Prequel to The Renegade Series Now on Amazon

I have just finished a new novel set in the Civil War era. The name of the book is Redemption, and it is a prequel to The Renegade series. This book came about in a rather strange way. When I put the eBook version on Kindle and sales began to take off, I started receiving emails from readers who had the same complaint. One reader stated the problem rather succinctly, and I usually listen to what readers have to say. This reader said: “After reading the other books in this series, I sensed that I am missing a lot of events in the lives of your characters. Have you thought about writing a prequel about what happened before Wolf Spencer starts?

 

Well, I had, so I followed his advice and wrote Redemption which covers some of the events concerning the war years. This was an easy book to write because I still had the notes that I made when I lived in Washington D.C. and visited all of the places I mention in the book. This book was a labor of love, and I am not sure that I can stop writing about the lives of the many characters in this series. I hope you enjoy reading this just half as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here is a synopsis of the book an a link where you can purchase it on Amazon.

 

Washington, 1865: As the American Civil War drew to a close, military and government leaders realized they were facing grave dangers they had not anticipated. There were many who did not understand that it was easier to start a war than to end one. The Confederacy was crumbling rapidly, and Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Robert E. Lee were willing to surrender, provided they could do so with honor. Many government and military leaders did not agree with President Lincoln’s intention to grant a full pardon to anyone who would agree to the terms of surrender. And the most difficult thing of all was the radicals who were not willing to give up a lost cause, and were determined to stop the peace process regardless of the cost.

 

http://www.amazon.com/ebook/dp/B00B35SXL4

Happy New Year!

Whoever decided that the beginning of the year should occur on the first day of January was wiser than most of us realize. The beginning of the year could just as easily have occurred on any calendar date, but someone decided that it should occur just after the beginning of the winter solstice. This is when the sun appears to have reached its lowest altitude in the sky at solar noon. The days are long and dark and we see little of the sun. Winter is just beginning, and for many of us, it is a time when we need a little moral boost from the dreary weather that lies ahead. There are many of us who start counting the days until the fishing season starts, or the golf course is open for use. But even though these events are weeks away, something magical happens. People, who know more about science than the rest of us, say that gamma rays from the sun are responsible for the transformation, but to me I still believe in the magic of my childhood. Tiny flowers began to appear beneath the snow, and onions and potatoes sprout in the pantry. You wouldn’t notice any of this if these small events happened months later, but at the beginning of the year it is magical. We look with wonder at the tiny flowers, and feel a sense of promise of what is to come. Today, I pulled the small golden bloom from a bitterweed, and I have it on my desk as I write this. I am probably the only person in the world who likes this small plant, but to me it holds the promise of what is to be in the coming year. The days are already growing longer, in small increatments, just as life has a way of slipping up on us. I look at this small bloom with its bittersweet smell, and know that there will be pain, sorrow, and grief as we inch toward spring, but there will be good things, too, things that are magical and wonderful. I look forward to these events with great anticipation as I wish each of you a Happy New Year . . .