Linnea Tanner's Blog, page 26
June 28, 2022
Renee Yancy More Precious Than Gold Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @YancyRenee @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to welcome Renee Yancy again as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held June 27th — July 8th, 2022. She is the author of the Historical Romance, More Precious Than Gold (The Hearts of Gold Trilogy, Book 2), which was released by Vinspire Publishing on 28th June 2022 (345 pages).
Below are highlights of More Precious Than Gold, Renee Yancy’s author bio, and a fascinating post about the historical aspects of her novel—in particular, the pandemic flu of 1918.
To follow the blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD
More Precious Than Gold
(The Hearts of Gold Trilogy, Book 2)
By Renee Yancy
Blurb
A young woman refuses to become a pawn in her grandmother’s revenge scheme and forgoes a life of wealth and royalty to pursue a nursing career as America enters WWI and the Pandemic Flu of 1918 wreaks havoc in New York City.
Buy Links:
Universal Link 
Amazon UK Amazon US Amazon CA Barnes and Noble Kobo Apple Books
Renee Yancy is a history and archaeology nut who works as an RN when she isn’t writing historical fiction or traveling the world to see the exotic places her characters have lived.
A voracious reader as a young girl, she now writes the kind of books she loves to read—stories filled with historical and archaeological detail interwoven with strong characters facing big conflicts. Her goal is to take you on a journey into the past so fascinating that you can’t put the story down.
When she isn’t writing, Renee can be found in the wilds of Kentucky with her husband and a rescue mutt named Ellie. She loves flea markets and collecting pottery and glass and most anything mid-century modern.
Social Media Links:
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GUEST POST: HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD
Hi there, and thanks for the opportunity to share some historical aspects of my new novel More Precious Than Gold.
I love doing the research for a historical novel. I have spent hours and fallen down many rabbit holes trying to discover, for example, how many gold sovereigns a young woman could carry hidden in the bottom of her portmanteau.
For More Precious Than Gold, I researched WWI and the Pandemic Flu of 1918 for two years before I started to write. I spent hours scouring through old newspapers of the time. I finished the manuscript in 2017, two years before COVID hit. Never in a million years did I ever think I would experience a pandemic in my own lifetime.
Everyone knows someone who has had COVID or has had it themselves. I know several nurses that have had it twice. Today, though, we have vaccinations, antibiotics, and antivirals. We have oxygen and ventilators, breathing treatments, and monoclonal antibodies. We have access to clean water and health care and almost instantaneous communication.
In 1918, all they had was aspirin powder and morphine.
It causes me to have even more respect for the student nurses of Bellevue Hospital in 1918, none of whom left their positions to go home, but instead stayed to care for their patients, some of whom lost their lives as a result. For this reason, I included them in my dedication.
There are some similarities between COVID and the 1918 flu. But the 1918 flu killed more than 100 million people around the world and still stands as the most deadly single incident in world history. Usually flu affects the very young and the elderly the most.
But this flu disproportionately affected people in the 20 to 40 age group―people in the prime of their lives. In New York City alone, over 100,000 children were left orphans. Because of the profound cyanosis that people experienced with this flu, unless you had known their nationality before their deaths, you wouldn’t be able to tell what it was, because the bodies were so dark from oxygen deprivation.
There actually were three waves of the flu. It was the second wave, in the autumn of 1918, that was the most lethal. You could be fine in the morning, sick at noon, and dead at midnight. Horrifying.
The Pandemic Flu of 1918 killed more military men than the actual warfare did. If you have access to your family genealogy, you can check deaths in 1918, and if it is a young person, there’s a very good chance that the 1918 flu was the cause.
The hardest part of writing this book was deciding who would die of the flu. I didn’t want to kill any of my characters, because I had grown attached to them! But I knew that in the real world, the odds were that several people in Kitty’s circle would have died of the 1918 flu.
The most fun I had writing this book was the adventures my character Kitty has as a student nurse. Being a nurse myself, I drew on some of my own experiences and found inspiration in other nurses’ confessions of things that happened when they were student nurses. There are parts that I hope will make you laugh aloud when you read them!
One interesting side note. I think I now understand just why the Roaring 20s were so wild. After the years of war and pandemic flu, all the suffering and pain, the survivors were ready to move on and leave all that behind.
Maybe a story set in the Roaring 20s will be next on my list!
Instagram: @maryanneyarde
June 22, 2022
Vicky Adin Gwenna The Welsh Confectioner Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #NZBooks #WomensFiction #FamilySaga #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @vickyadin @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to welcome Vicky Adin as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held June 20th — June 24th, 2022. She is the author of the Historical Women’s Fiction, Gwenna The Welsh Confectioner (The New Zealand Immigrant Collection), which was released by AM Publishing New Zealand on 24th July 2017 (396 pages).
Below are highlights of Gwenna The Welsh Confectioner and Vicky Adin’s author bio.
To follow the blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: GWENNA THE WELSH CONFECTIONER
Gwenna The Welsh Confectioner
(The New Zealand Immigrant Collection)
By Vicky Adin
(Blurb)
Against overwhelming odds, can she save her legacy?
Gwenna’s life is about to change. Her father is dead and the family business on the brink of collapse. Thwarted by society, the plucky sweet maker refuses to accept defeat.
Amid the bustling vibrancy of Auckland’s Karangahape Road, she promised her father she would fulfil his dreams and save her legacy. But thanks to her overbearing stepbrother that legacy is at risk. Gwenna must find hidden strengths and fight for her rights if she is to keep her promise.
She falls in love with the cheeky and charming Johnno, but just when things are beginning to look up, disaster strikes. Throughout the twists and turns of love and tragedy, Gwenna is irrepressible. She refuses to relinquish her goal and lets nothing and no one stand in her way. Blind to anything that could distract her, Gwenna overlooks the most important person in her life, putting her dreams, her family, and her chance at happiness in jeopardy.
