Announcements

10 Year Anniverary & New Releases Winners: Carrie Fancett Pagels' Butterfly Cottage - Melanie B, Dogwood Plantation - Patty H R, Janet Grunst's winner is Connie S., Denise Weimer's Winner is Kay M., Naomi Musch's winner is Chappy Debbie, Angela Couch - Kathleen Maher, Pegg Thomas Beverly D. M. & Gracie Y., Christy Distler - Kailey B., Shannon McNear - Marilyn R.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Guest Review: Defending Truth, from A Pioneer Christmas Collection


A Pioneer Christmas Collection
(My thanks to Pioneer Christmas co-author Michelle Ule for this post!)

Debut novelist Shannon McNear has fashioned a terrific story of divided loyalties and unexpected romance in Defending Truth.
            In what is now eastern Tennessee, immediately following the Battle of King's Mountain of 1780, loyalist militiaman Micah Elliot finds himself torn by the horror of what happened and a desire to flee. Hungry, shaken and miserable, he's discovered by a patriot's daughter out hunting.
            Something about the battered man captures her attention, and Truth Bledsoe feeds him, only to learn he fought on the opposite side from her father during the battle. Still, her Christian humanity sends her back to feed him and help him recover his strength.
           After a week, Micah recognizes he's got a pretty woman helping him and while still torn about his loyalties, feels the need to repay her. He spends the fall at her secluded farm helping Truth and her younger siblings prepare for the winter.
            Hostilities linger when the overmountain men return home from the battle, but can attitudes change when Micah sets aside his own safety to defend Truth and her loved ones?
            McNear's deft characterizations ring true throughout this tale, and my emotions were caught up in the question of how this one would work out. She provides insightful information on life on the frontier late during the Revolutionary War, when no one really felt safe and death lurked.
            Truth Bledsoe is a well-rounded young woman trying her plucky best to care for her family. Her own loyalties war within as the handsome Tory unexpectedly captures her heart. Micah is torn by uncertainty--what really is right and whose side does he want to be on? How can he return home to a family who would brand him a coward? But worse, how can he leave behind a lovely young woman who has captured his heart, even while he fought against her father.
            This fine novella begins A Pioneer Christmas Collection and sets a high bar for the stories to come. It's not a simplistic romance and it handles the Christianity of those on the frontier with grace and clarity. I loved it and thought it one of the finest historical novellas I've ever read.
           Well done, Shannon McNear.

New York Times best-selling writer Michelle Ule is the author of three historical novellas and a contemporary novel. Her story, "The Gold Rush Christmas," is the final novella in A Pioneer Christmas Collection. You can follow her blog at www.michelleule.com

Giveaway: One commenter on this review will receive a copy of the book. To enter answer the question: What is your favorite Christmas story? Why? (Also--come back next week. For the Tea Party giveaway we have a copy of the book with a bookplate signed by all authors!)

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Espionage in Early America

I've blogged about my different discoveries in historical espionage before, but I've never put them all together before for the Colonial Quill. And since this fall I'm teaching a home school class to my local group about the different historical methods of spying, I figure it'll be fun to get a head start here. ;-)

By the time of the Revolution, spying in Europe had reached some rather hilarious levels. It was so common in the different courts that they all knew other countries' men were intercepting their messages and copying them. The "Black Chambers" of these master spies were located nearby the courts. The spies would steal incoming correspondence, make a copy, and slip the original back into the post. Codes had become common too, but these dudes got their jobs by being able to break them, quickly and efficiently. So it was just all one big puzzle that they were playing, knowing well their opponents were evenly matched.
A page from the real Culper Ring's code book

One story I read and loved was of a spy who mistakenly sent along his copy instead of the original message. The recipient knew right away what had happened and sent it back to him, demanding his original in its place--proving that they all knew exactly who was doing what and took very little issue with it after so long.

But in America, espionage was like so many other things--new and experimental. And when the Revolution was in full swing and General Washington found himself in need of reliable intelligence, he had no Black Chamber to rely on. He had only a few trusted men with no background in spying and no training in the covert. They dubbed themselves the Culper Ring and answered to one of Washington's most trusted officers, Benjamin Tallmadge.

