HHH November BOOK DAY!

 

MRS. WITHERSPOON GOES TO WAR

(Heroines of WWII series)

By Mary Davis

A WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) embarks on an unsanctioned mission to rescue three US soldiers held captive in Cuba.

Margaret “Peggy” Witherspoon is a thirty-four-year-old widow, mother of two, flying for the WASP. When her new supervisor, Army Air Corp Major Howie Berg, gives her an order she can’t follow, sparks fly. In the course of her duties, Peggy learns of US soldiers being held captive in Cuba. She undertakes a daring rescue mission. She will need all her WASP skills to succeed and come out of this alive while trying not to ignite an international incident.

 Releases February 1, 2022

 

 

THIMBLES AND THREAD

By Suzanne Norquist, et al

4 Love Stories Are Quilted Into Broken Lives

 

“Mending Sarah’s Heart” By Suzanne Norquist, et al.

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. With four brothers to mentor her boys and income as a seamstress, she seeks a quiet life. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

 

“Bygones” by Mary Davis

Texas, 1884

Drawn to the new orphan boy in town, Tilly Rockford soon became the unfortunate victim of a lot of Orion Dunbar’s mischievous deeds in school. Can Tilly figure out how to truly forgive the one who made her childhood unbearable? Now she doesn’t even know she holds his heart. Can this deviant orphan-train boy turned man make up for the misdeeds of his youth and win Tilly’s heart before another man steals her away?

 

TITANIC: LEGACY OF BETRAYAL

By Kathleen E. Kovach, et al.

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection. Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart. Review: “I told my wife to move this book to the top of her reading list... This titanic story is more interesting than the one told in the Titanic movie... She will absolutely love it.”

 

 

COLLEEN’S CONFESSION

By Susan G Mathis

1914 Colleen Sullivan has secrets as she works in the Comfort Island laundry and awaits her betrothed. But when he dies, her orphan dreams of belonging and becoming a wife and an artist is lost. Jack Weiss is smitten by the lovely Irish lass. Colleen dismisses him, but when Jack introduces her to the famous impressionist, Alson Skinner Clark, she seems to find hope. But rumors of war prod Jack to choose between joining the Austrian army and making a life with Colleen. Will she finally embrace his love for her, or will Jack lose the battle and join the war?

 

 

THE FRUITCAKE SCANDAL

By Vickie McDonough

Pastor Clay Parsons waited a year to bring his fiancée, Karen Briggs, to his new church post. They plan a Christmas wedding, but in the meantime, Karen helps the church ladies with various projects, including a bake sale. But revealing her fruitcake recipe could spell disaster for her future with Clay and his congregation.

 

A HOLIDAY HEART

By Denise Weimer

On the verge of starting her own company, Atlanta film makeup artist Ashlyn Jennings is willed a mysterious key from her grandmother’s estate. Mamie Lou, a former Hollywood B-lister, always demonstrated a flair for the dramatic. But Mamie Lou expected her to clean out a mountain cabin no one even knew about? And right at Christmas? When Ashlyn arrives at White Falls Lodge, little is she prepared to be stranded by a snow storm, irritated by the handsome resort owner, and redirected by a God Ashlyn wants to forget, through Mamie Lou’s real gift … her grandmother’s secret past.

 

SONG FOR THE HUNTER

By Naomi Musch

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.

 Pre-order for January 4th, 2022 release

 

THE CRYPTOGRAPHER’S DILEMMA

By Johnnie Alexander

A Cryptographer Uncovers a Japanese Spy Ring

FBI cryptographer Eloise Marshall is grieving the death of her brother, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, when she is assigned to investigate a seemingly innocent letter about dolls. Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded defense coordinates related to dolls should be easy, but not so when the Japanese Consulate gets involved, hearts get entangled, and Phillip goes missing. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?

WESTWARD HOME AND HEART: A Collection

By Linda Shenton Matchett

Three historical Christian mail-order bride novellas set in the Old West by best-selling author Linda Shenton Matchett.

Dinah, Rayne, and Daria are each running from a desperate situation, and becoming a mail-order bride seems to be the only solution. But life is never that easy, and the past threatens to overcome the possibility for a future. Dinah's Dilemma: Will she have to run from the past for the rest of her life? Rayne's Redemption: Will she have to lose her identity to find true love? Daria's Duke: Will a stolen inheritance and false accusations thwart the chance for happily-ever-after?

 

THE LAST PIECE

By Terrie Todd

Ray Matthews’ dream is shattered when his father’s death during the Great Depression forces him to drop out of art school and support his mother and sister by selling his paintings to a jigsaw puzzle maker. Ray vows never to sell one personal masterpiece: a portrait of his sweetheart, Sarah. When compelled to break his oath, Ray speaks a prophecy over the puzzle— that no one will be able to finish it before he and Sarah are reunited. Over 80 years, the puzzle passes through four different households, profoundly affecting each until one decision unleashes a peculiar chain of events.

