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On Tour: The Château de Verzat Series, by Debra Borchert @debraborchert @cathiedunn #HistoricalFiction #FrenchRevolution #ChateauDeVerzatSeries #HerOwnLegacy #HerOwnRevolution #DebraBorchertAuthor #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub

March 14, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

SERIES INFORMATION

Series: Château de Verzat
Author: Debra Borchert

Book Titles:
   Her Own Legacy (Book 1)
   Her Own Revolution (Book 2)
Publication Date:
   Her Own Legacy: 9/1/22
   Her Own Revolution: 7/14/23
Publisher: Le Vin Press
Page Length:
   Her Own Legacy: 568
   Her Own Revolution: 422

Blurb

Her Own Legacy:

A Woman Fights for Her Legacy as the French Revolution Erupts

Determined to inherit her family’s vineyard, Countess Joliette de Verzat defies society’s rules, only to learn of her illegitimate half-brother, the rightful heir.

 

 

Her Own Revolution:

A Woman Forges a Treacherous Path to Save Hundreds from the Guillotine

If Geneviève Fouquier-Tinville had the same rights as a man, she wouldn’t have to dress like one. A suspenseful page-turner led by a renegade heroine whose compassion for innocent people leads to both loss and love.

 

Buy Links:

*Her Own Legacy will be only 0.99 in the UK, CA and AU stores
from March 5th – 15th, 2024!*

Universal Buy Links:  

Her Own Legacy: https://books2read.com/u/bWYod1

Her Own Revolution: https://books2read.com/u/m0aJVl

Series Buy Links:

US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9KN1536

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B9KN1536

EXCERPT

Her Own Legacy
Nantes, August 21, 1792
Joliette must board a ship during a storm

The officer clambered up the ropes to the ship’s deck fast as a monkey. A few lights from the vessel blinked and shimmered against the choppy water. The sky was indiscernible from the water. Darkness, as deep as that of the tunnels, fell.
Henri whispered to Étienne and turned to me. “You must climb the ropes. I will be above you, and Étienne will be below you.”
Everything stopped—my breath, my heart, my thoughts. The wind stirred a cacophony of waves crashing against the hulls. Cold spray drenched me. I stared at Henri’s eyes, dark and pinched.
“Climb…to the ship?”
He tied a rope around my waist and the other end around his own. He put out his hand. “Hurry. Before the storm worsens.” My mouth would not open. Henri’s fingers wrapped around my wrist. He stepped onto the rope ladder.
Étienne held out the bottom rung. My feet were part of the deck, as if rooted to it. Étienne took my other hand and coaxed, “Do not look down. Only up, at Henri.”
The makeshift ladder swayed above. Waves leaped through its rungs. Henri’s foot slipped, but he caught himself. “The first step’s the most difficult, but you’re braver than I am.” He gently tugged me.
Like Papa. They both knew I could not resist a challenge. I pressed my feet to the deck, lifted my foot, then grasped the side rope. A wave crashed, and the deck dropped from below me, leaving my foot pawing the air. I screamed but did not hear it. I clung to the side rope. Étienne’s hand pressed my foot onto the rung. I panted for breath and pressed my forehead against the ship. Cold, black waves jumped and swallowed my foot.
“Keep looking up!” Étienne shouted.
My legs vibrated so I pressed all my weight into my foot as soon as it found a rung. A sliver of pale light spilled over the ship’s deck. I wanted to fly to it.
The wind skirled, twisting the rope and me around so I faced out over the harbor. Like a giant hand it pushed me away from the ship, then slammed me back against its hull. My breath burst from me. I lost my grip. Henri held me tighter, and another hand grasped my flailing arm. My legs pedaled. Hands gripped my arms and hauled me up over the rail and onto the deck, landing me like a fish. I lay on my stomach, gasping as the world spun and rain thundered.
Henri draped a woolen blanket over me. He crouched down, helped me to sit up, and rubbed my back.
As if by magic, a pair of tall, shiny black boots appeared before us. The man’s uniform was spotless, all white, trimmed in red and blue, with brass epaulettes broadening his shoulders—le Capitaine. He looked down. Water streamed off his tricorne and puddled onto the blanket.
“You wish passage?” His voice was rough as the wind.
Henri stood. “Yes, Monsieur, le Capitaine.”
The man chuckled. “With a woman?”
Feeling like I still clung to the rope, I pushed myself up with the words searing my mouth. “I arranged for the wine shipment—”
Henri gripped my arm and pulled me back.
Le Capitaine let out a grunt, turned, and walked away. “We sail when the tide turns.”

