Hannah Byron's Blog, page 16

Goes Live In 3!

Excitement is rising. Only 3 more days. Though a mere ‘backlister’ from an earlier writing life, Doctor Agnès has been totally revamped and recovered! The sequel to Miss Agnès! Excerpt…

Chapter 1

A Doctor In Wartime Paris

 Paris, July 1917

 

On an early Friday morning in the summer of 1917 Agnès sat in the windowsill on the second floor of her father’s house at the Place de Châtelet, overlooking the right bank of the River Seine.

The maid had opened the windows to let in the fresh air and the hubbub from the street below filled the room. It had rained during the night, leaving a soft mist over the world below, but the sun was rapidly covering the terrain. Coats already draped over lower arms and the waiters with their long white aprons were wiping the last drops of rain from the chairs and tables of the outdoor cafés.

There was a pensive look in the blue eyes of the young woman with her elegant blonde coiffure who’d just received her Diplôme de Etat de docteur en medicine from l’Université de Sorbonne. The young doctor was clearly lost in thought, paying only fleeting attention to Paris waking up to another day of war; a war both visible and invisible, as the City of Light had been under siege for three long years now but had not yet been captured by the Germans.

Visible were the bomb craters, the incessant stream of wounded men and the lack of almost all vital goods, the nightly raids and the constant blaring sirens. Invisible but as tangible were the fear, the grief and the dogged determination with which the Parisians shouldered their burden as they went about their daily lives.

Lessening some of that fear and pain was Doctor Agnès’s job. Though not equipped with great physical ruggedness, Agnès had -despite her nymphlike, almost ethereal appearance - the inner strength of two buffalos. Her days all looked the same: wake up, put on her uniform, and set out to save lives at the American hospital at the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly.

Only during this heavenly interlude before breakfast did she allow her thoughts to roam freely and dream of another life where peace reigned, and beauty and love returned.

In the other open window sat her best friend, Katell Brest, also a brand-new doctor with the same diploma. Katell was a bright, springy character with a mass of copper curls, slanted green eyes and a boyish figure. She originally came from Île-de-Ré and had lived at the Place de Châtelet with her Aunt Netty since her parents died seventeen years earlier. Katell was a matter of fact, what-you-see-is-what-you-get person, a counterpart to her philosophical and sensitive friend.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Katell broke the silence.

“Sorry, was I daydreaming again? I do like to indulge in that before Justine taps on the door to tell us breakfast is ready.”

“I must say I have no idea what you find to think about anymore. It’s not like anything fun is happening that’s worth my thoughts,” Katell observed rather grimly.

“Oh you’re right. I just can’t help myself, Kat. Thinking is living for me, I guess. But I agree, there’s not much hope for happier thoughts right now.”

Used to her friend’s philosophical musings - after all Agnès was a deep thinker and regularly contributed articles to La Revue de Philosophie as their youngest member ever - Katell broke her own gaze from the scenery below.

“I wish I had one ounce of your thinking capacity; I’m just sitting here, itching to get back to work. You know, I’m not very good at sitting still. Would never qualify as a Buddhist in the Himalayas.” She chuckled, stretching her limbs while balancing on the windowsill.

Inseparable friends, though opposite characters, circumstances had forced them to live together. In the months leading up to Germany’s declaration of war on France on 3 August 1914, their lives had turned topsy-turvy. For the first time, that spring, Agnès had not accompanied her father, the Baron Maximilian Dupuis de Melancourt, and his new wife to Sweden. Her studies at the Sorbonne had been more important than joining the annual family trip north to visit her mother’s grave on Öland.

The Baron had agreed to Katell moving in with his adoptive daughter, so they could be looked after by Madame Proulx, the housekeeper, and the rest of the staff. The idea of living with her best friend had soothed Agnès sadness over not being able to travel with her family. And Kat had been as enthusiastic to set up house together.

But the war had changed everything for everyone.

