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Catherine Castle

~ Romance for the Ages

Catherine Castle

Tag Archives: Inspirational historical romance

Wednesday Writers–Wounded Heart by Colleen Hall

13 Wednesday Oct 2021

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Book excerpts, books, Christian fiction, clean romance, Guest Authors, historical romance, Romance, romance author, Sweet romance, Wednesday Writers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

book excerpt, Colleen Hall, Inspirational historical romance, Native American History, Wednesday Writers, western romance, Wounded Heart

Welcome to Wednesday Writers! Today’s guest is Colleen Hall, author of the Inspirational Historical Romance Wounded Heart. Colleen is sharing some of the research she discovered while writing this sweet romance. She’s also included an excerpt from the book. Welcome, Colleen!

Thanks, Catherine.

While doing research for Wounded Heart, I learned that life in the West during the Indian Wars was complex. During that time the possibility of white women being captured by the tribes was a reality, and my research unearthed a wealth of information on the topic. The subject fascinated me, and I felt that it deserved recognition, so I decided to explore that scenario in my story.

Not all of the tribes treated their white female captives the same. A female captive could expect to be raped, often multiple times. Some women experienced horrific violence, while others were met with kindness. Some white women were kidnapped to replace a Native American family member who had been killed by white men and were adopted into the family in place of the dead relative. Other white captives married into the tribes and had families while adopting the tribal culture. Sometimes the women were considered to be slaves.

In white society, husbands admonished their wives to reserve the last bullet for herself to prevent capture. For white women, taking their own lives to prevent a “fate worse than death” was considered the decent thing to do. Submitting to a Native American man put a white woman in the same category as a prostitute. Although not all communities adopted such a censorious attitude toward rescued white women, the Victorian sentiment that a decent woman would take her life before submitting to a Native American man pervaded the West. Women who were recovered from captivity usually had difficulty assimilating back into white society. Many never made the adjustment, and some ran away to return to their Indian husbands.

Shane’s mother is a composite of all the captured white women whom I learned about in my research. I felt that her story should be told. Della’s experience as a captive in the Cheyenne camp tainted her in the eyes of many white people. I enjoyed portraying her fighting spirit to overcome the stigma.

Wounded Heart

By Colleen Hall

            Della Hughes longs for adventure and for freedom from the strictness and austerity of 1870s Boston society. When her uncle and guardian, General Clint Logan, uses his fortune to purchase property in Colorado and set up a horse ranch selling remounts to the western army, Della decides she must accompany him and his family to the West. Along the journey, Della encounters more adventure than she bargained for.

            Rustlers, Indians, and rattlesnakes add danger to the trek. A persistent cavalry captain who believes that Della would make him the perfect wife and a Cheyenne chieftain’s son who tells her she’s brought sunshine to his heart complicate her life. And the handsome army scout who ramrods their wagon train guards a secret from his past that makes him believe that he’s not worthy of loving Della. She must meet the challenges of the West and convince the man of her heart that love is worth risking everything to gain.

EXCERPT:

            An air of impenetrability settled over him. He appeared to have reached the limits of what he’d allow her to question. Still, Della’s curiosity prompted her to push for one more inquiry. “Mr. Hunter, I can’t help but wonder . . . why haven’t you married?”

            He swung his head toward her. “I’m not a marryin’ sort of man,” he said, his tone gentle.

            “Surely, you must want a wife and a family.”

            “Not all of us are so fortunate as to have such a blessin’. My life isn’t one that I can ask a woman to share.”

            “You do us women an injustice. Not every woman would shirk a life with you.”

            Hunter smiled, a regretful smile that pulled at the corners of his mouth and tugged at Della’s heart. “You’re very kind to say so, Miss Hughes, but you have no idea of what a life with me would entail. I can’t ask a woman to endure that sort of hardship.”

            Della shook her head and started to protest, but Hunter reached out and covered her lips with gentle fingers.

            “Shh . . . There are things about me you don’t know or understand that make it impossible for me to marry.” His hand dropped to his side.

            “But . . .”

            “No more questions. Just accept the fact that I can’t marry. I came to terms with my lot in life a long time ago.”

Want to read more? You can find Wounded Heart at Amazon

About the Author:

Colleen Hall wrote her first story in third grade and continued writing as a hobby all during her growing-up years. During her teaching days, she taught a high school writing class. In Wounded Heart, she was able to combine her love of writing with her love of history and the West. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and family, horseback riding, reading, and browsing antique stores. She lives in South Carolina with her husband and family, one horse, and three very spoiled cats.

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Wednesday Writers–A New Inspy Historical Romance from Sandra Merville Hart

09 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by Catherine Castle in books, Christian fiction, Wednesday Writers

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

A Rebel in My House, Book excerpt from A Rebel in My House, Catherine Castle's Wednesday Writers blog series, Christian romance, civil war romance, Gettysburg Museum, Inspirational historical romance, Pickett's Charge, Sandra Merville Hart

Today Sandra Merville Hart is guest posting on Wednesday Writers talking about her newest Inspirational Historical Romance, A Rebel in My House. I had the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Civil War history. Sandra put me in the middle of the battle, made me feel the anguish of the soldiers and the civilians, and even caused me to weep at one point. It’s a novel of love and sacrifice during one of our country’s most famous Civil War battles. So, without any further delay, I’ll let her tell you the story behind A Rebel in My House. Welcome, Sandra!