Trigger Warnings:
Domestic violence, death.
Buy Links:
Available on Kindle Unlimited.
Amazon UK 
Amazon US Amazon CA Amazon AU
Brigid The Girl from County Clare
AUTHOR BIO: VICKY ADIN
Vicky Adin is a family historian in love with the past. Like the characters in her stories, she too, is an immigrant to New Zealand, arriving a century after her first protagonists and ready to start a new life.
Born in Wales, she grew up in Cornwall until aged 12. Her family emigrated to New Zealand, a country she would call home. Vicky draws on her affinity for these places in her writing. Fast forward a few years, and she marries a fourth-generation Kiwi bloke with Irish, Scottish and English ancestors and her passion for genealogy flourishes.
The further she dug into the past the more she wanted to record the lives of the people who were the foundations of her new country. Not just her ancestors but all those who braved the oceans and became pioneers in a raw new land. Her research into life as it was for those immigrants in the mid-late 1800s and early 1900s gave her enough material to write about the land left behind and the birth of a new nation for many years.
Vicky holds a MA(Hons) in English, and is a lover of art, antiques, gardens, good food, and red wine. She and her husband travel throughout New Zealand in their caravan and travel the world when they can. She hopes that younger generations also enjoy learning about the past through her stories as much as she had in writing them.
Social Media Links:
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Instagram: @coffeepotbookclub
June 15, 2022
G M Baker The Wistful and the Good Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @mbakeranalecta @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to welcome G. M. Baker as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held June 13th — June 17th, 2022. He Is the author of the Historical Fiction, The Wistful and the Good (Cuthbert’s People, Book 1), which was released by Stories All the Way Down on 4th April 2022 (341 pages)
Below are highlights of The Wistful and the Good, G. M. Baker’s author bio, and an excerpt from his novel.
To follow the blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: THE WISTFUL AND THE GOOD
The Wistful and the Good
(Cuthbert’s People, Book 1)
By G. M. Baker
(Blurb)
The mighty are undone by pride, the bold by folly, and the good by wistfulness.
Elswyth’s mother was a slave, but her father is a thegn, and Drefan, the man she is to marry, is an ealdorman’s son. But though Elswyth is content with the match, and waits only for Drefan to notice that she has come to womanhood, still she finds herself gazing seaward, full of wistful longing.
From the sea come Norse traders, bringing wealth, friendship, and tales of distant lands. But in this year of grace 793 the sea has brought a great Viking raid that has devastated the rich monastery of Lindisfarne. Norse are suddenly not welcome in Northumbria, and when Elswyth spots a Norse ship approaching the beach in her village of Twyford, her father fears a Viking raid.
But the ship brings trouble of a different kind. Leif has visited Twyford many times as a boy, accompanying his father on his voyages. But now he returns in command of his father’s ship and desperate to raise his father’s ransom by selling a cargo of Christian holy books. Elswyth is fascinated by the books and the pictures they contain of warm and distant lands.
But when Drefan arrives, investigating reports of the sighting of a Norse ship, Elswyth must try to keep the peace between Drefan and Leif, and tame the wistfulness of her restless heart.
Buy Links:
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G. M. Baker has been a newspaper reporter, managing editor, freelance writer, magazine contributor, PhD candidate, seminarian, teacher, desktop publisher, programmer, technical writer, department manager, communications director, non-fiction author, speaker, consultant, and grandfather. He has published stories in The Atlantic Advocate, Fantasy Book, New England’s Coastal Journal, Our Family, Storyteller, Solander, and Dappled Things. There was nothing much left to do but become a novelist.
Social Media Links:
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EXCERPT: THE WISTFUL AND THE GOOD
It was the simplest of caresses, and yet Drefan’s thumb inscribing small circles on her belly was a touch of such intimacy, such easy familiarity, that Elswyth found her chin quivering and could hardly catch her breath.
“Did your father ever tell you how we came to be promised to each other?” Drefan asked.
“I never thought to ask,” she said. “I was just always promised to you. I don’t even remember when they told me. I don’t remember ever not knowing.”
“You know that wound your father will not talk about, the one that makes him limp a little? My father fell in the battle line. Actually fell, I mean. He tripped over a rabbit hole. Your father stood over him. It only took a moment for the shield wall to close again, but in that moment a Pictish spear found your father’s thigh. My father won’t speak of it because he is embarrassed for having tripped. Your father won’t speak of it to save my father embarrassment. Or so my uncle told me, last year, when I got him drunk. My father wanted to reward your father for saving his life. But it could not be gold or land, for that would mean confessing to the trip—such rewards, and the act that merits them, must be announced in the hall. But your father had a daughter—a baby—you. And so my father said, let your daughter be married to my son. And so they agreed. My mother was not pleased. You are a slave’s daughter, after all. Half Welisc. And your father is not the most important thegn in the district, nor the richest, nor the wisest of councilors.”
“Hey…”
“He’s a lovely man, your father. I like him a lot. But does he think of the affairs of the kingdom, the affairs of the district, from one Pentecost to the next?”
“No, but…”
“Not the sort of man whose daughter marries an ealdorman’s son.”
“No. But aren’t I the sort of woman who marries an ealdorman’s son?”
“In beauty, sure enough,” he said. “In charm. In song. In peaceweaving.”
“But I bring neither land nor lineage into the alliance.”
“No.”
“But you will marry me anyway.” This she said primly, with confidence.
“I was four years old when the promise was made. I’m like you. I don’t remember being told. I’ve just always known I was going to marry you. I think I remember holding you, all swaddled up and sleeping, and being told, ‘This is the girl you will marry, Dreffy,’ and kissing you on the forehead. But maybe I don’t really remember it. Maybe I have just been told about it so often by soft-hearted women that I think I remember it.”