Papa had married Agnès’s mother’s Swedish girlhood friend in 1910, a widow called Elise Aberg with two children of her own. The family now couldn’t return to France due to the war lines across Europe, and the Baron and his new family bided their time on Öland in the Baltic Sea, while young Agnès was by herself in Paris under siege. All made the best of it, though contact was irregular and far between. Agnès knew her father, who loved her like his own flesh and blood, was fretting and constantly worried about her.

Another reason to work as hard as she could and pray the war would be over soon. With most of their male colleagues enlisting as front-line doctors and field surgeons, every hand was necessary.

“So what were you thinking about?” Katell implored.

“Nothing too interesting. Just trying to grasp how all these countries are at war with each other and how we’re sitting here seeing Paris wake up from a wet night. I cannot really fathom what a world war means and what how it will shape the future of humanity. What the rest of this century will look like.” Agnès’s chin rested on her drawn-up knees. 

“Gosh, that’s deep,” Katell said with admiration in her voice, “All I hope is that this relative peace will last another day in Paris. We never know whether the Hindenburg Line will hold. The Germans may still be marching on the Champs Elysées in August.”

“That’s just what I was thinking,” Agnès replied, jumping off the windowsill and standing before her friend with her hands clasped before her, her stethoscope sticking out of her white coat. “I think we need to be where the real action is. Imagine what we could learn about our profession closer to the frontlines?”

“Are you kidding me? I think it’s dangerous where we are right now. Spending most of our nights in your father’s wine cellar by the light on one candle. It’s quite enough adventure for me, trying to zigzag through the bombs the Germans are dropping on our heads every day.”

“I know you’re surprised to hear this from me, generally Miss Cautious …” Agnès faltered, clearly doubting whether to speak her mind.

“What are you hinting at, Agnès dear?” Katell probed. “Just spit it out. We need to get going soon.”

The creases in Agnès’s forehead and the pursed lips displayed her state of contemplation. Blue eyes flickered, making clear she brooded over something. Agnès tended to fall silent when about to disclose an important decision, so it was Katell’s role to give her the free pass.

“Ever since we got our diplomas, you’ve been talking of having doubts about staying put in Paris, but when I ask you where you want to go, you say ‘nowhere in particular’. What do you want? Go to your father’s castle in Picardy and enlist as a trench war doctor? Is that it?” Katell’s eyebrows went up to her hairline.

“It is, actually.” Agnès looked down at her hands. “How well you know me, Kat. I would go today if I could. It’s my dearest wish to show that we women can also work on the frontlines, and I don’t mean just the nurses, but us, doctors, next to our male colleagues.” Her voice caught in her enthusiasm. “This is the Twentieth Century, after all; it will be our century, of women standing up for themselves, and we who have been educated at universities are the ones that need to set an example for other women.”

Preorder Now

 

Ten more days until Doctor Agnès goes LIVE!!

The second part of the Duet is coming out on 18 May

Here’s a snippet from the Epilogue:

The bells of Notre Dame clanged with loud bangs through the crystalline Spring air, inviting the faithful inside for Mass. Agnès walked with swift steps towards Madame Ringard’s flower stall on the left bank of the Seine. Today was her stepsister’s Freya’s fifteen’s birthday and the Melancourt family was preparing for a party. Freya’s birthday also meant the last week before the baron and his family set off for their two-month trip to Sweden. Without Agnès these days. She couldn’t take that long off from her work at the American Hospital. And though she missed visiting the country of her birth, she also liked having the house to herself. She was twenty-five now, still young but also mature enough to look after herself.

Today she had taken the day off, though, to help Mme Proulx prepare the festivities and spend the precious last full day with her reconstituted family. A soft breeze played with her blond hair, while her light eyes scanned the bustling crowds around her, meanwhile filling her lungs with all the Paris morning had to offer her. The tangy scent of Seine water, gasoline from passing cars and omnibuses, wafts of freshly baked croissants and black coffee. How she loved Paris. It was the center of her universe.

