Acres’ Bastard – Page 5

Big-ass plans for 2018

Anyone who knows me, knows I hate New Years Eve. Always have. The week between Christmas and New Years is traditionally a time of self-flagellating reflection, semi-soul-numbing-regrets and non-clinical depression. That generally comes complete with a lot of whining and binge-eating the remaining butter tarts. With the Duchess working retail, and my customers inconsiderately on vacation, I have too much time to think about stuff. Nothing good happens when Wayne starts a sentence with, “I’ve been thinking.”

This year is (slightly, ever-so-slightly) different though.

For example, this year my resolution is to save more money. One way I am going to do this is by using more coupons and promo codes when shopping online. You see, one of my friends has been encouraging me to get into couponing for some time now and I have decided that I need to make some major changes to my spending habits, especially as we have a big move planned very soon.

We do most of our online shopping on the Target website so my friend has sent me a target coupon to get me started. To be honest, I was surprised by how much money you can save by using promo codes. I had never even thought about using coupons when shopping online, but this year is going to be different. Are you a fan of couponing? Or, do you have any other money-saving tips? Let me know your thoughts if so.

By the way, this is not a request for “attaboy” Facebook messages or offers of assistance or your therapists’ contact information. I go through this every year and come out the other side. It’s just a way of setting up what I have to say next.

As I look forward to 2018, there are three things to look forward to.

In May, the release of “The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership.” Co-written with my boss and friend, Kevin Eikenberry, this is a very real book from a real publisher and the hope is that it will kick-start the whole “paying the rent” thing. It’s available for Pre-Order now. Just saying.
This summer will see the release of “Acre’s Orphans”, the second story in the Lucca series. I’m guessing August? I had hoped to have it out by now, but hubris is a terrible thing. “How hard could it be to do a world-class business book AND the next novel in the same year?” I can now answer that: way more than I thought. For those of you awaiting the next adventure. It’s coming. By the way, I killed off someone major in Chapter 15. Can’t wait to hear the complaining…..
After 17 years in Chicago, the Duchess and I are planning to leave Chicago for Las Vegas. Now, I’m well aware that if you want to hear God laugh, tell Her your plans, and nothing is set in stone. Still, that’s the plan. No more frigid winters. And it’s time to start the next chapter of our lives. I love Vegas but that’s not to say I won’t miss living in Chicago. I’ve been playing on some of the best online slots UK websites to try and improve my gambling skills and I’m slowly getting better. I can already tell I’ll be spending a lot of time in the casinos haha. The casinos are a huge perk of living in Vegas, but I’m fine with playing online for now. I feel like many people come to Vegas for the culture and not the gambling. In fact, now luxury casinos can be found in Japan, it’s no longer the sole selling point of Vegas. That being said, I’m still going to try my luck. Hopefully, I’ll be able to win some money to fund the move. It will be interesting to see how the introduction of modern developments in the casino industry will affect the standing of Las Vegas in the gambling landscape. For instance, Bitcoin casinos are increasingly becoming the hottest trend. Those interested should check out this article to learn more about them – https://savedelete.com/gaming/the-difference-between-a-bitcoin-casino-and-a-regular-one/203935/. It might be a good way for me to make a bit of money so could be worth looking into! Of course, if anyone wants to buy a few copies of my books to help fund the move, we’d appreciate it. While I love Chicago, and Her Serene Highness will be staying behind, it’s either move or be murdered in my sleep by a woman raised in Miami and still pining for Los Angeles after all these years. I’m already packing boxes.

You never really know what a year holds, but I am excited for the challenges I know I (and we as a family) will face.

My own self-absorbed whinging aside, I wish for you an exciting 2018 of chasing your dreams and fighting the weasels to at least a draw.

Renaissance Music and Romance with Karen Bedore

I first became aware of Karen Bedore’s work earlier this year, when her novel “The Bard” beat “Acre’s Bastard” to make the short list of the Illinois Library Association’s annual “Soon to be Famous Author” competition. When we finally met at a library author event, I swallowed my petty spite and hateful envy enough to chat with her, and learn she has a new book out. That would be, “Another Lifetime.”

Turns out that when she’s not writing, she teaches middle-school music. You’ll see she has her denial firmly in hand…

So let’s learn about Karen Bedore…

On a typical day, one could find Karen in the throngs of adolescent wonderment, trying to create harmonious music-making to these next-generation superstars. From the first squeaks of “Hot Cross Buns” to the lavish lyrical sounds of “Danny Boy,” there is much magic that occurs within the four walls of the band room.