“You never told me that before,” she said, laughing at the thought of it. “It’s sweet. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted you to think me a great warrior, a captain of men.”
“Well I do! So why tell me now?”
“I want you to know that I shall love our children.”
He could not have said anything that would have pleased her more, and if he had kissed her then, and begun to undress her, all would have been as they both anticipated. But he was still shy. He still felt the need to prove his worthiness to her, to prove that she was his choice, not merely his father’s.
“Your uncle Fyren has served my father in his household all these years,” he said. “They have become fast friends, and your uncle has given my father noble service. He has more than earned a reward.”
He paused but she said nothing. Her uncle’s name never brought cheer to a conversation.
“Your uncle does not approve of your father’s marriage,” Drefan continued.
“You mean he does not approve of my mother.”
“He does not think it wise that Welisc blood should be mixed with Anglish, especially not in the ranks of ealdormen and kings.”
“There have been Anglish kings that took Welisc wives. Saxon and Jutish kings as well.”
“I have said that to him. But he has tales in which the offspring of such unions come to grief. You would think to hear him that if any lord ever lost a battle it was because he had a Welisc mother.”
“You are going to marry me, aren’t you?” she asked, suddenly alarmed.
Instagram: @coffeepotbookclub
June 10, 2022
Book Events Linnea Tanner Summer Reads Book Bazaar and FanExpo Dallas @northcolowriter @FANEXPODallas @linneatanner @RyanneGlenn #FanExpoDallas
Northern Colorado Writers (NWW) will be presenting a Summer Reads Book Bazaar featuring the works of their talented author members. I am pleased to be part of this event as a member of NCW. There is a book for everyone – mystery, romance, poetry, horror, memoirs, anthologies, children’s books, and more! Support your local Colorado authors and stock up on summer reads. As an extra bonus, many authors will be there to chat and sign their books.
I’ll be at the author’s signing table from 11 am – 1 pm.
Date: Saturday, June 11, 2022
Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Cambria Hotel (off of Harmony)
Cambria Hotel
2921 E Harmony Rd
Fort Collins, CO 80528
For those in Texas, I’ll be going with my author buddy, Ryanne Glenn, to FAN EXPO DALLAS. We’ll be sharing Booth A602 and signing books there. Come experience the ultimate playground for Comics, Sci-Fi, Horror, Anime, Gaming, and Books. It is three days of citywide events, family-friendly attractions and world-renowned celebrities await you.
We’d love to see you there and chat.
DATES: JUNE 17 – 19, 2022
WHERE: KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON CONVENTION CENTER
Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center
650 S Griffin St
Dallas, TX 75202
Booth A602
Show Hours:
Friday 4 PM – 9 PM
Saturday 10 AM – 7 PM
Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM
GREETINGS TO AMANDA AND LORRAINE
One of the delights of being an author is to meet up with people from my past who have read my books and contacted me. It was such a pleasure to meet up and become reaquainted with my nieces, Amanda and Lorraine, on my husband’s side whom I’d not seen since they were little girls.
Hi from Auntie Linnea!
June 6, 2022
Midway Through The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour Apollo’s Raven by Linnea Tanner #historicalfantasy @maryanneyarde @linneatanner
I’m delighted that we’re midway through The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour for Apollo’s Raven (Curse of Clansmen and Kings Book 1) scheduled for May 30th – June 10th, 2022. Be sure to check out the posts at various websites that include: book reviews, guest posts, author interviews, and excerpts from Apollo’s Raven.
See below for the various participating sites for which links will be updated as posts are published.
It has been a pleasure to meet and to be hosted by such talented authors who support fellow authors like myself. I greatly appreciate their support and shoutout.
To follow the APOLLO’S RAVEN blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
(Curse of Clansmen and Kings, Book 1)
By Linnea Tanner
Publication Date: 20th January 2020 (3rd Edition)Publisher: Apollo Raven Publisher, LLCPage Length: 394 PagesGenre: Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction(Blurb)
A Celtic warrior princess is torn between her forbidden love for the enemy and duty to her people.
AWARD-WINNING APOLLO’S RAVEN sweeps you into an epic Celtic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. In 24 AD British kings hand-picked by Rome to rule are fighting each other for power. King Amren’s former queen, a powerful Druid, has cast a curse that Blood Wolf and the Raven will rise and destroy him. The king’s daughter, Catrin, learns to her dismay that she is the Raven and her banished half-brother is Blood Wolf. Trained as a warrior, Catrin must find a way to break the curse, but she is torn between her forbidden love for her father’s enemy, Marcellus, and loyalty to her people. She must summon the magic of the Ancient Druids to alter the dark prophecy that threatens the fates of everyone in her kingdom.
Will Catrin overcome and eradicate the ancient curse? Will she be able to embrace her forbidden love for Marcellus? Will she cease the war between Blood Wolf and King Amren and save her kingdom?
CURSE OF CLANSMEN AND KINGS SERIES
Apollo’s Raven, Dagger’s Destiny, Amulet’s Rapture, Skull’s Vengeance (Anticipated Release 18th October 2022)
BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE: APOLLO’S RAVEN
May 30th
The Coffee Pot Book Club
Excerpt
The Whispering Bookworm
Review
May 31st
Mary’s Tavern
Guest Post
Shadows of the Past
Review
June 1st
Historical Fiction Reviews
Review
The Magic of Wor(l)ds
Excerpt
June 2nd
The Writing Desk
Interview
When Angels Fly
Excerpt
June 3rd
Wendy J. Dunn’s Official Blog
Excerpt
Archaeolibrarian
Review
June 6th
Let Your Words Shine…
Five Fun Things
Viviana Mackade’s Official Blog
Guest Post
June 7th
Let Us Talk of Many Things
Guest Post
CelticLady’s Reviews
Spotlight
June 8th
Paul Walker’s Official Blog
Interview
MJ Porter’s Official Blog
Guest Post
June 9th
Crowvus Book Blog
Guest Post
The Historical Fiction Blog
Guest Post
June 10th
B for Bookreviews
Excerpt
The Book Bandit’s Library
Review
The Historical Fiction Company
Excerpt
May 31, 2022
Lindsey S. Fera Muskets and Minuets Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @AuthorLinzFera @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to welcome Lindsey S. Fera as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held May 30th — June 3rd, 2022. She is the author of the Historical Fiction, Muskets and Minuets, which was released by Zenith Publishing (imprint of GenZ Publishing) on 19th October 2021 (486 pages)
Below are highlights of Muskets and Minuets, Lindsey S. Fera’s author bio, and an excerpt from her novel.