Bending her head over the lilies and roses at Madame Ringard’s stall, she inhaled their perfume while her eyes feasted on the colors and shapes.

“I think pink roses, carnations and baby’s breath,” she murmured as she heard a deep voice behind her say, “Red roses!” Turning to see who was addressing her, her face broke into a surprised smile.

“Professor Bell! I had no idea you were back in Paris. Thought you had returned to the States for good.”

“Doctor Agnès!” The tall thirtyish American let his intense gray eyes rest on her, a trace of amusement and warmth in them. “How good to see you again. Yes, I returned. Paris can easily do without me, but I can’t do without Paris. Took me a year to figure that out.”

Curious? Find out more here!

 

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The Doctor Agnès Cover + Snippet

So here it is. The cover of the sequel to Miss Agnès. Agnès Gunarsson has grown up and has become a doctor and World War 1 is raging over Western Europe, especially in Northern France.

Here’s a snippet of Doctor Agnès…

Agnès did not know how many hours they had been standing at the operation table with the only sign of the patient still being alive his shallow but regular breathing. Finally she exclaimed, “done!”

“You’re amazing.” Abigail’s voice was full of admiration, “I’ve only seen the Thomas Splints done a couple of times but never so deftly.”

Katell had also finished treating the upper part of the patient’s body and took a step back. With the back of her hand she brushed a copper curl aside that had escaped her surgical cap, “I actually think, Major Pierre Duval has a chance at pulling through. If he’s lucky he might be up and running within a couple of weeks.”

“Well running,” Agnès smirked, “that sounds a little too early but I agree, he now has a better shot at recovery. Well done, ladies. I think we can go and have some dinner now.”

At that moment the doors to the operation room were pushed open with force and another casualty was brought in. “Here we go again,” Katell observed, rearranging her cap and putting on clean gloves. At that moment Agnès made a strange almost unhuman sound. It came out as an agonized howl.

The patient that was brought in was no other than Jacques. He was lying limply on the stretcher, his skin the color of ashen gray but seemingly without any wounds. Restraining herself she addressed the carrier, “What happened?”

“Shot in the back when he left the car just across from the River Somme. Them damn German snipers,” the weary carrier muttered, “I’m so sorry, Doctor, it’s the young count, for sure.”

“Get him on the table at once, face down,” Agnès ordered and turning to Katell she added, “Do we notify Elle or look first?”

“Let’s look first.”

“I agree,” Abigail cut in, “Elle’s exhausted and there’s not much she can do here anyway. Let’s get his uniform off.” Without further ado she got out a pair of huge scissors and cut open the rough army-green coat. There was indeed only a small hole in the fabric, no blood. Only one bullet had hit Jacques. But where? It had not come out on the other side, which was not a good sign.

Agnes knew as no other that he was critical. His color, the unconsciousness. Her foreboding was right. The bullet had gone through his spine and ripped his spleen but stayed inside. Clean, straight but very damaging. If they would manage to get the bullet out, his chances of survival were slim, very slim. And he would always be paralyzed because it had hit at T12, a sure place for a transverse lesion. Even so, the damage to his organs would be a greater threat. As long as the bullet was inside him, it was a time bomb.

Preorder here

Sequel to Miss Agnès: Doctor Agnès

On May 18 the Sequel to Miss Agnès releases: Doctor Agnès. Cover real in a couple of days.

Blurb:

France 1917

Agnès Gunarsson de Melancourt is now a qualified doctor, and despite her youthful vow to shun Château de Dragancourt and its freethinking inhabitants, her oath as a physician weighs stronger.

World War I is raging over the north of France, and the castle has been turned into a frontline hospital, with Elle and Jacques at the helm.

Together with her best friend Kat, Agnès faces the scars from the past in the castle’s former dining room, now turned operation room, where they fight to save the lives of as many Allied soldiers as possible. There she meets a very changed Elle and Jacques, who now put duty before privilege. 

Can Agnès give Elle a second chance at friendship now they are stuck together? And why does the devilish handsome Jacques always bring down her defenses?