Author Bio

Debra’s the author of the Château de Verzat series that follows headstrong and independent women and the four-hundred loyal families who protect a Loire Valley château and vineyard, and its legacy of producing the finest wines in France during the French Revolution. Her Own Legacy published 2022, Her Own Revolution published 2023, and Her Own War will be published in 2024. A passionate cook, she also wrote a companion cookbook to the series: Soups of Château de Verzat, A Culinary Tribute to the French Revolution, 2023.

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, she weaves her knowledge of textiles and clothing design throughout her historical fiction. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and standard poodle, named after a fine French Champagne.

Author Links:

Website: https://debraborchert.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/debraborchert
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DebraBorchertAuthor/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-borchert-10b8305/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debraborchertauthor/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/debraborchert/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/debra-borchert
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Debra-Borchert/author/B00CSW9MH0
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7787729.Debra_Borchert

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Filed Under: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Chateau De Verzat Series, Debra Borchert, French Revolution, Historical Fiction

On Tour: A Matter of Time, by Judith Arnopp @JudithArnopp @cathiedunn #HistoricalFiction #Tudor #HenryVIII #NewRelease #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub

March 13, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

Shining a torch into the heart and mind
of England’s most tyrannical king.

BOOK INFORMATION

Book Title: A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light (Book Three)

Series: The Henrician Chronicle
Author: Judith Arnopp
Publication Date: 2nd February 2024
Publisher: independently published
Page Length: 302
Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction

Blurb:

With youth now far behind him, King Henry VIII has only produced one infant son and two bastard daughters. More sons are essential to secure the Tudor line, and with his third wife, Jane Seymour dead, Henry hunts for a suitable replacement.

After the break from Rome, trouble is brewing with France and Scotland. Thomas Cromwell arranges a diplomatic marriage with the sister of the Duke of Cleves but when it comes to women, Henry is fastidious, and the new bride does not please him. The increasingly unpredictable king sets his sights instead upon Katherine Howard and instructs Cromwell to free him from the match with Cleves.

Failure to rid the king of his unloved wife could cost Cromwell his head.

Henry, now ailing and ageing, is invigorated by his flighty new bride but despite the favours he heaps upon her, he cannot win Katherine’s heart. A little over a year later, broken by her infidelity, she becomes the second of his wives to die on the scaffold, leaving Henry friendless and alone.

But his stout heart will not surrender and leaving his sixth wife, Katheryn Parr, installed as regent over England, Henry embarks on a final war to win back territories lost to the French more than a century before. Hungry for glory, the king is determined that the name Henry VIII will shine brighter and longer than that of his hero, Henry V.

Told from the king’s perspective, A Matter of Time: Henry VIII: the Dying of the Light shines a torch into the heart and mind of England’s most tyrannical king.

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Links to the three titles in the series:

A Matter of Conscience: https://mybook.to/amoc

A Matter of Faith: https://mybook.to/amofaith

A Matter of Time: https://mybook.to/amot

Excerpt

November 1541 Henry prepares for mass

It is good to be home, and my spirits remain high. I jest with my gentlemen as my beard, greyer now than gold, is trimmed, my nails clipped. I select a doublet of black with silver thread embellishing the cuffs, the slashes across the sleeves and chest revealing a fine silk shirt beneath.

My looking glass reflects a king, a man in his prime, a wise and honest man. As my dress sword is arranged at my hip, I take the gloves Denny is offering and tuck them into my girdle.

“Where is my psalter?” I ask, and it is instantly produced. I tuck it beneath my arm and make my way to the chapel, wondering as I go if Katherine will make it to Mass so early.

My mind is not on prayer this morning. I am feeling spry enough to go for a ride. Brandon has returned to court this week, perhaps we can ride out together as we used to, if he is feeling up to it. I often forget that he too grows old.

The sound of the choir greets me, their voices ascending to the dizzy heights of the blue and gold ceiling. Immediately, I feel contrition that my mind had strayed to sport rather than giving thanks to God for another day. Before I enter and take my seat, I rearrange my face into a pious expression. But as I sit down, I notice a folded slip of paper. I pick it up, look about the chapel to discover the author of the note, but when no man meets my eye, I unfold the message and … the world around me crumbles.

Author Bio:

A lifelong history enthusiast and avid reader, Judith holds a BA in English/Creative writing and an MA in Medieval Studies. She lives on the coast of West Wales where she writes both fiction and non-fiction. She is best known for her novels set in the Medieval and Tudor period, focusing on the perspective of historical women but recently she has been writing from the perspective of Henry VIII himself.