My personal experiments with heat-developed inks
Today we look at the cyphers and codes that the Culper Ring developed and shake our heads at how amateur they were. But they did the job, and because of the ingenuity of the brothers Jay and their "sympathetic stain" (invisible ink), the British never even saw the code to crack it. Until then, they had to use heat-developed inks for messages, which anyone with a flame could develop. But this stain required a particular counter agent. This level of security is what kept their secrets throughout the war. And what made my Ring of Secrets a lot of fun to write. ;-)

By the War of 1812, another intelligence tool had made its way to America--the mask, or grille. This was a piece of paper with a shape cut out of it. The writer of a message would put this mask down upon a blank piece of paper, write his true message within the hole, and then remove the mask and fill in the lines around the message so that the real words would be innocuously hidden within innocent sentences. In order to know what the message was, the recipient would have to also have the mask, which would be sent in a separate batch of correspondence.


In the Civil War, codes were the feature of the day, and there were a lot of them. Members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, for instance, would come up with codes for each occasion. Simple phrases to let each other know if a particular outcome had happened as expected or not. Other codes used a key--a book, usually a dictionary, that both sender and receiver had. They would use numbers to indicate words. So you might see something like this: 192.15.26

These numbers stood for page, line, word on line. If they were encoding something like a name that wouldn't be in a dictionary, they would spell it out using a forth number to indicate a letter within the word.

Now my question to you today:

Do you think you could have been a spy in early America?

~*~
Roseanna M. White pens her novels under the Betsy Ross flag hanging above her desk, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When she isn’t homeschooling her small kids and writing fiction, she’s editing it for WhiteFire Publishing or reviewing it for the Christian Review of Books, both of which she co-founded with her husband.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Hammock, a Sailor's Bed

       
Because my current work in progress takes place at sea near the NC Outer Banks, I’ve been doing a lot of research about ships and pirates.
        In particular, I was curious about how and where regular sailors slept. I’ve seen hammocks in movies, but wanted to know more.
        Unlike flat garden hammocks, the sides of a canvas naval hammock wrapped around the sleeper like a cocoon, making an inadvertent fall virtually impossible.
        Prior to the adoption of naval hammocks in the mid 1500s, sailors would often during heavy seas be injured or even killed as they fell off their berths or rolled on the decks.
        Sail makers issued each sailor a hammock. A Royal Navy hammock was 72” x 36” of No. 12 cotton, with 16 hitched eyelets (grommets) at either end, and with two cord-covered brass rings that hook onto clews hooks fastened into the ship’s beams.
        Sleeping in a hammock took practice. It was difficult to get into and harder to stay in. New sailors usually spent their first few nights falling out of their hammocks. When one sailor started to fall, he’d grab a hold of the next sailor’s hammock, tossing him out as he grabbed for the next hammock--knocking everyone out like dominoes.
        It was a favorite prank for mates to loosen or cut the hammock riggings sending the poor victim crashing to the floor in the middle of the night.
        I learned something interesting about their provisions too. Apprentice seamen were issued the following: one pea-jacket, cloth cap, pair of cloth trousers, flannel over and under shirts, pair of drawers, shoes, neck-tie, socks, white duck pants and frock, comb, knife, pot, pan, and spoon, one bar soap, clothes-bag, and a badge.
        They would register their provisions and hammock with the master-at-arms who assigned them a time and place for meals (mess) and a place for their hammock, usually on the cannon deck. He would also assign newly enlisted sailors a number, which they kept as long as they were an apprentice. 
A sick bay hammock for an officer in the movie
Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World

         According to tradition, when a sailor died, his mates would sew him up in his hammock, making the last stitch through the nose to make sure he was dead. Holystones, which were used to scour the deck, or cannon balls were tied around the deceased’s ankles for ballast, and then his body was laid on the top of an 8-man mess table, and given up to the sea.

Susan F. Craft is the author of The Chamomile, an inspirational Revolutionary War romantic suspense set in South Carolina.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg

One of the Black Robed Regiment

John Peter Mulenberg was the son of Pennsylvania Lutheran minister Henry Muhlenberg. Though not an avid student, John went on to be a successful clergyman, soldier, and statesman.

After dropping out of college in Pennsylvania, he went with his brothers to study at the University of Halle in Germany. His father, considered as the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church of America, hoped John would choose the ministry; however, John’s advisors encouraged him to pursue commerce. For three years he endured a miserable apprenticeship with a merchant, before finally deciding to follow his childhood aspirations of joining the military. He joined the Royal American Regiment of Foot in the British army.  In 1767 he returned to Philadelphia and was honorably discharged.