Doctor Agnès has to face her own past in a war that is both personal and universal, finally uniting the opposing forces.

Preorder link

Miss Agnès’s first reviews

Lovely Prequel to “In Picardy’s Fields”

“The author paints a scene beautifully with words. The book is a pleasure to read and it's easy for the reader to envision the locations and characters to an incredible degree.

This prequel book takes place in 1908 and introduces Agnes and some of the other characters and locations that are so vividly presented in "In Picardy's Fields," a book that takes place during WWI.

In this book, Agnes is young and sheltered. She meets Elle and Jacques, the twins who live in Chateau de Dragancourt. They are anxious to befriend her, but because their upbringing is so different from hers, they upset her and her sensibilities. They are unruly and do not conform to the social rules that Agnes is comfortable following.

This is a quick reading book that introduces the characters and their backgrounds. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and to seeing how these young people start to grow into the young adults that I loved in the earlier book (that takes place at a later time).

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fictionalized historical events.”

Get it here

One more sleep…

Tomorrow - 20 April 2021 - is release day for Miss Agnès! The first book in The Agnès Duet.

Oh yes.

So let me share some background imagery today of things that are important to the young Agnès in this new novella. First of all there is her old sheepdog Gåva, who she was brought back from the country of her birth - Sweden - and who guards her despite being blind and almost deaf. Gåva means ‘gift’ in Sweden.

Then there is Agnès’s love for books, reading for hours in her father’s garden in Picardy, citing passages aloud and living inside the heads of her heroines. Another delight is having afternoon tea with her father the Baron Maximilian Dupuis de Dragancourt, who is actually her stepfather.

The darker part of the novella starts when father and daughter head to Château de Dragancourt also in Picardy, where Agnès meets the ‘terrible twins’, Jacques and Elle. A modern day Agnès, Jacques and Elle would have looked something like this in my imagination.

Last day on preorder. Live tomorrow.

Amazon

 Apple

Kobo

Nook

More on my preorder Miss Agnès

Today just the blurb….

France 1908

Innocent, fairylike Agnès Gunarsson finds herself as a fish out of water when she meets the ‘terrible twins’, Elle and Jacques, at Château de Dragancourt in Picardy.

Elle and Jacques de Dragancourt both fall head over heels for Agnès. They each vie for her affections, each attempting to outdo the other, trying to win her heart.

The Swedish orphan has no idea how to handle this sibling love triangle. Her tragic past has in no way prepared her for the bold world these aristocrats embody.

When Elle’s advances go too far, Agnès must decide what she wants for herself and her future. Will she stay at Chateau de Dragancourt with Elle and Jacques, or is it all becoming too much for her to handle?

A tender coming-of-age tale of darkness and light, love and misunderstanding.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

NOW on Preorder. Only $2.99

Amazon: https://bit.ly/2OUB6pe

Apple: https://apple.co/3d3kgw5

Kobo: https://bit.ly/39bt3uP

Nook: https://bit.ly/3d18bHY

Coming 20 April: Miss Agnès

Miss Agnès is Book 1 in the Agnès Duet. Book 2 Doctor Agnès is coming on 18 May.

I’m so excited about my new novella Miss Agnès coming out on 20 April.

And it was totally not planned!

My original idea was to bring out the 3 books on WW2 in The Resistance Girl Series, but in January of 2021 I felt I needed a break from war stories and write something lighter. It’s become the first book in The Agnès Duet. A tender coming-of-age story set in France in 1908. About an introverted, bookish orphan Agnès Gunarsson, who learns to grow up fast when encountering ‘the terrible twins’, Ellen and Jacques de Dragancourt. They meet, clash and part.

Then in book 2, Doctor Agnès - coming 18 May - Agnès, Ellen and Jacques meet again during WW1 under totally different circumstances.

More on Miss Agnès during the rest of the week until release day!

Currently available on preorder.

