Colonial Quills September Tea Party & New Releases

Blurb: 

When a deadly yellow fever outbreak draws Cornelia Gill back home, her new independent life must be abandoned. Injured veteran, Carter Williams, likewise must return to Dogwood Plantation when he suffers grievous family losses. Both become caretakers to younger family members. As the War of 1812 heats up, two wounded hearts begin to heal. But can they manage all that life has handed them?

Links to purchase:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

Kobo

Be sure to enter the RAFFLECOPTER Giveaway! 

Connect with Carrie online:

Facebook Author Page

See images related to Carrie’s books on her Pinterest Boards

Contact Carrie through her website www.carriefancettpagels

& sign up for Carrie’s newsletter

Twitter 

Instagram 

Carrie's giving away a copy of Dogwood Plantation in ebook or paperback (USA only unless Book Depository ships to your country) to one commenter on this blog post! 

A Cord of Three Strands

As 1756 dawns, Isaac Lukens leaves the Pennsylvania wilderness after two years with the Lenape people. He’s failed to find the families of his birth parents, a French trader and a Lenape woman. Worse, the tribe he’s lived with, having rejected his peacemaking efforts, now ravages frontier settlements in retaliation. When he arrives in Horsham, the Quaker community where he was reared, questions taunt him: Who is he—white man or Lenape? And where does he belong?

 Elisabeth Alden, Isaac’s dearest childhood friend, is left to tend her young siblings alone upon her father’s death. Despite Isaac’s promise to care for her and the children, she battles resentment toward him for having left, while an unspeakable tragedy and her discordant courtship with a prominent Philadelphian weigh on her as well.

 Elisabeth must marry or lose guardianship of her siblings, and her options threaten the life with her and the children that Isaac has come to love. Faced with Elisabeth’s hesitancy to marry, the prospect of finding his family at last, and the opportunity to assist in the peace process between Pennsylvania and its Indian tribes, Isaac must determine where—and to whom—the Almighty has called him.

LINKS TO PURCHASE:

Amazon (paperback)

Kindle/Kindle Unlimited

Barnes & Noble (paperback)

Be sure to enter the RAFFLECOPTER giveaway!

CONNECT ONLINE:

Christy's Website & Sign up for Newsletter

Facebook Author Page

Pinterest Board

Twitter

Instagram

Donald Duncan joined the Patriot cause for noble reasons, battling the British while enduring deprivation and hardship on every side. The war has changed him, and now the battle is internal. Returning home to Virginia is in sight where a new life and his Mary wait for him.

Mary Stewart spends the war years with her family at Stewarts' Green, helping them operate their ordinary. Daily, she prays for Donald's safe return, eagerly waiting for him ... until that day the evil side of war touches her.

Two hearts changed by a war that dragged on for six years. Two hearts left hurting and struggling to find the love and trust they once knew. Is there a path for them to rekindle what was lost; Setting Two Hearts Free?

Buy Now: Setting Two Hearts Free ~ Releases October 6, 2020

Purchase on AMAZON    

Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas   

Barnes & Noble   

 You can connect with Janet on:

Janet's website                                                                                                                    Facebook                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Instagram                                                                                   

Twitter                                                                                             

Pinterest 

 

A beloved family nativity set follows four generations through time. In 1899, a mysterious newcomer helps Pastor Seth Shepherd save Christmas. In 1919, while journeying by train, Stella Shepherd befriends a war veteran and finds a reason to cease her wanderings. In 1945, Elodie Wise plans a fundraising ball with the help of her friend, a swanky Hollywood headliner. In 2020, Benjie Gabriel thinks the chef’s position she’s just taken at an award-winning bed and breakfast is temporary, until she gets to know the owner. And as the Shepherd family grows through loving relationships, the nativity set also expands with new treasured pieces.

Released September 1!

Buy links:

• Amazon
  
• Christianbook
  
• Barnes & Noble

Connect with Shannon online at shannonmcnear.com (and don't forget to sign up for her Very Occasional Newsletter!) or at any of several social media sites:

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Goodreads
• Twitter
• BookBub 

To celebrate this new release, Shannon is giving away one paperback copy of this collection, which she is thrilled to share with three very stellar authors!

The Black Rose

About the Book

1893 ~ Logging has reached its golden era in the growing stated of Wisconsin, and twin sisters Jesilyn and Coriann Beaumont enjoy a comfortable live with family in the bustling, Great Lake city of Superior--until jealousy incites Jesi to seduce Cori's fiance, certain she can claim his heart. When things don't go as planned, a flight and fall from grace lands her in a boom town brothel where a fresh start is denied her.

