Historical Christmas Party

 

All of us at Colonial Quills blog and Colonial American Christian Writers welcome you to our party! We also have a Facebook Event from 2-4 pm Eastern Time Wednesday, December 15, where you can show off your party gowns and interact with our authors even more! We're sharing that event with friends from the HHH blog, too, so one or more will join us in the afternoon! 

Shannon McNear

Greetings and salutations, gentle readers! I am so excited to get to share this story with all of you.

The daughter of a renowned English artist and explorer, Elinor White Dare journeys to the New World seeking a fresh start and a place to put down roots. What she finds will shake the very foundations of her faith and yet rebuild what she knows of God’s goodness and mercy, even in loss.

This "what if" historical explores the possible fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, the first attempt at English settlement in America, 20 years before Jamestown.

To celebrate the release of this novel, I am giving away a small "Reader's Retreat" gift bundle, with a signed copy of Elinor (or any of my other books of your choice) accompanied by an "adventure" journal, cranberry rose candle, and two other books by friends of mine, which I had signed at this past July's Mississippi River Readers Retreat. For a chance to win, please comment with your favorite place to curl up and read!

*~*~*~

Pegg Thomas

Merry Christmas!

I'm showcasing my newest release, Maggie's Strength, for today's party.

Maggie Kerr is a survivor. Taken captive at age eleven during the battle at Fort McCord, she's learned to adapt and to trust no one. Promised in marriage to a Huron warrior she fears, Maggie risks everything in a run for her freedom.

Content to ignore the rising animosity between the British and the Ottawa villagers he calls his friends, Baptiste Geroux plants his fields, limping behind his oxen and waiting for his brother to return from the west. Until the day a woman in danger arrives on his farm.

When more tribes join Pontiac in an all-out war, Maggie and Baptiste take refuge at Fort Detroit. He’s distrusted for being French. She’s scorned for being raised by the Hurons. Together they forge a fragile bond—until Maggie's past threatens their chance at happiness.

Follow me on my newsletter for updates and announcements! 

*~*~*~

Naomi Musch

Many happy returns of the season to one and all! I'm happy to hang out with you here today and over on the FB event page. My featured NEW book that releases in just a couple weeks is called Song for the Hunter, and I'm giving away a Kindle copy here on the blog.

30% off through Dec. 16 at the
publisher's site with the
code BESTFRIEND

Song for the Hunter is a sequel to my 2019 Selah and Book of the Year finalist Mist O'er the Voyageur. Here's a brief description of the story:

Métis hunter Bemidii Marchal has never played his flute to court a maiden but considers the possibility at Fort William’s Great Rendezvous. However, when rescuing his sister causes an influential man’s death, the hunter becomes the hunted. Bemidii flees to Lake Superior's Madeline Island. Carrying a secret, Camilla Bonnet travels into the wilderness with her husband where tragedy awaits. Left alone, she fears Bemidii but is forced to trust him. Friendship grows and turns to deeper feelings. Then Bemidii discovers more about the man he killed. Now the secret he hides might turn Camilla’s heart away—and demand his life.

You can read the first chapter on the publisher's site here: https://shoplpc.com/song-for-the-hunter/ or if you want to listen to me reading, you can hear the first few pages (not the whole chapter) on my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/qtogfNVqTsQ

To enter for an e-copy of Song for the Hunter, just leave a comment about your Christmas plans--what you're excited about, what you're reading, your favorite food, anything! And don't forget to mention your interest in Song for the Hunter!

*~*~*~

Gabrielle Meyer

Merry Christmas, to one and all! I'm thrilled to be back at Colonial Quills sharing in the Christmas festivities. I can't wait to join everyone at the live Facebook party.

Today, I'll be chatting about my upcoming release, When the Day Comes. It will release on May 3, 2022 with Bethany House Publishers. Here's a little more about the story.

How will she choose, knowing all she must sacrifice?

Libby has been given a powerful gift: to live one life in 1774 Colonial Williamsburg and the other in 1914 Gilded Age New York City. When she falls asleep in one life, she wakes up in the other. While she's the same person at her core in both times, she's leading two vastly different lives.