Judith is also a founder member of a re-enactment group called The Fyne Companye of Cambria which is when she began to experiment with sewing historical garments. She now makes clothes and accessories both for the group and others. She is not a professionally trained sewer but through trial, error and determination has learned how to make authentic looking, if not strictly historically accurate clothing. Her non-fiction book, How to Dress like a Tudor was published by Pen and Sword in 2023.

Her novels include:

A Song of Sixpence: the story of Elizabeth of York
The Beaufort Chronicle: the life of Lady Margaret Beaufort (three book series)
A Matter of Conscience: Henry VIII, the Aragon Years (Book One of The Henrician Chronicle)
A Matter of Faith: Henry VIII, the Days of the Phoenix (Book Two of The Henrician chronicle)
A Matter of Time: Henry VIII, the Dying of the Light
The Kiss of the Concubine: a story of Anne Boleyn
The Winchester Goose: at the court of Henry VIII
Intractable Heart: the story of Katheryn Parr
Sisters of Arden: on the Pilgrimage of Grace
The Heretic Wind: the life of Mary Tudor, Queen of England
Peaceweaver
The Forest Dwellers
The Song of Heledd

Previously published under the pen name – J M Ruddock.

The Book of Thornhold
A Daughter of Warwick: the story of Anne Neville, Queen of Richard III

Author Links:

Website: www.judithmarnopp.com
Blog: http://www.juditharnoppnovelist.blogspot.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudithArnopp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetudorworldofjuditharnopp
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/judith-arnopp-ba999025
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tudor_juditharnopp/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@tudor_juditharnopp
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jarnopp.bsky.social
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jarnopp/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/judith-arnopp
Amazon Author Page: https://author.to/juditharnoppbooks
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4088659.Judith_Arnopp

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Filed Under: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Blog Tour, Henry VIII, Historical Fiction, new release, Tudor

On Tour: The Shadow Network, by Deborah Swift @swiftstory @cathiedunn #WW2 #Thriller #HistoricalRomance #Review

March 5, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

Betrayal, treachery, and courage against the odds

BOOK INFORMATION

Book Title: The Shadow Network
Series: Secret Agent Series (but can be read as a stand-alone)
Author: Deborah Swift
Publication Date: 13th February 2024
Publisher: HQ Digital
Page Length: 376
Genre: Historical Fiction / WW2

BLURB

One woman must sacrifice everything to uncover the truth in this enthralling historical novel, inspired by the true World War Two campaign Radio Aspidistra…

England, 1942: Having fled Germany after her father was captured by the Nazis, Lilli Bergen is desperate to do something pro-active for the Allies. So when she’s approached by the Political Warfare Executive, Lilli jumps at the chance. She’s recruited as a singer for a radio station broadcasting propaganda to German soldiers – a shadow network.

But Lilli’s world is flipped upside down when her ex-boyfriend, Bren Murphy, appears at her workplace; the very man she thinks betrayed her father to the Nazis. Lilli always thought Bren was a Nazi sympathiser – so what is he doing in England supposedly working against the Germans?

Lilli knows Bren is up to something, and must put aside a blossoming new relationship in order to discover the truth. Can Lilli expose him, before it’s too late?

Set in the fascinating world of wartime radio, don’t miss The Shadow Network, a heart-stopping novel of betrayal, treachery, and courage against the odds.

EXCERPT

England, 1940

The knock came again.

‘Mads?’ Lilli called.

Maddie came out of her room with the newspaper under her arm, slopping to the door in her slippers. ‘You could see who it is,’ she grumbled. ‘Probably someone collecting for the Sally Army.’

Lilli let the square, no-nonsense figure of Maddie push past her to unlock the chain and the Yale lock, just as the insistent knock came again.

‘All right, all right, I’m coming.’ Maddie yanked the door open and three men forced their way into the hall. One in a wet trilby hat followed by two policemen.

‘Lilliana Bergen?’ asked the man in the trilby.

‘No, I’m Madeleine Kettering,’ Maddie said. ‘That’s Lilli. What do you want?’

The three men surrounded Lilli before she even had time to blink.

‘What is it? What have I done?’ She tried to back away, a chill rippling down her spine. This was how they came for people, back in Germany.

‘I’m sorry, miss,’ the man in the trilby said, ‘but all enemy aliens have to come with us. Orders of the government.’

Enemy aliens? No, it must be a mistake. ‘You’ve got the wrong person. I’m a refugee. I came here to escape the Nazis. I’ve been in London more than two years.’

‘We have our orders,’ one of the policemen said. ‘You can take a suitcase with you though, one suitcase.’

The words hit her like a fist. One suitcase. That was what they said to Papa. And she’d no word of him since.

But this was England, not Germany. ‘It’s a mistake, I tell you. I have all the correct paperwork. Ask anyone. I’ve a job here, friends here. I’m about to go to work. You can’t possibly believe I—’

‘We’ll give you five minutes to pack,’ the second, burlier policeman said.