 

 

 

COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS

By Michelle Shocklee

After a longtime resident at Nashville’s historic Maxwell House Hotel suffers a debilitating stroke, Audrey Whitfield is tasked with cleaning out the reclusive woman’s room. There, she discovers an elaborate scrapbook filled with memorabilia from the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Love notes on the backs of unmailed postcards inside capture Audrey’s imagination with hints of a forbidden romance . . . and troubling revelations about the disappearance of young women at the exposition. Audrey enlists the help of a handsome hotel guest as she tracks down clues and information about the mysterious “Peaches” and her regrets over one fateful day, nearly sixty-five years earlier.

Releases March 8, 2022

A Brief History of Lake Superior's Fabulous Apostle Islands (Lake Superior Pearls & Perils, Part One)

In just another month, I will be celebrating the release of Song for the Hunter, a new novel set in a place which people from all over the world have come to admire and enjoy, the magnificent Apostle Islands. The archipelago of twenty-two islands (no, not twelve!) sits off the Bayfield Peninsula, the most northern point in Wisconsin. Twenty-one of the islands as well as part of the mainland are protected by the National Park Service making the area part of the Lake Superior National Shoreline. The Apostle Islands have a vast history of culture and commerce. Let's take a short overview.

Lake Superior is truly an inland sea. It is wild and unpredictable, a blue gem covering 31,700 square miles. It averages 483 feet deep, but at its deepest point is nearly three times that at 1333 feet. By surface, it is the largest lake in the world, and it holds more water than all the other Great Lakes combined, plus three more Lake Eeries. Are you amazed yet? Having claimed hundreds of shipwrecks (including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald which sunk during a horrific storm on my 14th birthday), the lake is said to have taken more than 10,000 lives, and those are the ones history tells us about. Now consider... 

Wild Lake Superior photo courtesy of Dan Grisdale Photography

The islands have been home to the Ojibwe people for some 600 years, at least. Some say thousands. In any event, they consider these islands to be a sacred place, and commerce has traveled the lake by canoe for centuries. Then came the fur traders and voyageurs. 10,000 lives gone to a watery grave probably falls far short of the actual number, or so I would imagine.

Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior (1869) Frances Anne Hopkins

Although Frenchman Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix is credited for giving the islands their current name--purportedly either to honor Jesus' twelve apostles or to recognize the twelve largest islands--the natives place name for the islands has always been Wenabozho ominisan. Wenabozho is the name of a cultural hero who, they claim, made the islands. The Ojibwe's main village was on Madeline Island, the largest of the islands (and where the adventures in my new novel largely take place). The Ojibwe name for the island is Moningwunakauning which means "home of the yellow-breasted woodpecker". From their village there, and from other villages on the mainland, the people were able to fish all year round, hunt game and collect wild rice in the fall, gather furs in winter, collect maple syrup in the spring, and gather wild edible food all summer long.

Apostle Island Sea Caves, Image by David Hamilton from Pixabay

Europeans also found safety and refuge from Lake Superior's wild waters, as well as gathering resources among the islands. One of Wisconsin's oldest settlements is there on Madeline Island, established by Jesuit priests Claude Allouez and Jacques Marquette in the 1660s. It soon became home to a French trading post, and later when American's won the war against France, was turned over from the North West Company to American Fur Company jurisdiction. 

Historical marker located on Hwy 13 between Washburn and Bayfield WI, looking from the mainland shore toward the island.

Madeline Island, Big Bay State Part;
View from my hero's campsite in Song for the Hunter

Stories of exploration, intrigue, heroism, and intrigue abound about the region both on the water and on shore. Between the French explorers, the fur traders, the voyageurs, and the missionaries, it is a region ripe with history as well as natural beauty. And all this before we even get to the era of the Great Lakes fishing and shipping fleets! (I'll share some of these stories in future posts of Lake Superior Pearls and Perils).

I hope this wets your appetite for a look into the area or maybe a planned vacation to the islands sometime! At the very least, I hope you'll investigate my upcoming book Song for the Hunter. There is also a 2018 novel set one year prior titled Mist O'er the Voyageur.

If you have or plan to read either book, I'd be happy to send you a novelette (pdf or mobi) set between the two stories--a sort of extended epilogue to Mist and a prequel to Song called The Long-Awaited Spring. Just drop me a note with your request and an email address!