In Colonial Williamsburg, Libby is a public printer for the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, trying to provide for her family and support the Patriot cause. The man she loves, Henry Montgomery, has his own secrets. As the revolution draws near, both their lives--and any hope of love--are put in jeopardy.

Libby's life in 1914 New York is filled with wealth, drawing room conversations, and bachelors. But the only work she cares about--women's suffrage--is discouraged, and her mother is intent on marrying her off to an English marquess. The growing talk of war in Europe only complicates matters.

But Libby knows she's not destined to live two lives forever. On her twenty-first birthday, she must choose one path and forfeit the other forever--but how can she choose when she has so much to lose in each life?

In honor of my new release, I would like to give away an advanced reader copy. They won't be available until February, but the winner will be one of the first to get a copy in the mail! I will choose a winner from among the comments on this blog post. Merry Christmas!

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and subscribe to my newsletter!

*~*~*~

Carrie Fancett Pagels 

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas, as my English ancestors would say! 

Did you know that at the end of my colonial novella, Mercy in a Red Cloak, there is a Christmas scene? This book, like my two 2021 releases Behind Love's Wall and Butterfly Cottage, is set at the Straits of Mackinac and on Mackinac Island! I do have an audiobook of Mercy in a Red Cloak, also, and will be giving away reader's choice of format, including audio code if preferred! And in 2021 my pre-War of 1812 book, Holt Medallion finalist The Steepchase, released in audiobook and I have audiobook codes for Christmas giveaway, too!

From all of us at Colonial Quills blog, we would like to thank you for your readership! You're a blessing to us and we pray our blog posts have blessed you as well!

The wreaths pictured in the post are from Colonial Williamsburg. We hope you'll allow us to serve you a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, and bring around some trays of Christmas treats for you to enjoy! 

The blessings of the season to you all!

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. VI

I've been having a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol II, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol III, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol IV, and History I Shouldn't Write - Vol V. I've talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular or palatable in our modern culture.

"So, Pegg, why do you hate Native Americans?"

I can almost hear that question shouted from those who have followed this series to this, its final installment. Many of you are finding yourselves uncomfortable because it is an uncomfortable topic. It's hard to face what "everyone knows" about history and try to see it in a more balanced and realistic light. It's hard to let go of misconceptions that we've nourished for most of our lives.

I don't hate Native Americans. Not at all. There is much about their culture to admire. Historically, many of their people were as noble and good as people in any culture around the globe. Contemporarily, many of their people are adding to the advances and innovations that will keep our country moving forward into the next century.

But the presentation of "The Noble Redman" as some sort of a stereotypical victim of the European invaders is more fiction than truth. Were they treated badly by the British in the mid-1700s? It depends. The answer is too long for this blog post. Both sides did their share of wrong, and both sides had leaders who worked hard to bring the two cultures together. As with all of history, there are more shades of gray than black and white. It's not my job to defend or condemn either side.

So I'm not hating on, or picking on, or otherwise demeaning this people group. I am studying it for purposes of learning the truth and writing better books. What I don't like is history colored with a modern-day bias.

History is what it is.

It's not something you can change. It's not something you should try to justify or excuse or promote for any reason other than the truth. Our ancestors made a lot of mistakes - in every culture. We can either learn from those mistakes, or we can bury them and create a more palatable version of the "truth." If we do the latter, it leaves us with a "truth" we can't trust. A "truth" we can't learn from. And a "truth" that may cause us to repeat mistakes we should have learned from.

During this research journey, I've decided to pick my battles with the truth in my books carefully. While it's allowable - even expected - for the author to beat up on the Europeans when writing about this time period, I feel like it skews the history - and therefore the story - if the reader only sees the evil or the good of one side.

Some things I've written about in this series will get mentioned, or be known to have happened off-screen, even though they'll make some people uncomfortable. They have to be to strike the balance of truth. But I will not use such things in a gratuitous way to gin up controversy in the hopes of creating shock value for selling more books. For me, that would also be an abuse of history. 