John Peter Muhlenberg began theology studies and was licensed as a Lutheran minister in 1769. He started in ministry by assisting his father in New Jersey. He married the following year and received a call to minister to a church in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. As the established church in Virginia was Anglican, he needed to first travel to England for ordination as an Anglican minister. He served that Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia from 1772-1775.

During his years in Virginia he became an admirer of Patrick Henry and began participating in the patriot cause. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Virginia Provincial Convention. What the Rev. Muhlenberg will probably be best known for was a sermon he is said to have delivered to his church January 21st, 1776, as reported in a biography by his great nephew.

The text of his sermon was from Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace,
        and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Muhlenberg stated, “And this is a time of war.” He then removed his clerical garb to reveal his Colonel’s uniform beneath it. His congregation and community must have been stirred by his word and actions because within a half hour 162 men enrolled, and the next day three hundred men from the county gathered to form the beginning of the 8th Virginia Regiment.
This statue of  Muhlenberg was given to
The National Statuary Hall by
Pennsylvania in 1889

"Brethren, we came to this country to practice our religious liberties, and if we don't get involved, we're going to lose them."   
John Peter Muhlenberg, (1777)

Muhlenberg fought at Charleston, Brandywine, Stony Point and Yorktown. When the war was over, he no longer felt he could return to the ministry. Eventually he returned to Pennsylvania and went on to serve as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shortly after being elected to serve in the Senate he resigned to take a job for the newly formed U.S. Customs Service.  Muhlenberg died in 1807 and is buried in Trappe, Pennsylvania.


“When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”  Deuteronomy 20:1-4

Friday, August 23, 2013

Guest Review of Carla Olson Gade's Pattern for Romance by Teresa S. Mathews


Pattern for Romance by Carla Olson Gade

Pattern for Romance; Quilts of Love Series  
by Carla Olson Gade
Publisher; Abingdon Press

Reviewed by Teresa S. Mathews 


A Very Sweet Romance.

Carla Olson Gade has crafted a beautiful story set in Boston, Massachusetts in 1769. Amid the beginnings of murmurs and complaints of the tightfisted British rule of the colonies we are introduced to a courageous young woman, Honour Metcalf.

After their parents and siblings were killed during a pirate attack on their ship, Honour and her younger sister Temperance lose everything and are left orphans. The one possession Honour misses the most is the beautiful white quilt she and her mother were working on before that fateful day. Arriving in Boston, Honour finds employment at Wadsworth Mantua Shop as a quilter. Having been taught by her mother, Honour became quite adept at quilting. 

One afternoon when Honour is headed to pick up Tempe from school, she is caught in a horrific hailstorm. Just as she is about to succumb to the hail fiercely pounding on her head she is rescued by Joshua Sutton son of the local tailor and rushed into a nearby church. During the short time they spend together before Honour passes out from her injuries, Joshua's heart is touched and intrigued by this beautiful, young woman.

One mishap after another seems to follow this dear sweet girl, and each time she handles it with grace and each time it seems Joshua is right there to rescue her.  Just when Honour starts to fall for Joshua she sees a man who she believes to be him in an alley with his former fiancé proclaiming his love her even though she is now a married woman. Will she figure out the mystery behind that encounter? Imagine Honour's horror when that same woman shows up later with a request for Honour to finish the work on a beautiful wedding quilt that turns out to be the very beloved quilt that she thought was lost at sea! Will Honour be able to keep the secret that the quilt was hers? 

I enjoyed this story immensely, the characters found their way into my heart. Especially Honour's younger sister Tempe, she is a delightful child. The story line was great with some surprising twists and turns, of course the exciting ending was superb! Great job Ms. Gade!! 

This book can be found at DeeperShoppingAmazonCBD and other stores.

Bio: Teresa S. Mathews is a poet and also a reviewer on Overcoming With God, an international group blog. She home schooled her two sons, who are now both attending college. 

