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Castaway on the Isle of Devils
Be careful what you ask for…
1609
Pampered, sixteen-year-old Alice Drinkard craves adventure. When her controlling, debt-ridden parents announce they’ll be sailing to Jamestown to regain their fortune, she’s thrilled to escape England for the New World.
But the journey is perilous, and only two weeks from arrival, the fleet encounters a hurricane. Separated from the other ships, with their vessel taking on water, the survivors land on an uninhabited island sailors call the Isle of Devils. With limited supplies, the castaways must rely on each other for survival.
Then one simple question tears the group apart: Who’s in charge?
As the men battle for control, disputes turn violent. Whispers lead to mutinies… and death. Unlike the quarreling adults, Alice knows the truth about who’s driving the conflict. But will anyone listen to a teenaged girl? Or is everyone’s life in danger?
Castaway on the Isle of Devils is an adventure tale based on the true fate of the Sea Venture, the shipwreck that inspired William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
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Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews
My story, “Just Desserts”, will be released December 12 in Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews. (Just in time for holiday gift giving.) This story hits closer to home than my others. It’s the story of a female moonshiner in Franklin County, Virginia who dispenses her own brand of liquid justice. Fun!
Whether cooking for solace, scrounging for food, concocting medicine, or brewing poisons, the feisty women in these stories will keep you thirsting for more. Twenty-five tales will transport you far afield in time and place: third century Ireland, medieval Europe, twentieth-century Australia. Read your way from a hippie commune to a WW II internment camp in the Philippines; from a Renaissance palace to a Polish village wracked by war, the hills of Appalachia, and a sleepy Ontario town.
Mixtures to soothe, heal, and thrall are prepared in these pages, where lovers take revenge, mothers protect their children, and feisty women make choices in a challenging world.
Edited by Carolyn Korsmeyer, Christy Matheson, Elaine Aucoin Schroller, Kay Smith-Blum, and Kimberly Sullivan. Foreword by K.J. Dell’Antonia, a New York Times best-selling author.
All proceeds earned from this collection are destined for the WFWA Scholarship Fund, which benefits authors with financial constraints, allowing them access to conferences, writing craft classes, and technology that will enhance their writing careers.
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Feisty Deeds
I’m thrilled to announce that my short story, “Ricochet”, is included in the anthology Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women. “Ricochet” is the story of a woman, suddenly confronted by her past, who must decide between being exposed or saving the life of an innocent girl.
Even when time periods and geographical locations vary greatly, women’s struggles as they confront adversity are often remarkably universal. The 23 stories in this collection follow ordinary women from the 1470s to the 1960s as they rise to meet life’s challenges.
Foreign invasions, the outbreak of war, rigid domestic authority, strictures of society and religion, the supernatural, love and family bonds all serve as catalysts for the feisty deeds of the women in these tales.