To follow the blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: MUSKETS AND MINUETS
Muskets and Minuets
By Lindsey S. Fera
(Blurb)
Love. Politics. War.
Amidst mounting tensions between the British crown and the American colonists of Boston, Annalisa Howlett struggles with her identity and purpose as a woman. Rather than concern herself with proper womanly duties, like learning to dance a minuet or chasing after the eligible and charming Jack Perkins, Annalisa prefers the company of her brother, George, and her beloved musket, Bixby. She intends to join the rebellion, but as complications in her personal life intensify, and the colonies inch closer to war with England, everything Annalisa thought about her world and womanhood are transformed forever.
Join Annalisa on her journey to discover what it truly means to be a woman in the 18th century, all set against the backdrop of some of the most pivotal moments in American history.
Trigger Warnings:
Violence and battle scenes, sexual assault, mild sexual content, and profanity.
Buy Links:
Amazon UK 
Amazon US Amazon CA Amazon AU
A born and bred New Englander, Lindsey hails from the North Shore of Boston. A member of the Topsfield Historical Society and the Historical Novel Society, she forged her love for writing with her intrigue for colonial America by writing her debut novel, Muskets and Minuets. When she’s not attending historical reenactments or spouting off facts about Boston, she’s nursing patients back to health in the ICU.
Social Media Links:
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In the dimmed twilight, Annalisa paced the foyer of her house. The old clock chimed half-eight. George had left the farm mid-morning. When will he return? Will he return?
A boulder overtook her stomach. She would have joined her own militia had Mamma not held her hostage with her sisters.
Certainly, the Danvers minute marched…
Galloping hooves sounded from the lane and Annalisa ran outside with a lantern. When she met the path, she gasped.
Jack rode Frederick, and George, looking rather limp, held onto his waist. All air left her lungs.
“What’s happened to George?” Briny tears dripped onto her neck and chest.
Jack dismounted. “He’s been wounded. We need a doctor.”
She ran toward them, and a sudden terror paralyzed her from touching George. “Was there a battle?” The lantern rattled in her hands, and she threw her arms around Jack. “Tell me George will live.” She inhaled the gunpowder on his clothes and the salty sweat from his neck.
“Dear heart.” Jack held her. “Please, we must get him a doctor. And yes, there was a battle.”
“Yes. Of course.” She reluctantly pulled from him and her mind cleared. “This way. I’ll have Henry call on Dr. Brown.”
They led Frederick up to the house, whereupon Jack aided George from the horse’s mount.
“Annie? ’Tis but a scratch.” George’s head slowly lifted and he grinned, but his vacant stare chilled her.
Annalisa squeezed his bloodied hand. “This is far more than a scratch, dear brother.” She helped Jack, who walked with a considerable limp, haul George indoors. “Henry! Come quick.”
Her youngest brother appeared from the parlor with Mary. “My God, what’s happened?”
“You must ride to Dr. Brown’s at once. George is wounded from battle. Frederick is right outside but he’s ridden a long way. Perhaps take Dinah.”
“Of course.” Henry rushed past them and out the front door.
“Into the drawing room.” Mary led the way and cleared off the pillows from the sofa.
Annalisa and Jack helped lay George on the sofa. “You foolish oaf.” She pulled off his shoes and threw them to the floor, then knelt by his head. “You fool. How could you sustain an injury like this? What sort of minuteman are you?” Her hand collected the perspiration at his brows and a lump formed at her throat.
He cannot die. He cannot leave me. Not George, God. Please, do not take my George.
George chuckled darkly. “The kind who will bear his scars with pride.”
“The kind who nearly lost consciousness just outside of Danvers. I didn’t think we’d make it.” Jack tightened a cravat tied about George’s bicep. “He’s bled much since Concord.
Mamma and Papa rushed into the drawing room with Jane, Addy, and Liza.
“What’s happened?” Jane asked.
“Henry’s gone for Dr. Brown,” Mary said.
“I’ll retrieve some yarrow while we await Dr. Brown.” Addy fled the drawing room.
“My dearest Georgie!” Mamma flung herself to his side, and Annalisa stood and backed into Jack. He tugged her hand and pulled her near the spinet.
Papa approached Annalisa. “Annie, why don’t you see to Mr. Perkins. Get him a horse to take him home. No doubt Lord and Lady Perkins are anxious to see him.”
She shook her head and forced away the tears in her eyes. “I cannot. Not until Dr. Brown’s arrived. I must know George is being cared for—”
“Nonsense, young lady. Cared for!” Mamma cried. “Imagine what she means by such a statement. Cared for. Of course, George is being cared for. Now listen to your Papa and go to. Go to!”
Annalisa and Jack left the house. She drew up her lantern and led him down the path to the barn. Before entering, she stopped and turned.
“’Tis finally happened.”
“It has. The minuteman band is unharmed…mostly. They’re spending tonight at Cooper Tavern outside Menotomy. I expect they’ll return either tomorrow or the next.” He brushed her tears with his gunpowder-stained thumb. “And I know George will survive this. He’s a sturdy minuteman.”