 PeggThomas.com

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. V

I've been having a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol II, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol III, and History I Shouldn't Write - Vol IV. I've talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular or palatable in our modern culture.

As I discussed in Vol. IV, the British stopped the practice of supplying the native tribes with all the guns, ammunition, and rum that they were accustomed to getting from the French. Why was that so infuriating to the Native Americans? They'd survived for thousands of years without such things, proof that they didn't really need them, right?

I thought that was a good question, so I went looking for answers.

What I found was more conjecture than solid fact, but it also made sense. Think of where the Native Americans were when the first Europeans landed on these shores. Their tools were stone, bone, clay, and maybe some soft metals that didn't need a forge. They had arrows, lances, clubs, and slings for weapons. Their clothing was almost all animal hides, although some had learned to spin and weave a bit of cloth from plants. For all intents and purposes, they were still in the stone age.

Along come the Europeans with metal cooking pots, steel knives, wool blankets, and guns. Guns! Can you imagine what those must have looked like to the first Native Americans who saw them fired? Like Alice through the looking glass, these things transported the native tribes into a whole new era. And make no mistake - they wanted it.

Pontiac wasn't about to let that go.

Who can blame him? Don't most of us want the latest technology? How many homes these days don't have a dishwasher? Or a microwave oven? Or even the new Instant Pot? Don't even get me started on the latest and greatest thousand-dollar smartphone. Or cars that drive themselves. See what I mean? It's human nature that was driving Pontiac and his followers. They didn't want to go backward.

Yet this once again falls short of the history "everybody knows." We haven't been taught that the Native Americans were the same as everyone else. That they wanted the new stuff of their era. That they liked cooking in metal pots and cutting meat with steel knives and wearing soft cloth. Or having the firepower of a gun that gave them the advantage over warring tribes as well as brought down a deer for supper.

The truth is - as I've hit upon throughout this series - that the Native Americans were just like people everywhere. That's neither good or bad ... it's just human nature. The challenge in writing about this era and these people is showing them in a balanced and historically accurate way.

 PeggThomas.com

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. IV

This is the fourth installment in my series and probably the most difficult to write. I honestly don't like thinking about - much less researching - the evil actions of people. That's why I don't read or write horror or suspense or anything of that nature. It's not my thing.

I've been having a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol II, and History I Shouldn't Write - Vol III. I've talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular or palatable in our modern culture.

However, one can't write history with their head in the sand. Evil happened. In the mid-1700s, it happened a lot. The era I'm researching follows the French and Indian War. The French were defeated, leaving their Indian allies to deal with the incoming British rule. And they didn't like it. The French had been generous with gifts to the Indians, including plenty of guns, ammunition, and rum. The British thought it was a dangerous combination and costly, so they stopped the practice. They completely missed the significance of gifts to the Native Americans.

In retaliation, Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa tribe, rose to power. He was like so many charismatic leaders throughout history. What he couldn't achieve by his charm, he achieved by intimidation. He wasn't opposed to threatening lesser tribes. He wanted a huge force of combined tribes to wipe the British off the frontier. He got it. And then he sent them out to do their worse.

The accounts are horrific, not just in the numbers of British - and even some French - who were killed, but the manner in which they were killed. Women were raped. Children were slaughtered. Men were tortured. It was, very plainly, a reign of terror. One first-hand account stated that the author could not put pen to paper to describe what had happened to the women of one attack. Considering all the other gruesome details in that account of other things that happened ... I'm glad he left it out.

It wasn't one-sided. Some British also did terrible things. Life was beyond hard during this time. Beyond dangerous. It was a bloody, nasty, terror-filled time in our history.

But from it arose a nation that would one day lead the world. From great tragedy would arise a great people. A united people. Many of the Native Americas would - in about 150 years - rise to the challenges of WWI and WWII to help the very Europeans they fought on our frontier. Imagine that.

 PeggThomas.com

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. III

I've been having a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I and History I Shouldn't Write - Vol II. I've talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular or palatable in our modern culture.