 

Thanks, Catherine.

Something drew me yet again to Gettysburg. I knew there was a story waiting for me. My husband and I walked the battlefields. Ideas stirred when I found Tennessee troops with the brigade who began the fighting on the first day. Nothing solidified so I kept digging. I visited the museums. I discovered fascinating history at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum. Surely my story touched this place. After spending several hours exploring the museum and surroundings, no ideas came. I trudged on.

I explored Gettysburg museums, spending hours at the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center, Gettysburg Museum of History, Gettysburg Railroad Station, General Lee’s Headquarters Museum, and The David Wills House where President Lincoln stayed. I learned captivating facts at the Jennie Wade House, Shriver House Museum, and “The Women of Gettysburg Tour,” an evening walking tour.

Ideas strengthened. My husband and I walked the town’s streets around the “Diamond” or the town square where the women and children suffered through a nightmare from which they didn’t awaken for many months. Then we spent another afternoon and evening at the battlefield.

Three Tennessee regiments fought the beginning battle on July 1st. They didn’t fight again until they joined in Pickett’s Charge.

The sun sank low on the horizon as I stood alone on Cemetery Ridge. The expansive field crossed by Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863, captured my imagination. Though the land is peaceful once more, it still tells a story. My imagination soared while the sun disappeared.

I had to tell what the townspeople endured. What if a Gettysburg woman fell in love with a Confederate soldier? What if they both made promises to loved ones? Some promises are impossible to keep …

I reluctantly left the ridge because I had a story to write.

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

A Rebel in My House

By Sandra Merville Hart

When the cannons roar beside Sarah Hubbard’s home outside of Gettysburg, she despairs of escaping the war that’s come to Pennsylvania. A wounded Confederate soldier on her doorstep leaves her with a heart-wrenching decision.

Separated from his unit and with a bullet in his back, Jesse Mitchell needs help. He seeks refuge at a house beside Willoughby Run. His future lies in the hands of a woman whose sympathies lay with the North.

Jesse has promised his sister-in-law he’d bring his brother home from the war. Sarah has promised her sister that she’d stay clear of the enemy. Can the two keep their promises amid a war bent on tearing their country apart?

Excerpt:

Friday, June 26, 1863

Two miles outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Running feet on the dirt road outside quickened Sarah Hubbard’s heartbeat. Her fingers stiffened on her sewing machine and her back straightened.

Were they coming? Every conversation these days centered on the Confederate soldiers crossing into southern Pennsylvania.

“Miz Hubbard. Miz Hubbard, please let us in!”

Not soldiers but friends. Sarah’s body sagged at Elsie Craig’s voice, but why did she yell? Sarah dropped the gingham dress she’d been sewing and ran to throw open the front door. Alarmed at the fear lining Elsie’s dark face and eyes as she clutched the hand of her four-year-old daughter, Mae, Sarah scanned the horizon for Confederate soldiers. “Hurry inside.”

Elsie needed no second bidding. She guided Mae over the threshold and closed the door. “Miz Hubbard, you gotta hide us.” Her tall, thin body leaned against the door. “The Rebs are in town gathering up all the colored folks they can find. Someone said they’ll be taking them south as slaves and that they’re warning folks not to hide us.”

Sarah gasped. “Why do such a terrible thing?”

“Don’t make sense, does it? Some of us have lived in Gettysburg for years. Others like me have always been free, but it don’t seem to matter to the Southern army.” A long loaf of bread peeked out among jars and clothing in a well-laden basket Elsie set on the rug. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around her trembling child. “I had to leave my house and most of my possessions, but I’ve got the most important thing right here.” She looked up at Sarah as she patted Mae’s shoulder. “Last week my Sam left for Pine Hill, the settlement up near Biglerville. With it being two miles off the main road to Carlisle, the Rebs won’t find him there. Sam never expected the army to come after women and children or he’d never have left us. I miss him something fierce. We’ll go to him when the soldiers get out of town.”

Tears etched tracks in a smudge on Mae’s cheek, tugging at Sarah’s heart as much as Elsie’s wide eyes and trembling hands. Sarah rushed to an open window and pushed aside the curtain a few inches. The Pennsylvania governor, Andrew Curtin, had declared a state of emergency two weeks earlier and called for local militia. Where was their help?

Want to read more? You can get Sandra’s book at Amazon

 

About the Author:

Sandra Merville Hart, Assistant Editor for DevoKids.com, loves to find unusual or little-known facts in her historical research to use in her stories. Her debut Civil War romance, A Stranger On My Land, was an IRCA Finalist 2015. Her second Civil War romance novel, A Rebel in My House, is set during the Battle of Gettysburg. It released on July 15, 2017. Visit Sandra on her blog at https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/.