The lantern rattled in her quivering hands. Jack took the light and set it on the ground, and embraced her. Quelled by the chorus of spring peepers from the bog across the lane, she rested her head upon his chest and listened to the rhythmic beating of his heart.
Guilt overtook her. I should have been there with my militia. What will I do if there are injuries among them?
“I cannot believe it has really happened.” Annalisa sniffled. “But you kept your promise. You returned.”
“I did.” He stepped back. “I hate to leave you in such a state, but I must see to my family.”
“Yes.” She looked down. “Your leg.”
He forced a smile. “It will heal.”
“Let me tend to it. You cannot ride home like that.”
“I’ve already ridden the longest way. To go a bit farther is nothing compared to Concord.”
“You’re still bleeding.”
With the lantern, she hurried to her garden, plucked a handful of yarrow, then scurried behind the barn where she pumped water into a pail.
Inside the barn, Jack sat upon a large wooden crate. She knelt, and place the lantern and bucket before him. Annalisa unbuckled and kicked off one shoe, and lifted her petticoats. She untied the ribbon above her knee and rolled down the stocking, removing it entirely.
“I’ll be quick. I can’t keep you from your family any longer.”
“It would hardly be a terrible way to spend my night, considering what I’ve seen today.” Jack smiled, though she suspected his heart ached.
She plunged the sock into the fresh pail of water and wrung it out. With nimble fingers, she rolled down his stocking and washed away the blood. “’Tis not too deep. Did a ball do this?”
He nodded. “It looks worse than it is.”
Annalisa held the yarrow leaves and flowers to his wound and wrapped her damp stocking around his leg. “Next time, you must return without injury. You and my brother.”
“I’ll try.” Jack chuckled. “But I will not make promises I cannot keep.”
She finished tying the bandage and stood with hands on her hips. “I suppose that will suffice if it means you can be here alive.”
“I should hope so.”
She wiped her hands on her apron. “Please, ride Frederick home. Henry will retrieve him tomorrow.”
“Thank you. My leg will be better for your care.” He paused. “I fear the worst is yet to come.” Before leading her from the barn, he lifted her hand and kissed it, his lips lingering long enough to signify he’d rather remain with her. “Adieu, my dearest friend.”
She twisted her petticoats with apprehension as he mounted George’s horse and rode into the deepening night.
Instagram: @coffeepotbookclub
May 29, 2022
Upcoming Blog Tour: Apollo’s Raven (Curse of Clansmen and Kings, Book 1) by Linnea Tanner #HistoricalFantasy #HistoricalFiction #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @linneatanner
I am pleased to announce that Apollo’s Raven ( Curse of Clansmen and Kings Book 1) will be featured on The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour between May 30th – June 10th, 2022. The blog tour will include book reviews, guest posts, author interviews, and excerpts from Apollo’s Raven . See below for the various sites that will be participating in the blog tour. After the post is published at each site, updated links to posts will be provided every day.
To follow the APOLLO’S RAVEN blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: APOLLO’S RAVEN (Curse of Clansmen and Kings, Book 1)By Linnea Tanner
Publication Date: 20th January 2020 (3rd Edition)Publisher: Apollo Raven Publisher, LLCPage Length: 394 PagesGenre: Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction(Blurb)
A Celtic warrior princess is torn between her forbidden love for the enemy and duty to her people.
AWARD-WINNING APOLLO’S RAVEN sweeps you into an epic Celtic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. In 24 AD British kings hand-picked by Rome to rule are fighting each other for power. King Amren’s former queen, a powerful Druid, has cast a curse that Blood Wolf and the Raven will rise and destroy him. The king’s daughter, Catrin, learns to her dismay that she is the Raven and her banished half-brother is Blood Wolf. Trained as a warrior, Catrin must find a way to break the curse, but she is torn between her forbidden love for her father’s enemy, Marcellus, and loyalty to her people. She must summon the magic of the Ancient Druids to alter the dark prophecy that threatens the fates of everyone in her kingdom.
Will Catrin overcome and eradicate the ancient curse? Will she be able to embrace her forbidden love for Marcellus? Will she cease the war between Blood Wolf and King Amren and save her kingdom?
CURSE OF CLANSMEN AND KINGS SERIES
Apollo’s Raven, Dagger’s Destiny, Amulet’s Rapture, Skull’s Vengeance (Anticipated Release 18th October 2022)
BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE: APOLLO’S RAVEN
May 30th
The Coffee Pot Book Club
Excerpt
The Whispering Bookworm
Review
May 31st
Mary’s Tavern
Guest Post
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May 26, 2022
A. M. Linden The Oath Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #Medieval #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @shewritespress @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to introduce the featured author, A. M. Linden, as part of The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held May 23th — June 3rd, 2022. She is the author of the Historical Fiction, The Oath (The Druid Chronicles, Book One), which was released by She Writes Press on 15th June 2021 (319 pages)
Below are highlights of The Oath, A.M. Linden’s bio, and my review of her novel.
To follow the blog Tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: THE OATH
The Oath
(The Druid Chronicles, Book One)
By A. M. Linden
Blurb
When the last of members of a secretive Druid cult are forced to abandon their hidden sanctuary, they send the youngest of their remaining priests in search of Annwr, their chief priestess’s sister, who was abducted by a Saxon war band fifteen years ago. With only a rudimentary grasp of English and the ambiguous guidance of an oracle’s prophecy, Caelym manages to find Annwr living in a hut on the grounds of a Christian convent.