GIVEAWAY: We are giving away one copy of this wonderful book. Winners choice of Paperback or E-book, International Winners E-book Only. All you have to do to be entered is make sure to leave your email address in case you are the winner. If you would like to  subscribe to Carla's newsletter here; Carla Olson Gade's Newsletter you will get five (5) extra entries. Please put "NEWSLETTER" in your comments to let me know you subscribed. 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Sarah Returns



Dear friends, thank you for your gracious return. Do please accept my apologies for cutting our time short last month. I fear my emotions overwhelmed me. My dear Nathaniel—he’s my husband, for you new friends—encouraged me to try again. He says I have much to offer, for he tells me that in the last days many will undergo what my family had and much worse. The strength I found, he tells me, may help those who suffer the same.
            Please bear with me as I take my time and try to also share the joy. For what are memories if you cannot find joy in them?
            I was quite young when we left Wales for the land claimed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I remember little of the place except once passing beneath the window of our town’s mayor. Some men from the king visited him, seeking the names of the families leaving for America. The mayor was a tall man with a fierce face and a pointed beard. His very presence frightened me. I cannot remember why I should have ventured beneath his window, but I did.
            “…condemned wretches, poor gentleman, libertines, those fitter to spoil Wales and England than to help raise the commonwealth…” he had sputtered.
            At first I did not understand, but when my father’s name was mentioned, I scurried away confused that he should be listed with such men. My father, the youngest son of a lawyer, had become a vicar. However, he had discovered the truth of salvation by grace alone. ‘Twas then he had attached himself to those of the dissenting Puritans. Rather unusual in Wales, ‘tis true. He soon lost his vicarage and ‘twas shortly after this that he attached himself to Dr. John Clarke. When Dr. Clarke decided to cross the Atlantic with other Puritans, my father and my mother determined they should follow. Baptists were still feeling the sting of their brother, Edward Wightman, who died at the hands of the monarch in 1611 for stating, “That the baptizing of infants is an abominable custom; that the Lord’s Supper and baptism are not to be celebrated as they are now practiced in the church of England, and that Christianity is not wholly professed and preached in the Church of England, but only in part.”[i]
            If my memory serves me correctly, Dr. Clarke was a member of a Baptist church in Bedfordshire, England. Yes, a great distance from Wales, but not when one finds brethren of like-faith. Though Dr. Clarke associated with other Pedobaptists, he stood on the side of freedom of conscience. He was a gracious man, and like so many who came to New England, he sought the freedom to worship God according to his conscience.
            ‘Twas the banishment of Rev. Whellwright and Mrs. Ann Hutchinson that led to the separation between Dr. Clarke and my father. Dr. Clark chose to help the Hutchinsons, while my father chose to step aside and let justice take its course. Perhaps, when the leaders of the colony of Massachusetts claimed their country to be infested with no less then eighty-two heretical opinions, my father decided to speak out his beliefs.
            On First Days (I believe you call them Sundays), Father began to raise questions regarding the rules by which the Puritans expected all to live. One such First Day a traveler passed through our village. No one would open his door to the man at sunset. Our First Day began at sunset on what is Saturday, but my father welcomed him. A great lover of music, my father entertained this stranger until the constable banged upon our door and threatened to arrest him. Father questioned the law, but at that time did not press the situation and excused the customs of our village to the stranger, who graciously accepted the invitation to retire early without further noise.
            Soon Father’s acts of rebellion became noised about by gossips and those who felt it their duty to correct his poor behavior. If he spoke in town, he would be countered by another who claimed offense to his words.
            I too began to notice the children refusing to play with me, the girls drifting away or turning their backs, and any act of kindness my sweet mother attempted to perform was met with sour faces.
            One day, I asked my mother how she kept her cheery disposition. Her answer, “We are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”[ii] She sighed at the confused look upon my face and continued. “If I have died with Christ, what offense can one bring me? My life is not here but with Christ Who resides in Heaven. They can do me no harm with their words or actions, because I do not live in this world, though my body be present here. I live with Christ in Heaven. ‘But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’”[iii]
            While I understood her words, I did not fully grasp her meaning until the day I stood before those who sought to have me whipped.
            Alas, I see our time is running out. Forgive me dear friends, for leaving you again, but you see Nathaniel returns today from Virginia and I promised to stand at the shore in Newport to meet him.
            Godspeed, one and all.
______________________________________________________
Sarah speaks the truth when she said the mayors and others sought to reassure the king that the populating of America would not weaken the Commonwealth by stating only those of little value were going.
England was in the midst of much change, a reformation and the beginnings of discontent that would lead to a civil war. I believe to understand those who came to America in the 1600’s you must also understand England at that time. The colonists brought with them the values and attitudes of their home country.