NOW $2.99

Links:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/2OUB6pe

Apple: https://apple.co/3d3kgw5

Kobo: https://bit.ly/39bt3uP

Nook: https://bit.ly/3d18bHY

Exciting Times Ahead!

Welcome To My New Website

It’s quite a transformation from my former ritzy website that was created by a third party to this brand-new D.I.Y. platform.

You may wonder why anyone in their right mind would choose to scale down. The most important reason is that I want my website to be the HUB of all my writing activities. As such it’s important to have complete control over it, so I can be as close to my readers as is possible in this online-world.

Though I’ve been a published Indie Author since 2012, I never truly embraced the concept of independence. The great advantage of running your own one-woman show, is that you can make changes with a snap of your fingers. Versatility and agility are the true powers of self-pubbed authors.

More than ever before I love walking this girl-boss path. It’s a steep learning curve with many stumbling blocks & scratches along the way. Plenty of late-hour plodding as well. But hey, a little hard work never hurt anyone.

More exciting news soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

With love,

Hannah Byron

#HistoryHeroines#HighStakes

Why I have 6000+ LinkedIn connections

The world this week is – among others – breaking its head over the power of private companies such as Twitter and Facebook when it comes to being a platform for undesirable and potentially dangerous opinions that lead to violence. That discussion is not new, of course, and as I’m in no way qualified to judge the rightness or wrongness of their decision to ban the president of the United States and others from further using their services, this blogpost is not about that.

As authors we all know the importance of the algorithms that drive those sites. I for one am an author struggling with this, with the need to post regularly on all my platforms just to make sure I stay in the loop. I’d much rather sit at my desk and write my books and I’m also not keen on spending hours of my valuable time creating fascinating posts just to generate more traffic to my books or personality. But the reality is that I need to do that to stay visible and actually sell my books as an Indie author.

Just like with these conspiracy theorists, peeps are driven to more of the same if you consistently put out more of the same. I’ve never actually thought of myself as a brainwasher of my readers (tongue-in-cheek here) but it’s in essence what we’re all doing. Brands and visibility are created by ‘being out there’ loud and clear and banging on your own pots and pans so these multi-billion-dollar companies allow our posts to be seen by the folks we hope will ‘buy our intellectual property’. Ha!

Whether there will be a change in these algorithms now they’ve shown to be so dangerous, remains the question. For now, we just wait in the wings to see the aftermath of their deadly influence.

This has been a long introduction to the title of this blogpost: LinkedIn. So far, LinkedIn, though not brand-clean, has shown to be a sane, almost advertise-free platform with a bit of a stuffy image; quite on the opposite spectrum from the attractive, glamourous Instagram and TikTok platforms.

So what on earth would a self-respecting pan-banger author do on LinkedIn? Most think this is only for recently graduated twentysomethings looking for a way up the ladder of their career. A kind of extensive CV for offer and demand in the professional field. Not a place for a mid-sixties, historical fiction author, though the stuffiness obviously applies here. *wink*

Well, I can tell you you’re wrong if you think LinkedIn is not for writers. Maybe in reaction to the huge popularity and thus garbage from the rest of Silicon Valley’s giants, LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft Corp) is faring well, quite free from extremists (nothing to find for them there) and sailing through relatively calm waters politically. Now, with all due respect, I may not be in these groups should they exist on LinkedIn but as no question has risen yet of whether there needs to be a purge on this platform, I assume it’s still too stuffy for their likes.

So, what’s to gain at LinkedIn? I mean 6000+ connections in itself doesn’t say much, right? What I find there are genuinely interested readers and reviewers, kindred authors and a generally pleasant atmosphere. I could and will be a lot more active there in the future, but for now I generally post the same stuff as on the other platforms and greatly enjoy the lack of hysteria and controverse. You can post videos, articles, posts, join groups and freely move around without having to look over your shoulder for some nasty attack or other.

If you’d like a further introduction into what LinkedIn could mean for you as an author, just send me a message but remember I’m not an expert. Just a frequent user.

Much love,
Hannah Byron