Annwr has spent her years of captivity caring for the timid Aleswina, an orphaned Saxon princess who was consigned to the cloistered convent by her cousin, King Gilberth, after he assumed her father’s throne. Just as Caelym and Annwr are about to leave together, Aleswina learns that Gilberth, a tyrant known for his cruelty and vicious temper, means to take her out of the convent and marry her. Terrified, she flees with the two Druids—beginning a heart-pounding adventure that unfolds in ways none of them could have anticipated.
Praise:
“Linden’s well-researched tale eloquently brings to life a lesser-known period of transition in Britain. . . . The author has created a strong foundation for her series with well-developed characters whom readers can embrace. . . . [a] layered, gripping historical fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The story rolls along at a lively pace, rich with details of the times and a wide cast of characters. [The] plotting, shifting points of view of the three engaging protagonists, and evocative writing style make The Oath a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.” —Historical Novel Review
“Linden uses a fairy tale-like style almost as though this story has been passed down orally over the centuries.” —Booklist Review
Trigger Warnings:
Sexual assault, child abuse
Buy Links:
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AUTHOR BIO: A. M. LINDEN
Ann Margaret Linden was born in Seattle, Washington, but grew up on the east coast of the United States before returning to the Pacific Northwest as a young adult. She has undergraduate degrees in anthropology and in nursing and a master’s degree as a nurse practitioner. After working in a variety of acute care and community health settings, she took a position in a program for children with special health care needs where her responsibilities included writing clinical reports, parent educational materials, provider newsletters, grant submissions and other program related materials. The Druid Chronicles began as a somewhat whimsical decision to write something for fun and ended up becoming a lengthy journey that involved Linden taking adult education creative writing courses, researching early British history, and traveling to England, Scotland, and Wales. Retired from nursing, she lives with her husband and their cat and dog in the northwest corner of Washington State.
Social Media Links:
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BOOK REVIEW: THE OATH
The Oath by A. M. Linden is Book 1 in the medieval historical fiction series, The Druid Chronicles, set in the backdrop of AD 788 Britain. The prologue provides the background to a minor monarchy in the Kingdom of Derthwald for which there is only one obscure reference for its existence in surviving documents at the time. King Theobald, a former commander of a Saxon army, is rewarded with the Kingdom of Derthwald for his successful siege of the last Celtic stronghold in the area below the mountains. When King Theobold dies, his nephew Gilberth becomes the king, and his four-year-old daughter, Aleswina, becomes a novice at the Abbey of Saint Edeth the Enduring in Derthwald.
The story begins fifteen years later, when Druids are forced to abandon their hidden sanctuary. They charge Caelym, a young priest, to find Annwr, the sister of the supreme priestess. Annwr was abducted fifteen years prior by a Saxon war band. Caelym discovers Annwr on the grounds of a convent, where she is the nurse to Aleswina. When King Gilberth’s men come to abduct Aleswina to marry him against her will, she joins Annwr and Caelym to escape her fate. The trio venture on a harrowing adventure into unknown territory to find Caelym’s two sons, to find a safe place for Aleswina, and finally to connect with the remaining Druids in route to their new homeland.
Author Linden uses the perspectives of several characters to convey the story. The story is most engaging in the first half of the book when Caelym, Annwr, and Aleswina verbally spar with each other over decisions they must make before and during their escape. Their conflicts are often due to their stereotypical perspectives of each other as either Christian or pagan. Some of their arguments are humorous and made me chuckle. By the end of the book, the trio ultimately accepts each other, with Aleswina changing most dramatically from a naive to an independent woman who learns to depend upon herself.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story is the contrast between the religious beliefs of Druids and Christians. Christians consider Druids to be in league with the devil and their healers to be witches who brew poisons. Though little is known about the rituals of Druids, the author does an admirable job of portraying their religious beliefs as well as daily life in the Christian abbey. For the most part, the story is fast-paced but fizzles toward a non-climatic ending when Caelym strives to find his two sons.
For readers interested in the medieval history of Britain and the contrasting cultures of native Britons and Christian Saxons, The Oath will immerse you in a period for which there are few written records.
@coffeepotbookclub
May 24, 2022
Nancy Jardine Before Beltane Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #RomanEmpire #AncientWorld #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @nansjar @maryanneyarde
It is my pleasure to welcome Nancy Jardine as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour being held May 23th — May 27th, 2022. She is the author of the Historical Fiction, Before Beltane, which was released by Nancy Jardine with Ocelot Press on 29th April 2022 (268 pages)
Below are highlights of Before Beltane, Nancy Jardine’s bio, and an excerpt from her novel.
To Follow the Blog Tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: BEFORE BELTANE
Before Beltane
(Celtic Fervour Series)
By Nancy Jardine
(Blurb)
Two lives. Two stories. One future.
AD 71 Northern Britannia
At the Islet of the Priestesses, acolyte Nara greets each new day eager to heal the people at Tarras Hillfort. Weapon training is a guilty pleasure, but she is devastated when she is unexpectedly denied the final rites of an initiated priestess. A shocking new future beckons for Princess Nara of the Selgovae…
In the aftermath of civil war across Brigantia, Lorcan of Garrigill’s promotion of King Venutius is fraught with danger. Potential invasion by Roman legions from the south makes an unstable situation even worse. When Lorcan meets the Druid Maran, the future foretold for him is as enthralling as it is horrifying…
Meet Nara and Lorcan before their tumultuous meeting of each other in The Beltane Choice, Book 1 of the acclaimed Celtic Fervour Series.
Buy Links:
Available on #KindleUnlimited
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Nancy Jardine lives in the spectacular ‘Castle Country’ of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Her main writing focus has, to date, been historical and time travel fiction set in Roman Britain, though she’s also published contemporary mystery novels with genealogy plots. If not writing, researching (an unending obsession), reading or gardening, her young grandchildren will probably be entertaining her, or she’ll be binge-watching historical films and series made for TV.