‘Let me speak to someone,’ Maddie said. ‘She’s done nothing. She’s about to train as a warden with the WRVS. The letter came today. Wait there, I’ll get it.’

‘No!’ Lilli tried to protest but Maddie had gone to get the letter from the mantelpiece. The men looked a little more uncertain.

‘Here!’ Maddie said, thrusting it into their hands.

One of the men looked at the envelope. ‘Lily Berg? According to our records, you’re Lilliana Bergen. Who is this Lily Berg? And it says you’re Welsh.’ He turned to Maddie. ‘She’s not Welsh, is she?’

‘They got it wrong. It must be a mistake . . .’ Lilli tailed off. She was caught, and couldn’t answer.

‘I can vouch for her good character,’ Maddie said, ‘and so can her employer, Reg Benson; she works as a singer and as a domestic for Mrs—’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ said the man in the trilby. ‘All that will be looked into later.’

‘It’s an offence for a refugee to use a false name,’ the big policeman said. ‘She’s to come with us. Fetch your things, miss, or we’ll take you without them.’

Lilli looked at Maddie desperately, unable to believe what she was hearing.

‘Five minutes.’ The trilby man tapped his watch in a manner designed to intimidate.

She ran up the stairs again, her heart thudding. What to pack? Practical clothes. She was still wearing the silk dress, so she grabbed a cardigan and knitted jersey, plus a blouse and a skirt from the rail in the wardrobe, and another pair of flat shoes, the ones she used as a cleaner.

She was stopped in her tracks by the photo of her father, staring out at her from its silver frame.

Oh, Papa, she thought. Where will they take me?

She swept it up and pressed it to her heart, then thrust it into the inside pocket of her suitcase. From the dressing table she retrieved the gold Star of David on a chain that her mother had given her as a child. She never wore it, as it drew too much attention, but she couldn’t leave it behind.

‘Ready?’ A man’s voice from downstairs.

She grabbed her sheet music from the bedside table and at the last minute remembered her nightdress and squashed it in on top.

When she came down Maddie was complaining about how it was ridiculous, and she’d lose money from not having Lilli’s wages coming in.

‘Then get another lodger,’ the man in the trilby said. ‘One that isn’t a German.’

‘She’s a refugee,’ Maddie protested. ‘She came to get away from Hitler.’

‘Same difference.’ The burly policeman shrugged.

A police van idled at the kerb in a wreath of exhaust smoke. The officers yanked open the back doors and pushed Lilli to get in. Inside shivered another woman, an older lady, whose white face and carpet bag stuffed to overflowing, told Lilli she’d been caught equally unprepared.

‘Where are they taking us?’ Lilli asked.

The woman shook her head violently, her mouth sealed shut.

Lilli turned to see Maddie yelling, ‘I’ll report you! It’s disgusting! You can’t do this!’ and thumping on the side of the van. A noise that felt like small explosions. Then Maddie’s desperate voice; ‘Lilli! Write, hear me? You’d better write!’

MY REVIEW

Eight decades after the World War Two era, we continue to discover more and more about the colossal efforts of the Allied spy network and subversive efforts that collectively, ultimately, brought Hitler down.

In The Shadow Network, Author Deborah Swift has plunged us into a richly detailed and thrilling encounter with one of these operations: The clandestine broadcasts masquerading as Echt Deutsch (True German) that delivered false and disheartening information to the Reich troops, beginning in 1942.

I especially appreciated the author’s choice of a part-Jewish German refugee as her heroine. Lilli’s personal story kept me as a reader immersed in the horror of the Nazi regime and the absolute necessity of winning the war. The fear that held Lilli back from exposing what she knew was real, and it nearly cost her – and their broadcasting team – everything.

Five stars, highly recommend.

BUY LINKS

Universal Buy Link: mybook.to/RadioLies
Link to bookshop: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-shadonetwork-ww2-secret-agent-series-deborah-swift

AUTHOR BIO

Deborah Swift is the English author of eighteen historical novels, including Millennium Award winner Past Encounters, and The Lady’s Slipper, shortlisted for the Impress Prize.

Her most recent books are the Renaissance trilogy based around the life of the poisoner Giulia Tofana, The Poison Keeper and its sequels, one of which won the Coffee Pot Book Club Gold Medal. Recently she has completed a secret agent series set in WW2, the first in the series being The Silk Code.

