleet on September 7 and joined Ross on the Tonnant where they presented him with the letters from his soldiers and their petition for Beanes’ release.

Despite the Ross’s lingering anger with Beanes, he agreed to free the old doctor, in large measure to express his appreciation for the letters. However, the Tonnant was already enroute to the planned British assault on Baltimore. With the three Americans now aware of the impending attack, the British were understandably reluctant to release them until after the battle. And thus, on the night of September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key, along with Skinner and Beanes, watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the midst of the British fleet.

Major George Armistead, commanding officer of Fort McHenry, had commissioned an extra-large flag – 30 feet by 42 feet – to fly above the garrison. From eight miles away, the three Americans waited for news. Would the British take Baltimore like they had taken Washington? On the morning of September 14, Skinner, Key, and Beanes saw that star-spangled banner by the dawn’s early light. Inspired that the flag was still waving, Key wrote the poem that became the American national anthem.

News of the American victory reached Europe during the peace negotiations in the autumn of 1814 and ended Britain's hope of gaining territorial concessions. Three months after the failed assault on Baltimore, the two countries finalized the Treaty of Ghent, which returned their relationship to status quo ante bellum.

After leaving the corporate world to stay home with her children, C.J. Chase quickly learned she did not possess the housekeeping gene. She decided writing might provide the perfect excuse for letting the dust bunnies accumulate under the furniture. Her procrastination, er, hard work paid off in 2010 when she won the Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Manuscript and sold the novel to Love Inspired Historicals. Redeeming the Rogue is an August, 2011 release. You can visit C.J.'s cyber-home (where the floors are always clean) at cjchasebooks.com

Book Review of Redeeming the Rogue by C.J. Chase

Redeeming the Rogue by C.J. Chase


Love Inspired Historical


August 2011




Review by Rachel Wilder




I'm going to start off by saying I'm not your typical book reviewer. If you're looking for a rehash of the back cover copy or a synopsis, you're in the wrong place.


My mom bought the book last week without even knowing that I wanted to read it or was supposed to review it. I hadn't told her yet. Fashion nerd that I am the first thing I noticed was the hero's trousers. An actual proper button flap on them!


This is CJ's debut novel, and it is a rich historical romantic suspense. Yes, suspense.


Kit DeChambelle has spent ten years as a spy and his deceit and choices haunt him. Innocent blood stains his hands and his heart. I was very surprised and pleased to see him dealing with his guilt in a way that many people did back then. He turns to drink. Whiskey and brandy. As weird as this sounds, this is one of my favorite things about the book. Kit's humanity is palpable.


Mattie Fraser is in London seeking revenge on the British naval captain who impressed her brother. She is armed and dangerous and more than willing to pull the trigger. Again, her humanness stands out. I don't read a lot of LIH's because so many of them tend to gloss over the seedier parts of life. Not this time. Mattie's had a rough life and she struggles to leave it behind.


Neither character starts out as a Christian. By the end, both have come to Christ, of course. This is a Christian novel after all. Their journeys to faith are well done, believable, and don't come across as preachy. This is something that's very important to me.


The street orphan, Nicky, is a wonderful addition to the cast of characters. I immediately fell in love with him. Again, CJ deftly handled the reality of the time without getting bogged down in the gory details.


This debut is a thrilling read that I heartily recommend. I look forward to more from CJ!

Yankee Noodle Dandy!

C.J. Chase’s Recipe for Homemade Noodles

I’m not certain this is colonial, but it’s been passed down in my family for generations, at least going back to the mid-1800’s. It’s easy and uses ingredients I have on hand, and it’s a good way to get rid of a leftover roast or Thanksgiving turkey.

Homemade Noodles:

2 eggs

2 c flour

2 T water

Salt*

Beat eggs and water. Add salt and as much flour as possible until batter is stiff. Roll out the dough to about 1/8” thick and put it on a cookie rack to dry. (Note: my grandmother let hers dry all day. I find that putting it in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes or so works just as well.) Slice noodles into the desired width and add to boiling beef, chicken, turkey or ham broth. Makes a great homemade chicken noodle soup!

*I vary the amount of salt based on the type of meat. I add little or no salt if the noodles will be going in a ham-based broth.

Interview with debut author C.J. Chase

CJ Chase

Interview by Carrie Fancett Pagels

C.J. Chase is the author of Redeeming the Rogue

Published by: Love Inspired Historicals

Date: August, 2011

This is C.J.’s debut novel! Congrats, C.J., who lives here in Virginia and belongs to Colonial American Christian Writers and to our local Tidewater Christian Fiction Writers group.  Welcome to the Colonial Quills blog, C.J.!

C.J., what got you interested in this time period?

Well, this book is actually a little past the colonial period—and it’s set in England. But the plot revolves around the Treaty of Ghent, the treaty which ended the War of 1812. I love America and American history, and in fact, I have a novel set in Virginia’s early colonial period in my stash of as-yet unsold manuscripts.  Maybe someday …

I was a kid in the Midwest during the Bicentennial celebrations. (Yes, I know, I’m dating myself now.) It was all nice and fun, but it seemed rather abstract—until we traveled east on vacation that year. My father took me to an old, old cemetery on my uncle’s farm and showed me the gravesite of a Revolutionary War ancestor. Suddenly, the Bicentennial became personal.

What inspired your book?

The popularity of the Regency period among American readers has always seemed a little strange to me because we were at war with the British during that time. I decided to write what I call the “anti-Regency”—a book set in Regency England, but written from an American’s perspective. My heroine is from Washington, DC, and was there when the British burned the city. She travels to London to inquire after the fate of her brother, a sailor who was impressed into the British Navy. To say she’s not particularly fond of all things British would be to understate the matter. But her questions draw her into a web of lies, conspiracy and danger, and she must decide if she can trust the British official who might be working with her … or against her.

An e-book version is available on both Amazon’s and Mills and Boon’s UK sites, so it will be interesting to see if I sell any books in Britain—and what the readers’ reactions are!

Do you have a favorite colonial place you like to visit and why?

Jamestown, the place that started the whole thing. Those early colonists were thousands of miles away from everything familiar—and they were totally on their own. They had no army, no police force, no one to call if things went wrong. And things often went wrong in those first few years. How could they not? They had no idea what to expect or how to prepare. Every time I visit Jamestown, I’m amazed at the courage of those people.

Here is a link to CJ's trailer.

C.J., do you have a favorite colonial recipe you enjoy?  Would you care to share it with CQ readers?  Readers, you can find C.J.’s recipe for homemade noodles this coming Sunday on CQ.

Where do you live and what colonial places you have in your state?

I live in Southeastern Virginia, so finding colonial sites is almost as easy as stepping out my back door.

Giveaway:  CQ is giving away a copy of Redeeming the Rogue. Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win! It is available for purchase at Amazon and CBD in paperback and Kindle versions.