[i] Hammet, Doug. The History of Baptists, Challenge Press, Emmaus, PA 2004, p. 200.
[ii] Romans 6:4
[iii] Ephesians 2:4-7

Monday, August 19, 2013

THE BLACK ROBED REGIMENT

THE BLACK ROBED REGIMENT

It was not just the politician and soldier that pursued independence from Great Britain. Many of the clergy at the time of the American Revolution spoke out fearlessly from their pulpits about freedom and the need to oppose oppression by the crown. These patriot pastors, referred to as “The Black Robed Regiment” by the British, contributed to the advancement of independence by their calls for fasting, prayers, patriotic sermons, and sometimes by actually serving in the military. These are only a few of the patriotic pastors:

James Caldwell:   “The Fighting Chaplain” 

- pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown, was speaking out against the actions of the crown in the early 1770’s. He pleaded to the Virginia Legislature for religious liberty when restrictions were placed on churches. In April, 1775, Caldwell was serving on a committee that formally urged the Presbyterian churches to support the rebellion making him a target for revenge. He was elected chaplain of the Third New Jersey Brigade under Colonel Elias Dayton, a member of his own congregation.

In 1780 British and German forces raided Elizabeth Town, burning the Presbyterian Church and the courthouse. Caldwell wanted to move his wife and children to a safer location; however, Hannah stayed behind with her two youngest children, possibly because she felt safer in their home than traveling. The older children were sent to stay with friends in another town. Several churches and buildings were burned and Hannah Caldwell was killed when she was shot through the chest by a redcoat through a window of their house.

During a battle near Springfield, when Americans were taking many losses, they ran out of the paper critical in rolling the powder for their muskets. Reverend James Caldwell ran into a Presbyterian Church and gathered as many “Watts” hymnals as he could manage and handed them out to the troops, shouting “Give ‘em Watts, boys!” His patriotic and memorable comment did not hold off the siege of Springfield, but it was remembered and retold often.

Phillips Payson

-  was a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts known for leading a group of irregulars in combat during the Revolution.

David Avery

-   became pastor of the Congregational church at Windsor, Massachusetts in 1773. Also a trained surgeon, Avery furnished his own medicine and instruments to supplement the Army's supplies. He was made chaplain of Col. Patterson's regiment in 1775 and later became chaplain of the fourth Massachusetts Brigade. He served at the battle of Bunker Hill; Noodle's Island, and the siege of New York. His congregation was supportive when he asked to be released from his pastorate in 1777, feeling it was his duty to remain in the army. After the war, he began preaching again and was a missionary to the New York Indians.

Rev. Jonas Clarke

His home was the destination when Paul Revere made his famous ride. As minister, Clarke not only had insight on what was happening in the colonies, but John Hancock and Samuel Adams were at his parsonage on when the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord came under fire. He expressed his views in the pulpit and in prayer — he knew a minister had a powerful platform.
  
Isaac Backus
- a Baptist pastor, Backus and others realized that the search for religious liberty was tied to the search for political liberty. In 1774 Backus, and others approached the First Continental Congress to gain their support to fight for religious liberty. John Adams, Sam Adams and others accused them of using a minor issue to divide the colonies while they were advancing the cause for political liberty. When the revolution began, Baptists joined the patriot cause believing it would also lead to religious liberty. On the Sunday following the Battle of Lexington, Backus preached a sermon encouraging resistance to the crown which resulted in many enlisting in the revolutionary army.

Samuel Cooper 
He served as pastor of the Brattle Street Church, in Boston, Massachusetts 1747-1783. Members of his parish included John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and others.

Ebenezer Baldwin

Pastor of the First Church in Danbury, Connecticut. Mr. Baldwin was noted for his passion to enlighten his parishioners to danger they faced in losing their liberty. In November, 1775, he preached a motivating sermon hoping to wake up the people to the significance of the struggle in which they were engaged.

My question is this: Is there still a Black Robed Regiment in our nation, or has political correctness, and laws which inhibit free speech, silenced individuals called to publicly pronounce the Truth of God’s Word?