I'm still researching and writing a series of books set during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. This was a brutal time in our history - no doubt - and parts of it fly in the face of what "everyone knows" about the Native Americans.

One subject that's always expressed in terms of the European invaders is slavery. But did you realize that Native Americans also practiced it? Not in the exact same way, since they didn't own or operate large plantations, but in one of the first-hand accounts I read, the journal of a young man taken captive by a Native American, he clearly is put to work as a slave. His freedom is gone, he's tied in the wigwam at night so that he can't escape, and he's made to work long hours at backbreaking labor with no compensation or hope of release. He is - in every way - a slave, so much so that he is sold to a French trader before being stolen by another Native American and returned to slavery.

This is another subject I can't write about in my novels, at least, not without repercussions. "Everyone knows" that slavery was black Africans owned by white Europeans. That is true. It happened. It was a detestable practice. That Native Americans also practiced it shouldn't really surprise the reader, because pretty much every culture on earth practiced slavery in some form. Native Americans were as human as the rest of us and as capable of doing the unthinkable to their fellow human beings. The fact that slavery was practiced by many, many cultures neither excuses or legitimizes the practice. It simply is how the world worked at that time.

But I fear that it will not be accepted as part of my stories. At least, not a large part. Maybe a subtle mention, but no more. It's a truth today's reader with our modern prejudices doesn't want to see.

 PeggThomas.com

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. II

Last month, I started a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I. I talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular in our modern culture.

Today I'm going to take that to a deeper level. A disturbing level.

In my research into first-hand accounts penned during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, I uncovered two separate accounts of the practice of cannibalism among the Native American tribes. I'll spare you the details, which were well laid out in the journals, and suffice it to say that it was not an uncommon practice.

I've known for a long time that this was true among the native tribes, but I thought it was more of a ritualistic type of behavior stemming from a belief system of some tribes. That narrative doesn't fit with my current research. And again, this is from reading two separate first-hand accounts involving two distinct tribes. In a third journal, it was also reported from second-hand accounts.

Because I have no wish to shock the reader, no wish to make my books into something dark and controversial, I will not include these findings in my books. But it's good in the research phase to look at history as it was - and not as how we wished it had been. Even when looking at it hurts. That's true of Native American cannibalism as much as it's true of European slave trading.

We should avoid - at all costs - comparing and contrasting the evils of different people or people groups in the past. That's an exercise in futility. People group A's evil doesn't enhance or diminish people group B's evil. That type of Monday-morning quarterbacking serves no purpose.

Not even in fiction.

 PeggThomas.com

History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. I

I love to do research. In fact, sometimes I get so wrapped up in the research for a book that I have to set a timer so that I'll stop and get back to writing!

One of my favorite finds while researching is first-hand accounts, generally in the form of journals. In researching for my current projects set in Colonial America during the mid-1700s, I've read four of these journals - so far.

But I can't write about some of what I learned.

Some of what I've learned while researching is that the history "everyone knows" is often not the truth. For instance, the idea that the Native Americans never lied, never cheated, never mistreated anyone, that it was the European invaders who brought all that to these shores ... is not true.

In my research into Pontiac's Rebellion, reading from first-hand accounts, it is glaringly obvious that Pontiac lied to the British, lied to the French, lied to the other native tribes, and even lied to his own tribesmen. He was a driven and ambitious man. He bullied, threatened, stole, and killed whenever it suited his purposes. His goal was to annihilate the British any way he could. By hook or by crook, as my grandmother used to say.

We've been conditioned to think of the Native Americans of yesteryear as somehow above the fault and foibles of the rest of the human race. They weren't. They were as severely flawed as the rest of us. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone since we all fell from grace with the same bite of that piece of fruit, right?

Yet from grade school on I was taught - and I'm assuming many of you were too - that it was the European invaders who were always at fault for everything bad that happened in Colonial America. They were evil, greedy, dishonest ... oh, wait. That sounds like Pontiac! 

