THIRTY-TWO HOURS OF HELL

So much has happened in the year since we celebrated my husband’s birthday with a visit to the Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston Harbor. While walking the battlement’s walls, we learned about something horrendous and horribly unbelievable that happened 150 years earlier and lasted 32 gruesome hours; the start of the American Civil War.

Also known as The War Between The States, 2012 commemorates the 151st anniversary. Yes, my awe at the remnants of this historical battle had taken less than a year to meld with my research and ideas to culminate into my paranormal romance, SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON .  

The characters are different than found in a straight historical romance. One is a Scottish dragon. My historical research crept in, giving my hero, a federal officer on the brink of a war, a realistic life. He is stationed at Fort Moultrie when word comes that a special secession convention had voted unanimously to secede from the union. I describe how under the cover of darkness he and his men secretly transfer from indefensible Fort Moultrie to take over the partially built Fort Sumter.

Charleston is nestled in a protective harbor made safe by the many forts lining the waterway. Begun in 1829 while memories of the war of independence from the British were still fresh, the fort was still not nearly complete when the threat of secession grew. The Federal government’s huge five-sided fort on a man-made island of stone was built to protect against possible seafaring attacks from foreign governments or pirates. No one would have foreseen its explosive demise.
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Though the fort was 90% complete by the time the Federal soldiers were fired upon and held ports for 135 guns and could house a garrison of 650 men, only about nine or ten casement guns returned fire. Only 85 men stood against thousands during April 12 through April 14th, the beginning of what became four years of Civil War.

 
BOOK BLURB Amid cannon fire, and the threat of Civil War, love and trust will find a way. Dru Little flew away from her home in a cave beneath a Scottish Island to end her lonely existence and find companionship across the sea. Her journey in late 1860 has led her to the modern American city of Charleston, South Carolina. Hiding her true self, she takes over the life of a serving girl and enjoys the hard life working in a tavern near the wharves. She has no idea that her life will turn upside down in a dark alley the moment a handsome soldier saves her life. Lieutenant Shaw Stenhouse has his own worries. Southern secessionists are talking up a storm in Charleston. His fellow Federal soldiers are suddenly at risk from the community they are here to protect. The possibility of civil war takes a backseat when he saves a comely lass from drunken sailors. A good deed and a stolen kiss put a smile on his face until the threat of war becomes a reality. Their instant attraction proves disastrous when Dru spots her former lover, the Black Dragon, working for General Beauregard and the southern troops. As the clandestine group plans their attack on Fort Sumter, and Shaw’s soldiers, she takes to the sky.Dru fights against the threat of detection, while she fears losing Shaw’s love. What will he do when he finds out that she is a powerful Scottish dragon Hell-bent on carrying him to safety? When Shaw discovers her hiding inside the heavily guarded fortress, thoughts of espionage—and worse—catapult the two lovers into danger from many sides. When her former lover threatens Shaw, Dru must decide which is more important: protecting another of her kind, now nearly extinct, or protecting the human male, the man she has come to love.
More about my latest release: Title:  SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON
Genre: Paranormal Historic
Amazon ASIN: B0074CX7SE

I am commemorating the 32 hours of The Civil War over at Amazon.
Check it out!

AMAZON BUY LINK

Nancy