Come back to this blog August 25th to learn about the pastor who took his sermon from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, then removed his clerical robe revealing his Colonel’s uniform, and led many of his congregation to enlist in the patriot cause.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Interview with Lori Benton, debut author of Burning Sky


I’m so pleased to present this interview with Lori Benton, debut author of Burning Sky, featured in last week’s Tea Party. Lori was born and raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American and family history going back to the 1600s. Her novels transport readers to the 18th century, where she brings to life the Colonial and early Federal periods of American history, creating a melting pot of characters drawn from both sides of a turbulent and shifting frontier, brought together in the bonds of God's transforming grace.

When she isn’t writing, reading, or researching 18th century history, Lori enjoys exploring the mountains with her husband – often scouring the brush for huckleberries, which overflow the freezer and find their way into her signature huckleberry lemon pound cake.

What got you interested in the colonial time period?

Stumbling upon good fiction set during that time period, and the movie The Patriot, with Mel Gibson. Those two things collided at the right time, and made me determined to write a hero who wore knee breeches. I wish I could claim something more profound than that as the start of all this, but it certainly led to much less frivolous reasons for my continuing interest in the 18th century.

What inspired your latest colonial work?

Burning Sky, my first published novel, is set in 1784, right after the Revolutionary War. It’s a complicated answer, what inspired it. I’d been researching late 18th century American history for about four years before I began Burning Sky, working on a novel set in 1790s North Carolina. But my attention kept being drawn to the Mohawk Valley of New York. The conflict in that colony during the Revolutionary War was intense, with particular animosity raging between patriot and loyalist Americans. Along with the conflict European Americans were experiencing, the Haudenosaunee (the Six Nations of the Iroquois), who had lived on that land for generations, ended up drawn into the conflict as well—not all on the same side. For a time, the Iroquois Confederacy ceased to exist as brother fought against brother.

I saw this setting, and still see it, as fertile ground for the type of stories I love to tell, stories of men and women caught between worlds (races, cultures, upbringings, beliefs)—often with loved ones facing them across the divide. After I’d decided on the setting and time period, I simply had to wait until a character showed up. It wasn’t long before Willa Obenchain came striding over the mountains, heading home.

Do you have a favorite colonial place you like to visit and why?

Living in Oregon makes it hard to visit colonial places. I have a long wish list of them I’d like to visit. A few years ago I had the pleasure of touring the late 18th century home of General George Rogers Clark, Locust Grove, in Louisville, KY. I’ve also in recent years visited a historic home in North Carolina, the Alston House, which retains the bullet holes around its back door from a Revolutionary War skirmish that took place there.

I’m familiar with that skirmish from my own research! Do you have a favorite colonial recipe you enjoy and would like to share with readers?

I’d love to share my succotash recipe. The mixture of ingredients is far older than colonial, though. It’s the type of meal (with a few modern additions) the Iroquois often made of their three staple crops: corn, beans and squash.

Succotash
3-4 strips of bacon (more if you really like bacon)
About a Tbs. of cooking oil
½ cup chopped yellow onion
1 tsp. minced garlic (from a jar is fine)
1 c. frozen or fresh corn
½ c. chopped fresh tomato
1 c. each yellow squash and zucchini, chopped
¾ c. lima beans, cooked tender (don’t overcook), or canned
¾ c. pinto beans, cooked tender (don’t overcook), or canned
salt & pepper to taste
a pinch or two of basil, fresh or dried

Fry bacon. Preserve drippings in pan (up to about a Tbs., more if you love bacon, as this will flavor the vegetables and beans). Set bacon strips aside. Add about a Tbs. of cooking oil to the pan, if needed. Sauté chopped onion and minced garlic until onion is tender. Add corn and tomatoes. Sauté a few minutes. Add chopped zucchini and yellow squash.* Sauté until tender. Add beans, salt, pepper, and basil to taste. Stir until heated through and mixture is cooked to your satisfaction. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle on top, or stir it in too. Serve warm. Makes 3-4 servings

* Feel free to modify ingredients/portions. Substitute different types of beans and squash, or something else entirely. Add a bit of vegetable broth. You can even make it sans bacon, though I never shall. Enjoy!

Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead twelve years later. At the boundary of her father’s property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path, and is obliged to nurse his injuries. The two quickly find much has changed during Willa’s absence—her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.

When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willa’s vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal Scottish botanist who does not fit into her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against “savages” abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s safety unsure. As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman once called Burning Sky must find a new courage—the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?

GIVEAWAY! Please leave a comment, including your email address, to win a copy of this most excellent story.