After being fueled by many cups of coffee to sustain the never-ending insanity of middle school energy, she arrives home to the role of wife (to a wonderful husband) and mother (of an amazing little boy), cherishing every moment (okay, perhaps not the whining…).

However…

Secretly (well, not so secret any more), she is an undercover author, who laces up her trainers for a run to build endurance–not just for running–but to escape from this world to an alternate one, where history and romance meet, fueled by suspense–and of course–wonderful music.

Well, if the whole “secret identify” thing works for you and helps you deal with the most evil of Nature’s creations- tweens- God love ya. What’s your latest book about?

Twenty-two-year-old Aria Carucci was getting nowhere with her research of the obscure fifteenth-century artist Enzo Benenati. A recent discovery of one of his works was a monumental breakthrough, but the accompanying sketch of a woman who could be her twin left her completely stunned. She vows to discover who this woman was, but nothing can prepare her for the path her research takes—back in time to 1459 Florence. Frightened but thrilled, she must adapt to a time not her own. Thrown together by chance, Aria and Enzo fall in love, only to be at the mercy of the hands of fate.

You’re the second author in a row here who’s tackled the Renaissance as their theme. What is it about that time period that’s so interesting to you?

I have always been fascinated by the early Renaissance period, ever since I can remember. The humanism movement—especially in Italy—has transformed the visual and musical art world, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without that ingenuity. I have family roots in Italy as well, and am in love with the language and culture. If I were a character, I would be Aria. Many people who have read the book have noticed that I pretty much inserted myself into the book.

The arrogance of some authors (completely disregards his own work where he is Byron, Willie, Lucca, and probably the snarky old guy in most of the short stories). Without giving away spoilers, what’s your favorite scene in the book?

Ooh, this is hard! I would have to say the first kiss. –dreamy sigh-

I think those middle-schoolers are rubbing off on you, but what the heck. Where can we learn more about your work (including the one that beat mine out… not that I’m bitter or anything)?

My website: http://karenbedore.wordpress.com

Twitter: @Lady_Alcinia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebardtrilogy/

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/ybmhdld6

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter and get a chance to win a signed paperback copy of Acre’s Bastard. Each month you’ll receive links to interviews with great authors, news about upcoming events and previews of my work in progress, Acre’s Orphans. Look in the bottom left of the page for the sign-up sheet. No spam, just once a month updates and a chance to learn about great new Historical Fiction from around the world. Everyone who signs up before January 1 enters to win!

The Lucknow Mutiny with Jocelyn Cullity

Read to the bottom of the page for a special offer!

I have always been fascinated by India… maybe because it is literally as different a culture from ours as possible yet there’s always been cultural cross-over. The British Raj has given us some of the most famous historical fiction ever (you’re a good man, Gunga Din) and yet we in the West have seldom heard the story from the Indians’ perspective. That’s where Jocelyn Cullity and “Amah and the Silk-Winged Pigeons” come in.

Jocelyn Cullity’s Amah & the Silk-Winged Pigeons is based on ten years of research. She was awarded The New England Writer’s Fellowship from A Room of Her Own Foundation in the United States, and a Writers’ Reserve Grant from the Ontario Arts Council in Canada. Her short stories and essays have been published in American, Canadian, and Indian journals and anthologies; her award-winning documentary film about women and social change in China, Going to the Sea, aired on television and in festivals in Canada, the United States, and in Europe.

Jocelyn has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and is currently the Director of Creative Writing in the BFA Program at Truman State University. She lives in Columbia, Missouri with her husband, the film scholar Prakash Younger, and their two daughters.

What’s the story of Amah about?

Amah and the Silk-Winged Pigeons is about the women (who do not find sufficient space or voice in many of our history textbooks) who valiantly resisted English rule in 1857 India — in a famous event that some English called “the Great Mutiny” and what some Indians call “India’s First War of Independence.”

As a Canadian living in the US, I find one of the great ironies is that one person’s “freedom fighter” is another person’s “godless rebel.” What is it about this particular story you found so fascinating?