She loves signing/ selling her novels at local events and gives author presentations locally across Aberdeenshire. These are generally about her novels or with a focus on Ancient Roman Scotland, presented to groups large and small. Zoom sessions have been an entertaining alternative to presenting face-to-face events during, and since, the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions.
Current memberships are with the Historical Novel Society; Scottish Association of Writers; Federation of Writers Scotland, Romantic Novelists Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She’s self-published with the author co-operative Ocelot Press.
Social Media Links:
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Nara-A New Future Beckons
Inside the roundhouse Nara halted at the doorway. She lifted her chin and faced her father, who sat in his usual place at the far end of the firestones. Though it cost her dearly, she held her tongue and waited for him to speak.
Callan took his time, while the elder entered the room behind her and walked up towards him. On the elder’s heels, Cearnach came in, but remained alongside her.
A hushed conversation took place between the chief and his elder, too low for Nara to hear properly.
Callan then deigned to direct his words her way. “I am told you have been very resourceful since your return to Tarras. You have been out of the hillfort every day, though you have always come back.”
Nara almost laughed. Was her father attempting to converse nicely?
“Did you expect me to run away?” She refused to soften her tone.
“I did not!” Callan’s words became more shrill.
Nara decided there was nothing to lose. “Did you expect me to beg you for help?”
Her father’s harrumphing reached all the way down the long fireside.
She found she could not leave it at that. “Do you expect me to beg right now?” It was with great difficulty that she maintained her dignity.
Callan’s arm waving was imperious. ”Come closer. We do not need the whole of Tarras to hear us.”
Nara padded forward, wariness sitting on her shoulder. Callan generally wanted everyone to hear what he had to say.
“That will be far enough.” Callan’s upraised palm was a deterrent to coming any closer, though the man took his time to speak.
She still stood well short of him and idly wondered if her father was worried she was about launch an attack on him. On thinking about it, she decided that the idea had merit, but taking the old man’s life in such a way would not give her sufficient satisfaction. Slow and painful would be better retribution. But they were unworthy thoughts – she was sure the goddess Dôn would not approve.
“They tell me you have been persistent in asking to train with that highly-valued warrior behind you.”
To say she was surprised at the way the conversation was turning did not do it justice.
“I would like to do weapon training again with Cearnach, but I hear that you have many tasks for him outside of the hillfort.” She maintained his stare, actually finding it easier than she expected. Her blood was roiling inside her, but her father did not need to know that. “Perhaps Cearnach is too busy to help me sharpen my sword skills?”
The jut of Callan’s jaw and the lip-curl told her just how much he was reining in his temper.
The elder leaned closer to the chief and whispered. “The horse.”
Callan’s cheeks tightened as if it was difficult for him to speak. “I remember. I am coming to that.”
She watched her father turn to face his elder, his expression more reconciled than aggressive towards the old man at his side, though his next terse words belied it. “You may go, your duty is done for now.”
As the elder stepped past her to leave the room, Nara noted the small smile of satisfaction on his face.
“You have pestered the horse handlers every day about riding the filly.” Callan’s word drew her attention back to him.
Again, Nara almost laughed. Her father’s comments were succinct, wrenched out of him, whereas he generally like to bluster.
“Aye. I have missed riding her.”
Callan snorted, and peered down the room. Without turning round, Nara guessed the elder had just gone through the entrance tunnel. Callan impatiently waved his arm at her, a very wide gesture of dismissal. “Move right back near the door. I need to talk to Cearnach.”
Her father broke eye contact with her to look directly at Cearnach, who stepped up the room and took her place closer to the chief.
Standing back down near the door, Nara was quite amused that Callan had actually had her so close to his presence for even a few moments of discourse.
“I need to send you on another errand outside the hillfort. Are you willing to have this…” Callan’s words hesitated, dripping with disdain. “…so-called daughter of mine accompany you?”
It was obvious to Nara that Callan had omitted the word failed, or something of that nature. The man’s expression was wreathed with his usual contempt for her.
Cearnach, she was pleased to see, did not hesitate.
“I will be honoured to ride out with Princess Nara any time you wish.”
Callan’s head nodded, a sneer curling his lips. “Then you are a more magnanimous warrior than most others around here.”
Nara stood there waiting, once again put aside as Callan described what he wanted Cearnach to do.
“You want me to take the big chestnut stallion?” Cearnach asked.
“Aye, that one.” Callan said. “It is a Roman horse, a much taller and sleeker breed than our own.”
Nara barely listened as Callan went on to brag to Cearnach about which chief from the south had sent him the horse. There was no brevity in his expansive boasting when talking to his warrior.
Nara watched Cearnach’s nod of agreement, though she could not see his facial expressions.
“And you believe that Rigg of Raeden Hillfort has a mare that may be of a similar breed?” she heard Cearnach ask.
Nara’s thoughts drifted. Was Callan actually going to let her ride away from the hillfort, on Eachna, to do something useful for the tribe? An unaccustomed thrill started deep inside her, and was very difficult to control. She felt her lips widening. But even though she was partly obscured by Cearnach’s bulk, she refused to show Callan her pleasure.
“Aye. I know it could be dangerous.” Callan was answering, but she only half-listened. “If Roman ships have landed on any part of my coastline, or even further south on the opposite side of the firth on Carvetii sands, their marauding Roman soldiers could be anywhere now.”
“Is sending Princess Nara not too dangerous?” Cearnach’s question was circumspect.
Callan’s nasty laugh jolted Nara from her wanderings.
“Nay, not at all.” Her father’s smile was dismissive.
To her surprise, Callan beckoned Cearnach to lean in even closer, his words becoming more indistinct. Her father was not whispering, far from it, but was secretive. Though she was not intended to hear the next words, she did.
“At the first signs of Roman trouble, you will abandon her and get yourself to safety,” Callan ordered. “Do not put your life at risk. I need you for many more tasks.”