Camp preacher Paul Winter longs to offer hope in the carousing lumber and mining towns of northern Wisconsin, but his successes have been few, and he's begun to question his calling. Then his ministry is challenged in an unexpected way when he meets a lost and broken red-head he calls Pie Girl. Though willing to offer rescue, he's never had to battle his own longings quite this way before. 

Meanwhile, stung by Jesilyn's betrayal, Corianne finds refuge in refusing to forgive, but bitterness might separate her from a second chance at happiness. When tragedy causes fresh sparks between them, will love fail forever? Or is there a way for both women to begin new lives--and find budding love blooming in places neither of them expects?

Buy the book here, or read for FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

Enter Naomi's Rafflecopter drawing to win a copy.

Deadline to enter Naomi's drawing is Sunday night, Sept. 20th.

Let's connect! I always try to follow back.

Naomi's Website 
FB
Bookbub
Goodreads
Amazon
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Monthly Newsletter

 Heart of a Warrior

by Angela K Couch

The Man She Fears Is Her Only Chance For Survival . . .

All Christina Astle wants is to reach Oregon before her baby is born, but the wagon train is attacked, and her husband killed, stranding her in a mountain labyrinth. Raised in the East, within civilization's embrace, survival is not a skill she's learned. Neither is evading the lone warrior dogging her trail.

Disgusted by the greed and cruelty of men like his white father, Towan has turned to the simpler existence of his mother's tribal people. He is not prepared for the fiery woman who threatens to upturn his entire life ... and his heart.

Connect with Angela: www.angelakcouch.com

Amazon

Goodreads 

To celebrate this release Angela will be giving away a $5 Amazon gift card! 

  

~*~*~*

Be sure to come over to our Colonial Quills Online Facebook Party, too, tonight from 7-9 Eastern Time!

The “Great Fires” of American History—and the Deadliest of All: Peshtigo

Springtime is notoriously one of the worst times of year for wildfires. Here in places like the one where I live, the snow is gone, but the greening up hasn’t begun in earnest. The ground is covered with dried leaves and brittle pine needles. Branches and other wooded detritus make for tinder that needs only a spark to ignite. Here in Wisconsin, in fact, the Department of Natural Resources has suspended burning permits for the foreseeable future. The concern is that, since more wildfires begin in the spring, eliminating ignition sources on the landscape will reduce the wildfire risk which can lead to more person-to-person contact and possible higher vulnerability to certain populations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Viruses aside, this got me wondering about the so-called “Great Fires” that raged across the land and our nation’s early history.

There is a lot of study and speculation about whether or not and why those native to the continent may (or may not) have used burning to clear the forests. We do know for sure, however, that when the first European settlers came to this continent, it didn’t take long for fire to begin taking its toll on the colonies.

In January 1608, a devastating fire destroyed most of the colonist's provisions and lodgings. Captain James Smith made a concise assessment of the situation:

"I begin to think that it is safer for me to dwell in the wild Indian country than in this stockade, where fools accidentally discharge their muskets and others burn down their homes at night."

In 1736, Benjamin Franklin—who had a lot of first-hand knowledge of volunteer fire-fighting by this point—founded the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia, which became the standard for volunteer fire company organization in many other places. And firefighting was needed all throughout the colonies.

November 18, 1740, Charleston, South Carolina suffered a horrendous conflagration fueled by turpentine, tar, and rum that moved quickly, swallowing up wharves, commercial buildings, and houses in its path. The wasn’t Charleston’s first licking by fire. Founded in 1689, “Charles Towne” experienced its first blaze in 1698 and lost one-third of its settlement’s buildings. The city went on to suffer other fire catastrophes in 1778, 1788, 1796, 1799, 1810, 1819, and 1826.

Elsewhere, meanwhile, the night of September 20th, 1776, fire burned New York’s West Side at the southern end of Manhattan Island. This was during British occupation of the island during the Revolutionary War, and there was much debate and blame cast over whether the fire was started by the British or the revolutionaries. 10-25 percent of the buildings in the city were destroyed and other parts were plundered in the chaos.

Artist's Depiction of the Great Fire of New York (1776), Wikipedia Commons

In spring of 1788, fire swept through New Orleans, destroying 856 of its 1100 structures. If that first “Great Fire” wasn’t bad enough, only six years later, another fire roared through the area now known as the French Quarter destroying 212 more structures, including the jail, in what became known as the Great Fire of 1794. The schooner Nuestra Señora del Cármen, anchored off-shore, was rented as a jail for several months following.

The 1800s saw fire’s devastation in many American cities and across its vast countryside. New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco—and who could forget Chicago—saw the massive affects of fire on populations crowded together in wooden structures. In all of these fires, there was some loss of life, making the stories even more tragic.

