The Natives

 The best part about writing about history is coming across folks who live it for others.  I have been very impressed with all the re-enactors I have been meeting as I research my novels.  All have been more than willing to share their knowledge and insight on how life in the 18th century was.

Mother's Day.

While looking through the archives, I found this picture of my mother taken when she was 17.  I didn't notice this picture before out of all the ones I have scanned in.  I love the expression on her face, the photographer really captured her spirit.  I find it hard to believe that this skinny girl would be 82, just as I ponder my own age.

What is she thinking about?
Life?
Family?

What did I think about at 17, not the great issues of the day, mainly sports and girls, a thought of college and the looming quagmire in Viet Nam.

Patty O'Mara, my mother went a long way from a housewife in a small town in Western Pennsylvania.  I could not help but cry looking at the picture once more.

I found this one while cropping the one above.

Juniata on sale May 1st

My fifth novel.  

“Juniata”, the first volume published in a planned series of five novels, aptly named The Seekers, begins in the courtroom of London’s Old Bailey and nearby Newgate Prison, and moves to the Low Countries with the struggles of British Army in the War of Austrian Succession, a brief stop in Ireland, and finally continuing along the colonial frontier in the mountains, rivers, and valleys of Western Pennsylvania. 

“Juniata”, is the latest novel in the series which spans the years 1644 to 1758, from the English Civil War, to the onset of the Jacobite Rebellion in the United Kingdom, then moving to North America for the French and Indian War.

“Juniata” embodies a mix of deception, courage, betrayal, and of course, romanticism.  The fictional characters interact with authentic historical figures in actual events from the landscapes and battlefields of the 18^th Century.  

“Juniata” blends the characters from my two other series, The Jacobites and The Highwaymen as he continues the saga of Oliver Duggan, Simon Warren, Captain James Fawkes, and his cousin Lieutenant Archie McLawry.  Fawkes, the émigré Scot and former Jacobite rebel, leads a Ranger Company of the Province of Pennsylvania.  Duggan and Warren escape the legal system (and the hangman’s noose) for service in the English Army.

1751

 The few settlements on the frontier are beset with intrigue.  Who is siding with the French?  The British?  The Iroquois?  The lid on the pot is starting to come lose.

Hunter Pace on a Windy Day.

Down in Loveville, MD for the DLB Spring Hunter Pace.  Bright skies and a strong wind blew through and sent Old Man Winter on his way out.

Tyburn featured on Authorgraph

Get a personal autograph for any of my novels on Kindle.  http://www.authorgraph.com/featured

Learning a lot

Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, I was sadly ignorant of the history east of the mountains.  Doing research, I have come in contact with quite a few characters that need to be more famous, Conrad Weiser, among them.  I had heard of the Ephrata Cloister, but knew little more.  There is a lot more to Colonial America then was/is covered in the books.  I learn more of the Tulpehocken Valley.  Of Mordecai Lincoln.  Of Shikellamy.