19th century Lucknow was gorgeous, opulent, and cosmopolitan — European travelers to the city regularly would say they were in “luck. now.” when they reached the city. The English had already taken over other parts of India and in 1856, they deposed Lucknow’s King and began to take over the city. What followed was a famous uprising in which the Indians in the city — led by women — attempted to oust the English.

My mother’s English family lived in India for five generations and my great-great-great aunt was in the city of Lucknow during the resistance to English rule there. When I was a teenager, I transcribed her diary and the event stuck with me! I went on to look at Indian women’s perspectives on the tragedy that happened there. That’s when I found out that it was Indian women who planned and led the resistance — women we know too little about — and I knew then that the story I wanted to tell was theirs.

What’s your favorite scene in the book?

My favorite scene in the book is when Amah, who tells the story, must fight off an English soldier over a very hot and difficult afternoon.

Where can we learn more about your book?

Amazon (US and Canada)

Twitter: @JocelynCullity

jocelyncullity.com

Her Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8591959.Jocelyn_Cullity

Reformation, Faith and Heresy with C.L.R Peterson

By now, it’s abundantly clear from Acre’s Bastard that I have a complicated relationship with organized religion. Still, any student of history knows that little else has moved the levers of power in every corner of the world like faith and people’s reactions to it. Case in point: CLR Peterson’s new novel about the Renaissance, the Reformation and the line between conscience and heresy. “Lucia’s Renaissance” comes from the author’s own academic interest in the topic. Here’s what she has to say:

What’s your deal?

CLR Peterson is the author of Lucia’s Renaissance

Renaissance history came to life for me during a semester of study in Italy. Then Martin Luther’s bold stand against the Roman Church and its pleasure-loving Pope Leo, a classic David-versus-Goliath battle, hooked me on the Reformation. I’ve pursued my passion for the Renaissance/Reformation era ever since, earning a PhD in Early Modern European History at Stanford University. Research for my debut novel, Lucia’s Renaissance, included reading heresy trial transcripts in Venice’s State Archives.

Geeky but cool. What’s Lucia’s Renaissance about?

Heresy is fatal in late sixteenth-century Italy, so only a suicidal zealot would so much as whisper the name of Martin Luther. But after Luther’s ideas ignite a young girl’s faith, she can’t set them aside, even when faced by plague, death, and the Inquisition.

What is it about that time period that is so fascinating to you?

For years, I’ve been intrigued by the relationship between the Italian Renaissance, with its vitality, creativity, and focus on humanity, and the religious Reformation sparked by Luther.

While reading heresy trial records from this era, I found a microcosm of this Renaissance/Reformation tension. A bare-bones portrait emerged of a Renaissance-educated Italian physician so devoted to Martin Luther’s ideas that for years he smuggled the reformer’s writings into Italian lands, leading to three trials before the Roman Church’s Inquisition. My novel fills out his family’s story (using literary license when necessary) from the viewpoint of the physician’s daughter, Lucia.

What’s your favorite scene or event in the book?

When Lucia unlocks a hidden drawer in her father’s desk, she makes a shocking discovery: a book by Martin Luther, the arch-heretic her priest railed against. Questions flood her mind. Why was the book placed in the drawer? Does her father, a strict follower of the Church’s rules, know about the book? Could he be a heretic?

Lucia must decide whether to report her find to the priest, lock the book away and pretend she never saw it, confront her father, or read the book and make her own judgment.

Where can people learn more about you and Lucia’s Renaissance?

My website: clrpeterson.com

My book’s Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B076GKJY2V

My book’s Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/ book/show/36339179-lucia-s- renaissance?from_search=true

The California Gold Rush with Richard Roux

Love it or hate it (and I do a little of both) there is no place like California. The history of the state seems to be completely disconnected from most of the rest of the US. One of the most interesting periods–and a metaphor for everything that’s happened there since, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley–is the Gold Rush. That time period has given us writers like Brett Harte and Mark Twain.

Richard Roux has now added his novel, A Branch Too Weak, to the mix. I was happy to talk to him and learn more. He was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. By profession, he is a high school history teacher and adjunct professor in history at Bakersfield Community College. With an interest in a variety of topics and activities, Richard brings to his writing a mixture of history, anecdotes, and humor.

When not spending time with his family, teaching, playing hockey, and enjoying the outdoors, he continues to research and write. A series of new releases are planned for the future.

What’s A Branch Too Weak about?