People are people no matter the color of their skin. They come short & tall, skinny & fat, sweet & mean, happy & bitter, honest & cheats ... the whole spectrum of humanity in every color there is. To think that any people could be otherwise is to think them not fully human. Let that sink in a moment. By lionizing one race of people above the rest, you run the risk of dehumanizing them.

How does this relate to my writing the truth of history in my books? Because of what we've been taught to accept as "truth" ... I can't write about the Pontiac who lied and cheated and stole without poking the literary bear of political correctness. Without risking being raked over the coals of Amazon's reviewers. So the choice for me is:

Do I honor the history - warts and all - and face the consequences? Or do I play it safe?

I guess we'll all have to stay tuned!

 PeggThomas.com

The History of Blacksmiths

Next Friday - May 1, 2020 - is the official release date for The Blacksmith Brides. This project has been a long time in the works for me because I wrote my story back in 2015. It was originally supposed to be in a different collection, but that one fell through. It turned out for the good because it allowed me to work with the three awesome authors who joined me in making The Blacksmith Brides!

Blacksmiths have always fascinated me. As a child, my granddad's cabin was a short walk from the tiny town's old "smithy." Granddad would tell me stories about growing up on the farm, working behind horses, and the necessity of a nearby blacksmith to keep everything working on the farm.

Did you know that the first blacksmiths existed in 1500 ... B.C.? The Hittites were the first known to heat and temper iron for use in tools. When they were scattered due to wars, they took their knowledge with them and 1200 B.C. gave birth to what we know as the Iron Age.

The early attempts at forging the raw metals were not scientifically understood, and thus some tools were too soft, others were too brittle so that they broke easily, but some were - as Goldilocks once said - just right. The legendary weapons rendered by blacksmiths to be true steel were famous. Most were named and handed down from generation to generation. As the science of blacksmithing improved, the smiths were essential to every community. Even so, in some areas, they were viewed as using magic to ply their craft and held in suspicion.

Blacksmiths kept their key role in society until the end of the 1800s when the Industrial Era started. They rallied briefly to do architectural ironworks in the early 1900s, but the Great Depression put an end to that.

In recent years, there has been an increase in interest in the blacksmithing trade as a hobby. My husband and I enjoy attending the Black Iron Days in Grayling, Michigan. We also attend the Rendezvous at Mackinaw which includes a number of blacksmiths working their portable forges during the event - as seen in the photo here.

If you have a chance to visit a blacksmith shop at a heritage park or at a festival, do it! Enjoy the sounds and smells of a skill that built civilization as we know it.


Pegg Thomas peggthomas.com

Writing History with a Touch of Humor

Colonial Quills Nine Year Anniversary! And Celebration of New Releases!

Welcome to our 9 Year Anniversary Party! We're celebrating at Jamestown, Virginia. Come on in and have some tea and treats!

Gabrielle Meyer:

I am honored to be here today celebrating the ninth anniversary of the Colonial Quills Blog! Congrats to all the wonderful contributors and readers. This is such a fun place to gather and share in all sorts of book love.

Today, I'm sharing my newest release Virginia Company Bride in The Heart's Stronghold Collection. This beautiful book released this month with Barbour Publishers (aren't the new covers amazing?!). My story is joined by phenomenal stories from Amanda Barratt, Angie Dicken, and Kimberley Woodhouse.

Here's a little about Virginia Company Bride: In September 1608, Anne Burras is the only woman in Jamestown when her mistress dies upon arrival. Laborer John Layton is one of only thirty-eight colonists who survived the first year in the colony. Both want Anne on the supply ship returning to England in three months, but neither foresee the difficulties they will face just to stay alive—or the painful sacrifices they will make to stay together.

I had the privileged of visiting Jamestown last year to do research for this story. What a treat to see the oldest English settlement in America! This story is especially dear to me because I have several ancestors who were a part of the early colonization of Jamestown. My earliest ancestor, William Powell, arrived in 1609 and was instrumental in removing an Indian chief who had tried to kill John Smith the year before. William was put in charge of the Jamestown defenses for his services and became the lieutenant governor in 1617.