But of all the fires of our history, none was so destructive and deadly as 

The Great Peshtigo Fire. 

Peshtigo—called the worst wildfire in history—happened when? 

In 1871, on the night of October 8th. 

But isn’t that the night of the Great Chicago Fire, you ask? 

Why, yes, it is. 

But I’ve not heard of this fire, you say. 

That is highly probable, because Chicago was a much bigger city, and resources had been directed from Wisconsin to Chicago to help. 

Meanwhile, tiny little Peshtigo, in the northeast corner of the state near Lake Michigan, not only saw 1.2 million acres go up in flame, but the entire town was turned to ash, and more than 1152 people were killed, compared to Chicago’s loss of life of some 300. Many estimates say that the Peshtigo death toll was likely closer to 2500, and some say 3000. It was difficult to account for the many lumberjacks, railroad men, farm family immigrants, and others who populated the north woods and were itinerant.

"Making for the River", Artist's Depiction of The Great Peshtigo Fire, Wikipedia Commons

Horrifically, the Peshtigo Fire claimed more lives than any other forest fire in US history, before or since. Many of those people lie together in a mass grave. Many others’ bodies dissolved to ash and were never recovered, such was the total annihilation across the landscape.

I have always wanted to tell Peshtigo’s tragic story through the eyes of characters in a work of fiction. Using the recorded stories of several actual survivors and other historians, I’ve tried to be true to their accounts, while also sharing a love story. My novel THE RED FURY re-released this week. I hope you’ll visit my website, or check out the book on Amazon to learn more about it.

The characters in The Red Fury are some of my favorite I’ve ever written. When lumberman’s daughter Lainey Kade, and brothers—Civil War veterans—Zane and Kelly Beaumont, stepped into my writer’s heart, I felt as if they were actually there in Peshtigo, in the past.

The Red Fury can be read alone, but it would be better to read The Green Veil first.

Take care now, and God bless,
Naomi
www.naomimusch.com
Amazon author page

The Beginnings of Frontier Warfare

I've always been intrigued by wilderness warfare. I'd been taught/told that the American colonists defeated the British during the American Revolution largely because they used Native American styles of guerrilla warfare that the British weren't prepared to counter. This does have the ring of myth to it, however. The British had plenty of previous experience in tactical, guerrilla, "hit and run" fighting during battles with Scottish Highlanders, Austrian pandours in Europe, Jamaican maroons, and--yes, their own encounters with Native Americans during previous years. In fact, it was actually during the French and Indian wars that guerrilla warfare first took hold in the European mindset.

The British thought such methods to be uncivilized, savage, and frontier, of course. Irregular, as it were. Later, the main reason the British were able to defeat the French was not so much so that they had a superior fighting force, but because they had learned to use a combination of both conventional and unconventional methods of engaging the enemy in the wilderness.

British commander Edward Braddock and his troops preparing to march on the French-held Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) during the French and Indian War.  MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

For a long time, the British were hesitant to use such tactics as decoy and ambush, because they deemed such fighting dishonorable. It was also considered dishonorable not to wear a uniform identifying them as soldiers, dishonorable not to "stand and fight", and dishonorable not to adhere to the "Laws of War". However, horrific battles and attacks occurred to change their mind. Who can forget the massacre of Fort William Henry? (A scene so brilliantly portrayed in one of my favorite movies ever, the 1992 version of Last of the Mohicans.) As new military leadership arose, the British realized that they would have to change their tactics and their views if they were to have a chance at succeeding in the wilderness. The British proceeded to build up branches of its military with men who were specialized woodsmen. These men not only practiced unique ways of fighting, but they even donned their own green uniforms--or skipped the uniforms altogether to blend into the countryside better.

Robert Rogers was the most influential man in bringing about the use of the new styles of fighting. As a man with skill and experience, he led increasing numbers of soldiers known as Robert's Rangers into wilderness forays against the enemy. While some British still considered his guerrilla style of fighting to be uncouth (along with Rogers himself), Rogers brought his ranger's fighting skills to a new level. No one could deny his victories. He even penned a manual called Rogers’ Rules of Ranging that was full of common sense skills still relevant to the United States Army Rangers today.

Have you ever read about Roger's Rangers or the battles of the early American frontier? It's fascinating history.
Naomi
https://naomimusch.com/

There's a Party Goin' On!

Even as this post is being published, there'a a book launch party happening all day today on Facebook (Friday, Aug. 2). I'd love it if you'd stop in and help me release the 3rd and final book in my Echoes of the Heart series, The Brightest Hope. It's time to celebrate this novel of grace and new beginnings!

Join the Party Here

Today, right now, I'm launching a brand new book! When you've finished reading this, I hope you'll pop on over to the party on Facebook and join me.