A Branch Too Weak is a work of historical fiction based on the California Gold Rush. The main character, Danny Vance, is an ambitious young man. Like thousands of other Americans, he was enticed west when word of gold in California reached the rest of the United States. It became his goal to reach California to “see the elephant.” Faced with struggle, sacrifice, violence, and himself on a daily basis, he pushed his limits to achieve his dreams. The journey west wasn’t what he expected; it rarely was. Will Danny Vance make it to California, or give up like so many others? Will he find his fortune? Will he find himself? Only he could provide the answers.

This is the first book in the Golden Empire Series. Additional books will explore events and characters in California, mixing actual history and individuals with a fictional story line.

California is a fascinating place… actually several different places all smooshed together. What is it about that time period that got you going?

History has always been an important part of my life. For me, it is an escape. I love exploring how local history is intertwined with national events. And I have always been drawn to history of the American West. So, throughout my life, I have contemplated how my little corner of the world developed over time. My family has some property in the Greenhorn Mountains of Kern County. The area witnessed its own gold rush in 1853 and 1854.

For years, I imagined what type of people moved to the region—where they came from, what they did for a living, and what life was like for them. Over the last year, I started to formulate a story in my head about the California Gold Rush, and about how an individual might venture out to California to chase their dreams, and how they might end up in the Greenhorn Mountains. This last summer, after teaching six weeks of summer school, I found myself with four weeks off. I figured there was no time like the present, so I wrote this book.

In a sense, this book is a reflection of several decades of reflecting on the history of the United States, California, and the Greenhorn Mountains. It is my attempt to craft a compelling story with a likable character, all while relaying some history.

I know it’s an unfair question, but what’s your favorite scene in the book?

One scene in the book has Danny Vance walking up a rock-strewn, rutted track known as the Greenhorn Trail that leads to the Kern River Gold fields. The trail winds its way up a ridge that has oak, pine, and fir trees, as well as clusters of dense brush. That trail seemingly climbs forever. I describe how Danny felt walking up that trail. The heat and sweat, the burning muscles straining to reach the plateau, and the quest for shade. This scene means a lot to me, because I have walked that trail and have experienced the same feelings and struggle. In a way, I am Danny at that moment in time.

Where can folks learn more about you and your work?

I and my book can be found several places:

Amazon Author’s Page:

Goodreads:

Greenhorn Mountain Books Facebook Page:

Thoroughly Enjoyable Imperfect Enjoyment- MJ Logue

The internet is a small place, especially for historical fiction authors. We tend to cross paths in the same Facebook groups and Twitter feeds. I’ve been aware of MJ Logue for a while, and have been eagerly awaiting the publication of her new book, “An Imperfect Enjoyment,” to interview her. Her funny, snarky outlook on life can’t help but infiltrate all her work.

So what’s MJ Logue’s deal?

Writer, mad cake lady, re-enactor, historian.
Been slightly potty about the clankier side of Ironside for around 20 years, and lists amongst my heroes in this unworthy world Sir Thomas Fairfax, Elizabeth Cromwell and John Webster (for his sense of humour.)

When not purveying historically-accurate cake to various re-enactment groups across the country, M.J. Logue can usually be discovered practising in her garden with a cavalry backsword. (for the record, I don’t believe those exact words have ever been put in that exact order….ever.)

So what’s the nutshell version of your book?

An Imperfect Enjoyment is basically The Thin Man meets Forever Amber: if you can imagine the suave and rather elegant investigators of 1930s pulp fiction, set in Restoration England. A little bit sexy, grimly witty, slightly violent, and unerringly sophisticated.
Being the story of Thankful Russell – middle-aged, slightly-broken Admiralty intelligencer, retired – who finds himself married to the girl he’s always loved. (Turns out she’d always loved him, too. She was just waiting for him to notice.) The romantic Thomazine is big on happy ever afters. The problem is, as war with the Dutch looms and tensions run high in the capital, someone’s determined that she shouldn’t get one – or, indeed, that Russell’s going to get any kind of ever after, other than a traitor’s execution. Would a man whose principles led him to once take up arms against his King, turn his coat again and work against His Majesty for the Dutch Republic? Thomazine doesn’t think so. But her determination to see him cleared is going to lead them into more danger, and more high places, than either of them would have dreamed of….

What is it about that time period that fascinates you so?