Deborah used to work as a set and costume designer for theatre and TV and enjoys the research aspect of creating historical fiction, something she loved doing as a scenographer. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against the background of real historical events. Deborah lives in North Lancashire on the edge of the Lake District, an area made famous by the Romantic Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Author Links:

Twitter https://twitter.com/swiftstory
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordeborahswift/
Website: www.deborahswift.com
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/deborahswift1/
Amazon  http://author.to/DeborahSwift
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/deborah-swift

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Filed Under: Blog, Excerpts, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Historical Fiction, review, Thriller, WWII

On Tour: Lighten the Load, by David Fitz-Gerald @AuthorDAVIDFG @cathiedunn #Western #HistoricalFiction #OregonTrail

March 1, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

Book Title: Lighten the Load
Series: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail (Book 2)
Author: David Fitz-Gerald
Publication Date: January 31, 2024
Publisher: David Fitz-Gerald
Page Length: 203
Genre: Western, Historical Fiction

Series Trailer:

https://youtu.be/sWvp6dtbXvA

Blurb:

After a devastating tragedy, Dorcas Moon faces brutal choices in the unforgiving wilderness.

An unsolved hometown murder casts a foreboding shadow over the journey. Mounting responsibilities weigh heavy on Dorcas’ shoulders while navigating the trail along the Platte River. Family, friends, and neighbors can’t seem to get along without her help.

The gruesome trail exacts a heavy toll. A sweeping grass fire blazes across the prairie. A doomed wagon careens down a treacherous hill. A fellow traveler is gored to death while hunting buffalo. Each disaster pushes the pioneers to the brink. Amidst the chaos, Dorcas grapples with the realization that she must dump her precious cook stove and her husband’s massive safe. The oxen can no longer haul the heavy weight of unnecessary cargo.

When her daughter mysteriously disappears while the wagons are at Fort Laramie, Dorcas Despairs. She is desperate to help her daughter when the troubled youth is found in the arms of a Brulé man in Spotted Tail’s village.

Secure your copy of Lighten the Load and delve into an unforgettable saga of empowerment, sacrifice, and the haunting echoes of the American frontier. Rejoin Dorcas Moon on the adventure of a lifetime as she confronts the challenges that shape her destiny.

Buy Links:

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/lighten-the-load

Author Bio:

David Fitz-Gerald writes westerns and historical fiction. He is the author of twelve books, including the brand-new series, Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail set in 1850. Dave is a multiple Laramie Award, first place, best in category winner; a Blue Ribbon Chanticleerian; a member of Western Writers of America; and a member of the Historical Novel Society.

Alpine landscapes and flashy horses always catch Dave’s eye and turn his head. He is also an Adirondack 46-er, which means that he has hiked to the summit of the range’s highest peaks. As a mountaineer, he’s happiest at an elevation of over four thousand feet above sea level.

Dave is a lifelong fan of western fiction, landscapes, movies, and music. It should be no surprise that Dave delights in placing memorable characters on treacherous trails, mountain tops, and on the backs of wild horses.

Author Links:

Website: https://www.itsoag.com/GATOT
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorDAVIDFG
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authordavefitzgerald/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/AuthorDaveFITZGERALD/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/david-fitz-gerald
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/dfitzgerald
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17341792.David_Fitz_Gerald
Linktree https://linktr.ee/authordavidfitzgerald

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Filed Under: Blog, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Western

Those Absent, by Jill Culiner @JillCuliner #history #memoir #JewishHistory #Hungary #RuralVillage

February 26, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

In 1999, I was in Budapest, preparing a photographic exhibition about the vanished Jews of Eastern Europe, when I heard about the Kunmadaras pogrom: In May 1946, Holocaust survivors were accused of kidnapping Christian children and using their blood for kosher sausage. Grabbing iron bars, garden tools, any weapon they could find, the town’s residents went on a rampage, murdering Jews and pillaging their homes and businesses

How could such an absurd accusation have been levelled after the war? I was determined to discover the answer.

When I arrived in Kunmadaras, I was accepted by a group of friendly locals who hung around the local watering hole run by blowsy Ildikó — Tarzan, the black marketer and corrupt night watchman, Udo, the Austrian who preferred Hungarian women to his wife, Kata, the eternal party girl, hard-drinking Karcsi, and the brutal Ibolya. And although no one seemed to resent my questioning, all denied having any knowledge of the pogrom.

Settling in the neighbouring village of Tiszaörs, I soon discovered that village society was a unique but uneasy mix of former communists, dispossessed nobles, expropriated peasants, German retirees, black marketers, former members of the Hitler Youth Movement, and Hungarians who had returned after communism ended.

I began looking for traces of the vanished local Jewish community. And I discovered that, although Jews had lived here for hundreds of years and had arrived in the country alongside the Magyar tribes in the 9th century, the villagers denied their existence. Therefore, I became more determined to question, listen, observe, to ferret out the truth about the pogrom and the Jews who were so strikingly absent.