Until the next historic tale of Pearls & Perils on the lake,

Naomi

Song for the Hunter, coming January 4, 2022, pre-order available:

Wed to a trading company partner to escape life in Montreal under her harsh father's thumb, Camilla Bonnet finds herself tragically widowed and pregnant in the Upper Country frontier. When her brother fails to return for her from Fort William, she is cast on the mercy of the trading post owner's family. She also draws comfort from Bemidii Marchal, a Métis hunter who soothes away her misgivings as he finds his own refuge on Lake Superior's Madeline Island.

Bemidii’s thoughts of courting a maiden are cut short when he raises his knife against a company man at Fort William’s Great Rendezvous. No one will believe he killed to protect his sister—least of all the beautiful Frenchwoman on Madeline Island who stirs his affections—not when she learns that her brother is dead and Bemidii stands accused of his murder. As the sharp blade of truth divides them, will Bemidii survive the justice of powerful men who are a law unto themselves?

Pre-order Song for the Hunter

JOIN ME at a Christmas Extravaganza Facebook Party next week to try and win a copy of the book, not to mention a spree of other prizes!

Historic Bridges in America – with giveaway By Donna Schlachter

photo source: STRUCTURE Magazine

Mention historic bridges, and for many of us, our minds flash to the old covered bridges in the Midwest. And while many have survived, most were replaced by permanent stone structures after the wood rotted or the bridge succumbed to a flood or, worse yet, the ravages of war.

However, there are still plenty of old bridges in America, so let’s take a cross-country tour and check out a few. The list is by no means exhaustive. A bridge included here doesn’t make it more historically important than one not on it. This blog post simply highlights stories and styles of old bridges.

Constructed in 1804, the Union or Waterford Bridge was the first bridge built across the lower part of the Hudson River. It connected the towns of Waterford and Lansingburg. Burr combined a wooden arch with a truss to strengthen Union Bridge and provide stiffness. This was the first time this kind of building technique was used in the US, and Burr later patented his truss/arch pattern. The bridge is still in use.

 

photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Kingston Bridge is the second oldest bridge in the county after the Old Stone Arch Bridge. The original wooden bridge was destroyed during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt as a stone arch structure in 1798 as part of the King’s Highway near Kingston, NJ. Although the bridge is more than 220 years old, it still retains its original roadway grade and is still being used today.

photo source: Wikimedia Commons via U.S. Library of Congress

Skippack Bridge is an eight-arch stone bridge built in 1792 in Lower Providence Township, PA, and is thought to be the oldest bridge in the United States that retained its original dimensions. Before the bridge was built, several attempts were made to build a bridge connecting the eastern and western parts of Montgomery County starting in 1762. Funkites, exiled Mennonites who supported the Revolutionary War, sought religious and political refuge in this area. It is still in use today.

Photo source: United States Library of Congress

Sewall’s Bridge in York, Maine is one of the oldest wooden bridges in America, and it is the earliest wooden pile-trestle bridges that has an authentic construction record and builder’s drawings still in existence in America. The original was in use for 173 years, before being replaced in 1934 by a modern wooden pile bridge, and is still in use today.

Smithfield-Street-Bridge.jpeg 

The Smithfield Street Bridge is Pittsburgh’s oldest bridge in a city dubbed “City of Bridges”. The iconic lenticular truss bridge officially opened on March 19, 1883, and is the second-oldest steel bridge in the United States.

Photo John McCormick / Shutterstock

Mackinac Bridge, dubbed the “Mighty Mac,” spans the confluence of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. This suspension bridge is newer than the others in this post, but still more than 60 years old. Five miles of swaying deck carry drivers over the swirling Straits of Mackinac. First opened in 1957, the bridge offered travelers an alternative to the existing ferry. On a windy day, the bridge can shift more than 30 feet side to side. For a good look at the bridge in real time, check out the official bridge cam.


Beautiful bridges come in all styles, shapes, and sizes. Constructed of stone, wood, or cast iron, these relics of the past call us to adventure. Check out these and other historic bridges, and make plans to stop along the way to learn their histories and their stories.

Giveway: While there are no physical bridges mentioned in Justice for Julia, there are emotional spans to cross. Leave a comment to be entered into a random drawing for a print (US only) or ebook copy.

About Justice for Julia:

 A woman doctor in 1868 is wrongly accused of medical malpractice, and she flees into rural Iowa in search of a new start. A loving father snatches his daughter from her abusive mother, and heads west, hoping to keep her safe and him out of the clutches of the law. Can they really begin a new life? Or will they be forced to return to the  bad situations they both escaped from?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H9RFQX1

Donna writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published almost 50 times in novellas, full-length novels, and non-fiction books. She is a member of several writing communities; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; blogs regularly; and judges in writing contests.

www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com







Resources:

https://www.oldest.org/structures/bridges-us/

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Navigation/Community/Arcadia-and-THP-Blog/December-2017/Best-Historical-Bridges-in-America

https://www.travelawaits.com/2562626/historic-bridges-in-us/