Why the 1660s? Because I write another series set during the British Civil Wars, in which we initially meet Thankful Russell as a very badly damaged young lieutenant in the Army of Parliament, and because he meets Thomazine (in those books) when he’s twenty-one and she’s a little girl of not quite two and it was clear to me as a writer from pretty much that meeting that they were going to get together one day. She sees him as her especial property: because he’s disfigured, he’s terrified of women his own age – or their pity, at least – and Thomazine, not having known him before the scars, just thinks of him as… well, as Russell, really; as her rebel angel. So I had to know how that was going to pan out. He has to go away to come back, if you see what I mean.

So there are the two stories running alongside each other. There’s a not-quite-young man who’s thoroughly messed up, who’s got to the age of forty-two without having dared to love anybody in his life, and a girl who is single-minded enough to take him on but who’s starry-eyed enough to forgive his not being wired up right: and how they learn to be ordinary, really, to have a marriage and a home and children (one day…) together. There’s that. And then there’s the various intrigues and upheavals and literary chicanery of the Restoration going on around them: Sam Pepys the chest pest, and Aphra Behn and the Earl of Rochester writing dirty poems, and the theatre, and all of that. Imagining how you would live in that new world, if you had been happy with the old world. If you hadn’t been a fop or a cavalier or a poet, but someone who had believed in the ideals of a Commonwealth and a democracy without kings.

What’s your favorite scene in the book?

Oh, they make me laugh, them two. I couldn’t pick a favourite. Possibly the scenes where Russell decides that the best way to clear his name of a number of murders is forensically, and finagles an introduction to the Royal Society to talk about dead bodies. (With a very real and practical introduction to the same, which makes Thomazine heave.) There’s always an assumption that being a middle-aged, scarred, lapsed Puritan administrator he must be this dry-as-dust and rather humourless individual and he plays up to it relentlessly – being neither. I suspect he and Thomazine think it’s howlingly funny, in private. The sort of scene that could be high romance and oh-darling-your-eyes-are-like-stars, entirely derailed by a ticklish man and a woman with cold feet….

Or Chatham Docks. Because obviously, it’s a romantic thriller, and that means the heroine will need to be rescued from the clutches of the bad guy. Or, as it were, not. One minute it’s all sly humour and political intrigue, and the next minute it’s hairpins in the eyeball, with a horrible gristly crunch.

Where can people learn more about the wonder that is MJ Logue?

Website: www.asweetdisorder.com
Twitter: @hollie_babbitt
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MJLogue/
Amazon links: Author.to/MJLogue

Come Out and Meet Me in October

I will be part of a lot of book events in the next few weeks, and would love it if people would come meet me (and even buy a couple of books if you are so inclined.) I will have plenty of paperback copies of both Acres and The Count of the Sahara.

Here is what is happening over the next little bit:

October 7 is the Oswego Literary Festival at the Oswego Public Library (Oswego

The Count of the Sahara is now available in Kindle format. Also available in paperback from Amazon or direct from the publisher.

, IL) 20 Local Illinois authors will be on hand to sell/sign/bother strangers about their books. 9 AM-1 PM

October 14 9AM-1 PM Plainfield Public Library Indie Author Day (Plainfield Illinois, Library. There are way more independently published writers in Illinois than you can even imagine. Come join us!

Reading On the Rail at the 2015 Rivulets launch

October 14 1PM-4PM The Naperville Writers Group will hold its annual Rivulets Book Launch. Every year we do an anthology of the best writing from the group. My short story, “Through the Arbor Vitae” will be included. Join us at the 95th Street Library in Naperville. (Of course, you can read the story on my site, by clicking here.)

October 15 Hometown Reads and Centuries and Sleuths presents #readlocalshoplocal I am proud to be hosting this gathering of Hometown Reads authors at Centuries and Sleuths in River Forest, IL. We will read and share our books with pretty much everyone who pops in. If you enjoy meeting and discovering new writers, this is the event for you. If we need to bribe you, there will be snacks.

I will also be sharing plenty of tips for aspiring writers about selling eBooks. As a writer, it can be all too tempting to think that once your eBook is written, then the hard work is done. However, selling copies of your eBook is an entirely different process these days. So, if you have always wanted to learn about some of the best digital e-commerce platforms for eBook authors then this is the event for you. Similarly, if you would like to learn more about some of the latest digital e-commerce software, you can find some useful resources over on the FastSpring website here: https://fastspring.com/solutions/selling-digital-products/.