Living on the Hungarian Great Plain was a remarkable experience, and carrying out an investigation, much as an amateur detective would, allowed me to step into the country’s history. Therefore, Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain is a blend of history, traditions, local happenings, rumour, love stories, and prejudices. And I hope I have portrayed, with empathy, people who, often caught in political conflicts, are pawns in a global one.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xa1aiVkiT4

Purchase links: https://books2read.com/GreatPlain

BLURB

Those Absent on the Great Hungarian Plain

A Hungarian village on the Great Plain: a microcosm reflecting this country’s history from early tribal invasion, to Soviet subordination, to European Community membership. Here, peasants, herders, party girls, former nazis and lapsed communists share gossip as well as love stories; and unscrupulous leaders, totalitarian or freely elected, decide behaviour. And while fully embracing the new consumer society, there remains one constant: hatred of the long-vanished rural Jew.

Author Bio

Born in New York, raised in Toronto, Jill Culiner, writer, social critical artist, and photographer has spent most of her life in France, England, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Holland, and North Africa. Her photographic exhibition about the First and Second World Wars, La Mémoire Effacée, toured France, Canada, and Hungary under the auspices of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO. Her non-fiction, Finding Home in the Footsteps of the Jewish Fusgeyers won the Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Prize for Canadian Jewish History and was shortlisted for the ForeWord Magazine Award. Her biography of a nineteenth-century rebel Yiddish poet and singer, A Contrary Journey with Velvel Zbarzher, Bard, was published by Claret Press in 2022.

She presently lives in a 400-year-old inn in France that is so chaotic and strange, it has been classified as a museum. (http://www.jill-culiner.com)

Author links: https://linktr.ee/jillculiner
Web site: https://www.jillculiner-writer.com
Blog: https://jewish-histories.over-blog.com
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Filed Under: Blog, Guest Bloggers Tagged With: history, Hungary, Jewish History, Memoir, Rural Village

On Tour: Anywhere But Schuylkill @MikeDunnAuthor @cathiedunn #MollyMaguires #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub #TheGreatUpheaval

February 21, 2024 by Adriana Kraft

In 1877, twenty Irish coal miners hanged
for a terrorist conspiracy that never occurred.

BLURB

Anywhere But Schuylkill is the story of one who escaped, Mike Doyle, a teenager trying to find a new home before his alcoholic uncle kills one of his siblings. He takes a job with a union leader, who is also a gangster, while secretly courting his daughter, and quickly learns that the gang leader, cops and rival gang all want him dead.

BOOK INFORMATION

Title: Anywhere but Schuykill
Series: The Great Upheaval Trilogy, Book One
Author: Michael Dunn
Publisher: Historium Press, September, 2023
ASIN: ‎ B0CJVW1BP2
Print length: ‎ 393 pages
Genres: Historical Fiction, U.S. Historical Fiction, 19th Century

BUY LINKS

Universal Buy Link:

https://books2read.com/u/496Ag0

Historium Press

https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/it/michael-dunn

Author Bio:

Michael Dunn writes Working-Class Fiction from the Not So Gilded Age. Anywhere But Schuylkill is the first in his Great Upheaval trilogy. A lifelong union activist, he has always been drawn to stories of the past, particularly those of regular working people, struggling to make a better life for themselves and their families.

 

Author Links:

Website: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeDunnAuthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Michael.Dunn.Fiction
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeldunnauthor/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-Dunn/author/B0CJXGQYZ8
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45063197.Michael_Dunn

ABOUT THE GREAT UPHEAVAL

“There was a time in the history of France when the poor found themselves oppressed to such an extent that forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and hundreds of heads tumbled into the basket. That time may have arrived with us.”

A cooper said this to a crowd of 10,000 workers in St. Louis, Missouri in July, 1877. He was referring to the Paris Commune, which happened just six years prior. Like the Parisian workers, the Saint Louis strikers openly called for the use of arms, not only to defend themselves against the violence of the militias and police who were sent to crush their strike, but for outright revolutionary aims:

“All you have to do is to unite on one idea—that workingmen shall rule this country. What man makes, belongs to him, and the workingmen made this country.”

The Economic Roots of the Great Upheaval of 1877

Run on the Fourth National Bank, New York City, 1873. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=517809

The Great Upheaval was the first major worker uprising in the United States. It began in the fourth year of the Long Depression which, in many ways, was worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It lasted twenty-three years and included four separate financial panics. In 1873, over 5,000 business failed. Ove one million Americans lost their jobs. In the following two years, another 13,000 businesses failed. Railroad workers’ wages dropped 40-50%. And one thousand infants were dying each week in New York City.