 

Sandra’s Blog, Historical Nibbles: https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandra.m.hart.7

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sandra_M_Hart

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sandramhart7/

Sandra’s Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8445068.Sandra_Merville_Hart

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100329215443000389705/posts

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Sandra-Merville-Hart/e/B00OBSJ3PU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Writers Welcomes Rebecca DeMarino

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by Catherine Castle in Romance, Wednesday Writers

≈ Comments Off on Wednesday Writers Welcomes Rebecca DeMarino

Tags

Catherine Castle Wednesday Writers series, Horton Point Lighthouse, Inspirational historical romance, Rebecca DeMarino, Revell, The Southhold Chronicles, To Follow Her Heart

DeMarino_ToFollowHer COVER

 

 

 

Today Wednesday Writers welcomes Rebecca De Marino who will be talking about her Inspirational Historical Romance, To Follow her Heart, and the lighthouse that sparked three stories. I think you’ll find her story fascinating! Welcome Rebecca.

 

 

Thanks, Catherine.

I grew up with stories my mother, Helen Horton Worley, passed down through the oral tradition. It was of sailing ships and casks of gold and our ancestors from England. She knew Barnabas was a great-grandfather from many generations ago and that he’d come from England on a little ship called The Swallow.

 

Horton Point Lighthouse, Southold, LI In the 1990’s my brother became interested in genealogy and traced the Horton line through to Barnabas and discovered there was a lighthouse named after him on Long Island. I pulled out a map, and found Horton Point in Southold, NY. I didn’t have to ask my mom twice about visiting. We hopped on a plane and flew to Boston to visit her sister, Aunt Marge, then headed south in our rental car, across Long Island Sound on a ferryboat, completely unaware we were retracing the steps of my ninth great-grandparents, Barnabas and his wife Mary When they first came over the pond in the 1630’s they made shore near Boston and eventually became one of the founding families of Southold, L.I.

Barnabas and Mary were the largest landowners in Southold. He built the first timber-framed house on eastern Long Island, home to six generations of Hortons until it was demolished in the 1870’s. The site of their home on the Peconic Bay side of the north fork, and across the main road from Barnabas’s grave, is marked with a plaque.

In 1757 George Washington visited Southold and it was his recommendation to build a

Mom & me at Horton Point Lighthouse

Mom & me at Horton Point Lighthouse

lighthouse on a high point of the north shore—land owned by the Hortons—and in the 1790’s President Washington commissioned the light. But the Horton land was not purchased until October of 1855. By that time eight acres of their land had passed through several hands. Charles Payne, a retired whaler, and his wife Hannah, sold the small parcel to the Light-House Board for $550.00.

With the delivery of 90,000 bricks on May 16, 1857, William Sinclair—a Scottish immigrant, and former engineer to the Brooklyn Navy Yard—began construction. The cornerstone was laid in the cellar on June 9, 1857. Later that month, another 60.000 bricks were delivered for the tower. The first light of the Third Order Fresnel lantern beamed from the tower on October 15, 1857. Mr. Sinclair was named as the first lighthouse keeper.

The Beacon at Horton Point Lighthouse

The sperm whale oil used to fuel the lantern was costly and carefully measured, then hand-carried up the spiraling stairs 110 feet above sea level. It could be seen for 14 nautical miles. Prior to the lighthouse, due to the many shipwrecks, the waters that surrounded the point were called “Dead Man’s Cove”.

Today the lighthouse is open to the public from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, and houses a museum. The tower boasts a VRB-25 rotating beacon and visitors can climb the spiraling steps for a beautiful view the Long Island Sound. Captains on the sound at night still welcome the site of the guiding light.

Sounds lovely. I enjoy visiting lighthouses. Here’s the blurb for Rebbecca’s book.

 

To Follow Her Heart

Duty and love are powerful forces. Only one has the power to make her life complete.

In 1664 Patience Terry is devastated to learn that Captain Jeremy Horton’s ship has been shipwrecked off the coast of Barbados. There were no survivors. She had hoped that Jeremy would someday give up the sea and settle down with her in Southold, Long Island.

Unaware his memorial service is being planned, Jeremy sails aboard a British warship with secret orders to attack New Amsterdam and claim it for the British Crown. When he makes his surprise return to Southold—and to an overjoyed Patience—it’s not quite the happily-ever-after his beloved had hoped for.

With a finely tuned sense for authentic historical characters and settings, Rebecca DeMarino plunges you into a world of tall ships, daring journeys, and yearning hearts.

About the Author:

Rebecca DeMarino inherited her love of baking and gardening from her mother; a love of horses, reading, and writing from her dad—and the wanderlust gene from both parents. Her new novel, To Follow Her Heart releases this month from Revell.

She is the author of A Place in His Heart and To Capture Her Heart, books one and two of The Southold Chronicles. A free prologue to The Southold Chronicles series available here: www.RebeccaDeMarino.com And please visit Rebecca here: www.facebook.com/AuthorRebeccaDeMarino

 

 

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