Jamestown is a unique place to visit, because they have a reconstructed fort, as well as the original site where they are currently doing archaeological research. The first picture at the top of this post is taken at the reconstructed fort and the one above is of me at the original site. I'm standing where the chapel stood. This was important to me because John Layton, the hero of my story, was a carpenter in Jamestown and he's credited with building the second chapel for the fort.

In honor of the blog anniversary and the release of The Heart's Stronghold, I will be offering two copies, one here and one on the Facebook party. The winners will have the choice between a signed copy or an ebook.

Gabrielle Meyer lives in central Minnesota on the banks of the upper Mississippi River with her husband and four children. As an employee of the Minnesota Historical Society, she fell in love with the rich history of her state and enjoys writing fictional stories inspired by real people, places, and events. You can learn more about Gabrielle and her books at www.gabriellemeyer.com.

Shannon McNear:

Greetings and salutations! I hope all is well with our gentle readers in these uncertain times.

NINE YEARS! I can hardly believe it! I'm blessed and honored to have been a part of this wonderful blog for six of those nine years. But with no further ado, it's with joy (and given the subject matter, not a little trepidation!) that I present The Blue Cloak, #5 of Barbour's ambitious True Colors historical suspense series. It's set in the fledgling states of Tennessee and Kentucky, 1797-99, and centers around the account of the terrible Harpes, considered our country's first recorded serial killers.

The story: Daughter and sister of trading post owners, Rachel Taylor watches her best friend Sally's marriage turn to horror before the entire family disappears. Virginia native Benjamin Langford seeks the whereabouts of his missing cousin and uncovers a reign of terror all up and down the Wilderness Road. In their shared grief, the pair join the effort to bring the Harpes' murder spree to an end and rescue Sally from a criminal's life.

To celebrate the March 1 release of The Blue Cloak, I'm offering two signed copies of the book, one here on the blog and one at the Facebook party! If you'd like to be entered, please mention BLUE CLOAK in your comment below. Thank you so much!

Transplanted to North Dakota after more than two decades in the Deep South, Shannon McNear loves losing herself in local history. As the author of four novellas and three full-length novels, with her first novella, Defending Truth in A Pioneer Christmas Collection, a 2014 RITA® finalist, her greatest joy is in being a military wife, mom of eight, mother-in-law of three, and grammie of three. When not cooking, researching, or leaking story from her fingertips, she enjoys being outdoors, basking in the beauty of the northern prairies.

Connect with her at shannonmcnear.com and on various social media.

Naomi Musch:

Hello, Colonial Quills friends! There couldn't be a better time for an online party, could there? Thanks for celebrating with us. 

I'm thrilled to reintroduce THE GREEN VEIL, a book that's been out of print for some time and has just been newly re-released. It's the first in a three-book saga that spans the lives of three generations of women, their hopes, loves, and adventures in the new rough-and-rugged state of Wisconsin.

Here’s The Green Veil:

1841 ~ Lumberman's daughter, Colette Palmer has always loved timber cruiser Manason Kade, though she's too young for him to consider seriously. Leaving Michigan with her family to settle in the Wisconsin wilderness, and separated from him by miles and years, she grows into a woman. When her heart is broken, she makes her vow to another.

Manason longs to plant roots of his own in Wisconsin Territory, although an alluring female tempts him to do otherwise. Given the opportunity, he strikes out and forms the new Kade Forest Works. When his fresh crew challenges the illegal log harvesting of a rival company, however, it is Colette's husband who will stop at nothing to ruin him.

Logging enterprises collide as the territory nears statehood, and dangerous schemes threaten those Colette holds dear. Then Manason and Colette finally meet again, and when they do, the battle between lumber kings reaches new heights. Now she will have to choose between her first love and her commitment to her marriage vows, while her dreams, her faith, and an empire in pine hang in the balance.

To celebrate the Colonial Quill 9-year blog anniversary, I have something for everyone. For two days--the day of the party and the day following (March 30-31)--you'll be able to download a Kindle copy of The Green Veil FREE!  I hope you'll take advantage of the opportunity and ENJOY!