Please stop by and say hello. I love meeting readers (even those who do not buy my book, although I may steal a lock of hair for a voodoo doll, you will not even miss it)

The Dreaded Day Job and a Really Good New Book

Much as I’m trying to carve a niche for myself as a novelist, my first books–and the business that pays the bills–are non-fiction and center on business communication. That’s why I’m really proud to announce that (co-written with Kevin Eikenberry, peace be upon him) the new book is at the pubishers.

The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership is now available for pre-order. It’s from Berrett-Koehler publishers, and we couldn’t be happier, both with the book and our partnership with B-K.

This book takes the communication skills i wrote about in “10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations” and “Meet Like You Mean It- a Leader’s Guide to Painless and Productive Virtual Meetings” and blends them with Kevin’s years of Leadership Development expertise to take a totally fresh, new look at how we are really working today.

If you manage a remote team, or work in a place where your co-workers are at home or spread around the globe, I invite you to check out the book. It offers advice such as how to set up a remote document upload flow using software from sites like FilecenterDMS.com, and how to coordinate a team on a remote basis. Since publication date isn’t until the end of April, you’ll be hearing more as the date gets nearer. In the meantime, I blog and write regularly at The Remote Leadership Institute site. Check it out or follow us on Twitter @LeadingRemotely

Check out the book, or my Amazon author page. If you know my work because of my fiction, you’ll find lots of information to help your business life. If you only know me through my day job, I invite you to check out my novels, The Count of the Sahara and Acre’s Bastard. Heck, if you’re bored, check the Stories section on this page for some of my short fiction work.

More to come, I look forward to continuing to share with you. Have a great week.

Why I Read Historical Fiction From Around the World

” I read historical fiction because I can. I read it from many sides and in many voices because I should.”

Thanks to the lovely and charming Alice Poon, (you can read my interview with her here) I just discovered and read Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, by Yong Jin Yong. Think “House of Flying Daggers Meets the Hateful Eight,” and you have some idea. Apparently he’s the Steven King of Cantonese Kung Fu (or wuxia) novels.

Why would I spend my precious long weekend reading a translation of a novel by a Chinese author I’d never heard of, about a time more than 500 years ago? Because I can. It’s available on Kindle, in a very readable translation. It’s the same way I discovered some of my favorite story-tellers:

Arturo Perez-Reverte- this Spanish author and his Captain Alatriste novels are like the Iberian version of the Three Musketeers. The history is mostly an excuse for sword fights, illicit romance and drinking, but damn good adventure stories.
Leonardo Padura Fuentes (better known as just Leonardo Padura) is from Cuba, and while the 80s might not seem like history, just ask your kids if it was a long time ago. His police novels are not only good procedurals, but they show life in Cuba beyond cool old cars or Cold War machinations.
Alexandre Dumas. Don’t laugh, the old master still can tell a tale, and the Three Musketeers (and its 4 sequels, all of which I’ve read) and The Count of Monte Cristo are still world-class reading today. Okay, I discovered him when I was 12, but addictions die hard.

But why read these authors when there are so many easy-to-find Anglo/American/Canadian writers telling stories from those periods? Because for me part of the appeal of histfic (as the kids call it) is empathy- to learn how others felt and acted at that time as well as to learn about events we don’t know well. The Civil War from both the Southern and Northern perspectives makes for good fiction (and while I have precious little time for revisionism, i’m happy to read it if it’s well done). Agincourt was both a glorious victory and a humiliating defeat, depending on which direction you were facing at the time. Oh, and if I have to read about Henry the Eighth and his bloody wives and daughters one more time I may behead someone myself. Give me something fresh that I haven’t read a dozen times already.

In all the hubbub about cultural appreciation, and who has the right to tell what stories, I believe this heresy: anyone can tell any damned story they want. If i want to tell the story of a ten year old half-caste orphan in Acre, I can do it. You can read Acre’s Bastard and let me know if I did it justice or not. Odds are it would be a different book if written by a Syrian, and I’d love to read that book. The problem is when people aren’t allowed to tell their own stories. I’d rather hear from them, we just don’t often come across them either through intentional white-washing or just lack of opportunity in general. Seriously, if someone has a Crusades epic from the Arab side, in a decent translation, please let me know. I’m dying to get my hands on it.