The Long Depression followed a period of rapid wealth accumulation by a few large capitalists, particularly railroad owners. Congress granted them huge swaths of land in 1862. The following year, they passed the National Banking Act, greatly increasing the wealth and power of financial capitalists. In 1864, they placed a 47% tariff on foreign goods, further increasing the wealth of domestic capitalists. They also passed legislation making it easier to import foreign laborers, leading to the largest immigration wave in U.S. history. The lack of regulation and oversight produced large scale greed and corruption. In 1873, Jay Cooke and Company, the largest bank in the U.S., went bankrupt. Cooke’s failure led to a 10-day closure of the New York Stock exchange.

The Great Upheaval Begins

By 1877, workers had suffered four years of wage cuts and layoffs. In July, the B&O Railroad slashed wages by 10%, their second wage cut in eight months. On July 16, 1877, the trainmen of Martinsburg, West Virginia, refused to work. They occupied the rail yards and drove out the police. Local townspeople backed the strikers and came to their defense. The militia tried to run the trains, but the strikers derailed them and guarded the switches with guns. They halted all freight movement, but continued moving mail and passengers, to successfully maintain public support. When militia reinforcements were sent in, most mutinied or refused to fight. Many were former or current rail workers. 70 freight engines and 600 freight cars were soon out of service in the Martinsburg yard, as all divisions of B&O workers walked off the job. The Governor sent in a militia from Wheeling, but they also joined the strike.

The Strike Wave Spreads Along the Rail Lines

Maryland National Guard’s Sixth Regiment fighting its way west along main downtown commercial thoroughfare Baltimore Street through Baltimore, Maryland, July 20, 1877. Public Domain.

News of the Martinsburg victory quickly spread, inspiring other strikes along the B&O. But most of the unions took no action. Some were so heavily infiltrated by spies and Pinkertons that the bosses easily thwarted any actions they did take. Consequently, the strikes were almost entirely spontaneous wildcat actions. And the uprisings quickly spread from New York to Louisiana, and from Baltimore to the west coast. The majority of protests were directed against the bosses and the authorities. But in San Francisco, they turned into an anti-Asian riot.

In the Keyser-Piedmont region of West Virginia, black and white coal miners united to halt a train guarded by fifty U.S. soldiers. They posted a handbill that said: “Let the clashing of arms be heard. In the defense of our families, we shall conquer or we shall die.” In Baltimore, soldiers shot and killed between ten and twenty-two strikers.

Violence in Pennsylvania

In Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a National Guard company mutinied. In Altoona, strikers surrounded the troops and sabotaged the engines, forcing the soldiers to surrender. The soldiers then fraternized with the striking workers and marched home to the accompaniment of singers from an African-American militia company. In Harrisburg, the state capital, teenagers made up a large part of the multi-ethnic crowd.

Burning of Union Depot, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 21–22, 1877, engraving from Harper’s Weekly. Public Domain.

In Pittsburgh, workers struck against the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest corporation in the world. Young boys and men from the mills and factories joined in. Again, the militia refused to attack the workers. Many soldiers joined the strikers. So, the Governor brought in the Philadelphia militia. These were battle-hardened soldiers from the Civil and Indian Wars, with no ties to the Pittsburgh community, and no qualms about shooting civilians. They opened fire on the crowd, killing twenty workers in five minutes. The crowd retreated, but returned with their own militia. They burned the rail yards to the ground, holding off firefighters at gunpoint. The Philadelphia militia hid in the roundhouse, but the fire forced them to flee. The workers and police fired on them as they ran. In nearby Allegheny, strikers looted the armory. They dug trenches, took over the telegraph and railroad, and controlled all economic and political functions.

The South

Black longshoremen initiated a strike in Galveston, Texas, demanding a raise to $2.00 per day. Not only were they victorious, but they inspired white workers to join them. In Louisville, Kentucky, black sewer workers initiated a strike wave that quickly included coopers, textile workers, brick makers, cabinet workers and factory workers. Black workers in many parts of the south demanded equal pay to whites.

 Chicago

In Chicago, the Workingmen’s Party (affiliated with the First International, in Europe), organized a rally of six thousand people. At this gathering, a former Confederate Army Officer from Waco, Texas, named Albert Parsons, gave a fiery speech. Parsons was radicalized by the events of the Great Upheaval. In the years following it, he became one of the nation’s leading anarchist organizers. He was executed in 1887 as one of the Haymarket Martyrs who had been fighting for the eight-hour workday. His widow, Lucy Parsons, an African American woman, went on to cofound the radical Industrial Workers of the World, in 1905, along with Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, and others.