~Please feel free to spread the word about the free book, too.~

If you’d like updates about the release of Books Two and Three in the series, coming soon, sign up for my newsletter here.

Naomi is an award-winning author who believes a perfect day is spent writing, reading, roaming about the farm, snacking out of the garden, relaxing in her vintage camper, and loving on her passel of grandchildren. Connect with her via her website www.naomimusch.com and on social media around the web.

Pegg Thomas

Greetings History Friends!

'Tis a fine day to gather for a celebration. 'Twas but a short few years past that I was allowed to join these illustrious authors on the blog. It has been an honor and a privilege to write alongside them. To celebrate, I'm giving away one signed paperback copy of my May 1st release The Blacksmith Brides. (to a U.S. address only) My story in the collection is set in Philadelphia at the start of the Revolutionary War. Loyalties were questioned and families were torn apart as our country embarked on its quest for independence, even as it continued to grow into its western frontier. Comment using the word IRON here on the blog to be entered for that drawing.

As always, there will be a shawl giveaway with this release! One subscriber to my newsletter will win Forged Embers, one of my signature wool shawls made from my own flock of sheep. I shear the sheep, wash and dye the wool, card it (prepare for spinning), spin it, wash it again, knit the shawl, and then give it a final wash and blocking. In the entire process, the only power tool used is my sheep shears. My poor old hands can't take using the hand shears anymore. The drawing for Forged Embers will be on May 31st. To be entered, simply subscribe to my newsletter. Subscribe early and find out how to earn extra chances to win!





Pegg lives in Northern Michigan - which is south of Upper Michigan - on a hobby farm with her husband of *mumble* years, a flock of sheep, a flock of chickens, and Murphy the spoiled rotten dog. PeggThomas.com - Writing History with a Touch of Humor




Carrie Fancett Pagels

In the nine years since we launched the Colonial Quills blog, I've had twenty publications (click here to see my website Books Page.) Above is the cover of my most recent publication, a novella in a lovely collection from Barbour. I've been so blessed by this blog and the many bloggers who have helped keep this effort going! I'm giving away one of my in-print books to one of our commenters.

Also, I have MORE codes for FREE audiobooks of Mercy in a Red Cloak! So if you would like a code to listen to my novella set on colonial Mackinac Island, put "Mercy Audio" in your comment and leave me your email address! Thank you for being a Colonial Quills follower and attending our blog party!

Janet Grunst

What a pleasure to celebrate Colonial Quill's 9th Anniversary with you.

I’m excited to share about the October release of the third story in my Revolutionary War series, Setting Two Hearts Free. It takes place towards the end of the war and is about the younger generation.

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?

In celebration of Colonial Quill's 9-year anniversary, I will be giving away a Kindle version of whichever of the first two stories A Heart Set Free or A Heart For Freedom (winner's choice) to one commenter on the blog.

Janet is a wife, mother of two sons, and grandmother of eight. She

lives in the historic triangle of Virginia (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) with her husband. A lifelong student of history, her love of writing fiction grew out of a desire to share stories that communicate the truths of the Christian faith, as well as entertain, inspire, and encourage readers. You can follow her at  https://JanetGrunst.com

Denise Weimer

Since joining Colonial Quills blog, I've published a number of novels, both historical and contemporary, and become a managing editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas' historical imprints. Today on the blog, I'm giving away an e-book copy of my most recent historical romance, The Witness Tree, which starts in 1805 with a Moravian marriage of convenience in Old Salem, North Carolina, and leads to a dangerous assignment in Cherokee Territory. Would you like to be entered for the drawing? Leave a comment about the Moravians in the comments below.

During the Facebook party, I'll be giving away the winner's choice of an e-book of my two March contemporary releases, Spring Splash and Traces. See you at 8:15 p.m. EST! https://deniseweimerbooks.webs.com

FACEBOOK PARTY

Please join us on Facebook from 7-9:15 PM Eastern Time on Monday March 30 as we celebrate with a number of our current CQ bloggers! (Click here to join)