So I read historical fiction because I can. I read it from many sides and in many voices because I should. It makes me a better writer and, I believe, a better person. When was the last time you read something in translation, or from a different perspective than your own? Don’t you think you oughta?

Let me know… who do you read that I (and our visitors here) should know about?

Roots of Faith in American History Anthony Cleveland

American history is full of contradictions. This is particularly true when it comes to the interweaving of history and religion. As an immigrant (and a seriously– probably permanently– lapsed Baptist), I have seen both the good and the bad of how faith plays a part in the national discourse. Regardless of your individual position, you can’t really examine America’s history without looking at faith, religion, and everything that goes with them.

That brings us to this weeks interview with Anthony Cleveland about his book, Roots of Faith.

So who’s Anthony Cleveland when he’s home?

Anthony (Tony) Cleveland is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Jackson College in Jackson, Michigan. He has a B.S. In Chemistry from the University of Toledo and an M.A. In Counseling Psychology from Moody Theological Seminary – Michigan.

Professor Cleveland spent 25 years in the private sector holding positions in R&D, Operations, Sales and Marketing. Seeking a deeper career fulfillment, he enrolled in a Christian seminary where he encountered the healing power of applied psychological principles integrated with a Christian worldview. While serving as a clinician Cleveland discovered his passion and true calling as an educator and has been at Jackson College since 2002. In 2012, Professor Cleveland received the Outstanding Faculty of the Year award, after being nominated by numerous students and colleagues.

Anthony and his wife of 42 years have two daughters and two grandchildren. Roots of Faith, published in May of 2017 by Lighthouse Christian publishing is Professor Cleveland’s first novel written in the genre of Christian historical fiction.

What is the book about?

Roots of Faith is an intergenerational saga following four southern American families from their ancient roots in Great Britain through their immigration and settlement in the United States. Each of the 17 chapters highlights a specific period of time where one of the families must adapt to the dynamic political, economic, sociocultural and technological forces at work in their lives. The book is of course about the ever evolving Christian religion and it’s direct impact upon these families. The book is indeed a journey of faith as it attempts to highlight the universal human experiences of doubt, fear and confusion in each of the principle characters as they grow and develop in their relationship to their God. It is a story about people whose faith bends but does not break.

Roots of Faith is also in an indirect fashion about the impact of the Christian religion upon the development of the United States. Hopefully, readers of the book will have a better understanding and a deeper appreciation of the need for a Constitution which guarantees the free expression of religion and the right of every citizen to worship (or not worship) God in a manner they deem appropriate without fear of retribution by the government. Nor shall our government establish (and enforce) a national religion.

Roots of Faith is also about the power of love. Romantic, familial and spiritual love that stands the test of time through difficult and seemingly overwhelming trials.

What is it about that time period or character that intrigued you and motivated you to write about it?

Quite simply, I wrote this book for my grandchildren. The four families I write

about are my ancestors. I wanted my grandchildren to know of the sacrifices their ancestors made in coming to America and the importance their faith made in that endeavor. The book, of course, is historical fiction. I attempt to weave together an imaginative yet informative blend of history and myth, fact and fiction, that will help guide them through their lives after I am long gone. I do pray reading this work will help them remember not only the history of their ancestors but of our nation. God willing, it will somehow inspire them to stay strong in faith, follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and, ultimately, “run the race well”.

Without giving away spoilers, what is your favorite scene or event in the book?

That’s a tough one to answer. As you might imagine, this was truly a labor of love. I suppose if I had to select something, I would mention three events; the dialogue between William Cochrane and his grandson while standing outside Paisley Abbey in Scotland, the encounter of Isabel (who has been accused of witchcraft by the elders of the local Kirk) with the vision of Jesus, and finally, the tearful departure from his father of the indentured teenager, Alexander Cleveland, at the docks of Bristol, England as he boards the ship heading for the Colony of Virginia.

Where can people find you and your book?

The book is available at Amazon or at the Lighthouse Christian publishing website. I am also a Goodreads author where you can read my blog, the “Historical Foundations of Roots of Faith”. Also, I have an author’s Facebook account at Roots of Faith by AJC where you can find photos of many of the places I write about.

Of course, you can also read my books like Acre’s Bastard, or The Count of the Sahara, with a slightly different take on religion and history… just saying.