The next day, a crowd of young people began moving through the railroad yards, closing down the freights. They went to the factories and stockyards and called out the workers. They shut down the brickyards and lumberyards. That same day, Albert Parsons was fired from his job with the Chicago Times and declared blacklisted.

As in other big cities, the police attacked the protestors in Chicago. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.” Police fired into the protest, killing three men. The next day, an armed crowd of 5,000 fought the police, who fired again, killing several more. During the Battle of the Viaduct (July 25, 1877), the police slaughtered thirty workers and injured over one hundred.

The Saint Louis Commune

The most well-organized and lasting uprising of the Great Upheaval occurred in Saint Louis. For nearly a week, workers controlled all functions of society. It was the only town besides Chicago where the actions were predominantly organized by socialists, led by the Workingmen’s Party. The party was organized in four sections, by nationality, to facilitate communication across different languages. Strikers included skilled and unskilled workers. Black and white workers united, even though the unions were all segregated. At one rally, a black steamboat worker asked the crowd if they would stand behind the levee workers, regardless of race. “We will!” they shouted back. Another speaker said, “The people are rising up in their might and declaring they will no longer submit to being oppressed by unproductive capital.”

Women played a prominent role in St. Louis, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the men. According to one news account: “Women with babes in arms joined the enraged female rioters. The streets were fluttering with calico of all shades and shapes. Hundreds were bareheaded, their disheveled locks streaming in the wind. Many were shoeless. Some were young, scarcely women in age, and not at all in appearances. Dresses were tucked up around the waist, revealing large underthings. Open busts were common as a barber’s chair. Brawny, sunburnt arms brandished clubs. Knotty hands held rocks and sticks and wooden blocks. Female yells, shrill as a curfew’s cry, filled the air.” The police clubbed and brutalized the women with the same enthusiasm they used on the men.

The First Uprising Against the Oligarchy

Karl Marx enthusiastically followed events during the Great Strike. He called it “the first uprising against the oligarchy of capital since the Civil War.” He predicted that it would inevitably be suppressed, but might still “be the point of origin for the creation of a serious workers’ party in the United States.”

Ironically, many of the Saint Louis activists were followers of Ferdinand Lasalle, whom Marx detested. And some, like Albert Currlin, a Workingmen’s Party leader in Saint Louis, were outright racists, who mistrusted the black strikers and refused to work with them, contributing to the ultimate failure of the commune.

Labor’s Downfall

Despite the many small victories, the upheaval ended by early August. No social revolution occurred and labor ultimately lost. Federal troops and militias had slaughtered 100 workers and imprisoned thousands more. Most workers did not get a pay raise. And in the aftermath, legislators passed numerous anti-union laws.

However, capital’s victory was not quick, nor easy. 100,000 workers had participated in the strikes. More than half the freight on the nation’s 75,000 miles of track had been halted. The strikers maintained considerable public support. The initial ineffectiveness of the military was due, in part, to the fact that many soldiers had enlisted just to secure a steady income during the depression, only to be forced to work for months without pay. Also, troop levels were relatively small, as many soldiers were still bogged down in battles with the Nez Perce, and with battles against the Indigenous populations of the Rio Grande and New Mexico. Lastly, capitalism itself was relatively young and inexperienced. The bosses weren’t as effective at undermining worker solidarity as they are today. They hadn’t yet mastered how to control public sentiment. But the capitalists did learn a lot from the Great Strike of 1877. In the wake of the uprisings, they constructed many of the old stone armories we see across the country today, in order to provide greater fire power for the next strike wave.

About The Great Upheaval Trilogy

About ten years ago, I set out to write an epic novel about these events. Cleary, there was plenty of excitement for a great work of historical fiction, but far too much for a single novel. So, I decided to write a series, the Great Upheaval Trilogy. And as I did the research, I discovered that just weeks before the Great Upheaval began, twenty innocent Irish miners were hanged in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania—ten in a single day. It was the second largest mass execution in U.S. history. They were convicted of murder, accused of being terrorists from a secret organization called the Molly Maguires. Dozens were imprisoned. All were union activists. Some held public office, as sheriffs and school board members. And a few of the accused Mollies escaped and were never heard from again.

This became the basis for the first book in the series, Anywhere But Schuylkill, (published by Historium Press, September, 2023), which follows the life of a teenage coal miner, Mike Doyle, one of the Mollies who got away. I am currently working on the sequel, Red Hot Summer in the Big Smoke, which takes place during the train strike in Pittsburgh, and follows the life of Mike’s kid sister, Tara.

Check out other stops on the tour for additional informative essays by the author:

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