“But…” Cearnach got no further, his words cut off by Callan’s aggressive tones.
“If she dies it will make no difference to me – her life is entirely expendable. The task I send you on is not an important one, but it will appease the elders who constantly harass me to do something more about her status.”
Nara felt the silence in the room deafening.
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May 22, 2022
Brodie Curtis Angels and Bandits Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour #HistoricalFiction #WWII #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @BrodieCurtis4 @maryanneyarde
I am pleased to introduce N. L. Holmes as the featured author in The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour held May 23th — June 3, 2022. He is the author of the Historical Fiction, Angels and Bandits, which Westy Vistas Publisher released on 15th May 2022 (357 pages)
Below are highlights of Angels and Bandits, the author bio for Brodie Curtis, and an aerial combat excerpt from his book.
To follow the blog tour, CLICK Tour Schedule Page
HIGHLIGHTS: ANGELS AND BANDITS
Angels and Bandits
By Brodie Curtis
(Blurb)
The Battle of Britain rages and two young RAF pilots from very different stations in life must somehow find common ground—and stay alive.
On the eve of World War II, working-class Eddy Beane is a flight instructor in London. He successfully completes dangerous espionage missions for Air Commodore Keith Park and takes on society-girl June Stephenson as a student. Her ex-fiancé, Dudley Thane, is also a flyer, but upper-class and Cambridge-educated. When the German Luftwaffe attacks England in 1940, Eddy and Dudley end up serving in the same Spitfire squadron. Aerial combat is intense, and both men show their skills and courage, but can they set aside jealousy and class differences to become fighting brothers for the defence of Britain?
Buy Links:
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Raised in the Midwest, Brodie Curtis was educated as a lawyer and left the corporate world to embrace life in Colorado with his wife and two sons.
Curtis is the author of The Four Bells, a novel of The Great War, which is the product of extensive historical research, including long walks through the fields of Flanders, where much of the book’s action is set. His second novel, Angels and Bandits, takes his protagonists into The Battle of Britain. Curtis is currently working on a novel set on a Mississippi Riverboat prior to the Civil War.
A lover of history, particularly American history and the World Wars, Curtis reviews historical fiction for the Historical Novels Review and more than 100 of his published reviews and short takes on historical novels can be found on his website.
Social Media Links:
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Context:
An RAF pilot was often in his late teens or early twenties and without any combat experience when he was first scrambled during the Battle of Britain. Unsurprisingly, casualties mounted. But Air Chief Marshals Dowding and Park had to keep sending young men up because seeing RAF fighter planes every time German bombers were in the sky kept civilian morale up. But the toll on young pilots entering the fray was catastrophic. As the air battle raged, only one of two inexperienced, replacement pilots survived his first sortie.
Just think of a young man’s stomach-churning, mind-bending experience when flying his Spitfire at a mass of German bombers escorted by Messerschmitt fighters.
One of the young RAF pilots, Roger Hall, in his auto-biography, Clouds of Fear, described his emotions upon hearing in his headset for the first time “Tally-ho,” the order to attack: “At one and the same time I felt both fear and elation, the one attempting to crush me, the other trying to raise to inexpressible heights.”*
Eddy Beane was a green Spitfire pilot in the early stages of the Battle of Britain during this aerial combat encounter in this excerpt from chapter 28 of Angels and Bandits:
Excerpt:
“Maida Leader to Maida Two,” Dobbers said. “Bandits, twelve o’clock.”
The enemy was no more than a black speck, barely visible through the Spitfire’s windscreen. Could have been a smashed bug. But in seconds, the speck grew to a bird shape, with gun pods under its wings. A Messerschmitt 109, barreling straight towards him.
“Maida Two to Maida Leader. I see them.”
“Deal with him. I’ll cover you. Tally ho!”
Eddy lined his Spitfire’s nose up with the enemy and pushed her to top speed. The Merlin engine’s voice rose from a whine to a scream and its vibrations shuddered through his body as the enemy plane filled his sight, bigger and bigger, like an expanding balloon. He switched on the firing toggle. His machine guns would spit out thirteen hundred rounds a minute. How could he miss? But as he fired, the 109’s yellow nose dived under him, apparently unscathed.
Eddy pulled back on the spade stick and throttle, forcing the Spitfire into a climbing turn. G forces slammed his helmet against the back of the seat. In the middle of the turn he felt the tail section bounce. The plane whipped into a spin to port and jerked him sideways so he couldn’t see the controls, only the horizon which spun in a kaleidoscope. The earth was corkscrewing towards him.
By pure instinct he floored the starboard rudder pedal, and the plane began to level. The sunlight dimmed and the temperature in the cockpit felt like it had dropped ten degrees. He had flown straight into a giant cirrocumulus cloud. The altimeter showed angels fifteen. There was no Messerschmitt, nothing to be seen but gray vapour.
He flew out of the cloud and Dobbers’s voice drawled in his earphones.
“Maida Leader to Maida Two. You missed the bastard. You O.K. there, Frenchy?”
“Yes. Okay. Over.”
“Your bandit dived away. But there’s more of them above. I’m going up to angels twenty-five. Get on my starboard wing, over.”
“Understood. Out.”
Eddy pulled his throttle back and his Spitfire climbed at more than two thousand feet per minute. Dobbers’s plane seemed to be suspended in the sky beside him, looking as though it was hardly moving. They shot through a layer of wispy clouds and out the other side. Three Spitfires of the White flight team came into view to starboard. Below them the gray and white puff ball clouds looked better suited for the walls of a nursery than a place of aerial combat. A strange sense of serenity came over him despite the adrenalin of the previous minute.
Dobbers said tersely, “Bandits to port!”
*Hall D.F.C., Roger, 1975, Clouds of Fear.
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