Another Secondary Character From PATRIOT'S COURAGE

Even a hero needs a friend and Bright Moon, a Chickasaw warrior and scout, soon befriends Sergeant McGowan in  PATRIOT'S COURAGE. Bright Moon fights on the side of the Americans in General Anthony Wayne's army. Most of the time, the scout is called on to serve as a translator since he can speak the languages of many of the native tribes. He is adept at tracking, too. In his spare time, he likes to whittle.
 

One Secondary Character in PATRIOT'S COURAGE

This is Miss Barbara Chance. Her father had hoped for a boy, but since Barbara came along instead he taught her the skills a boy needed to know back in the late 1700s. When it comes to hitting a target dead center, she's always the winner. She's a big woman, so men who long for dainty, small women are not attracted to her. She signed up to be a laundress at the fort thinking that some homesick young man would fall in love with her, but that didn't happen. Instead, she is assigned to teach Nellie Red Bird how to be a lady--a tall order for someone who isn't much of a lady herself. 

I have a great time writing about my secondary characters! Heroes and heroines need friends. Don't we all?

You can buy PATRIOT'S COURAGE just about everywhere. Check out the links below.

Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/Patriots-Courage-Patriot-Historical-Romance-ebook/dp/B08FBH9BKN

 

Pelican Book Group:

https://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1502

 

Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/patriots-courage-penelope-marzec/1137443133?ean=9781522398820

 

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/patriot-s-courage

 

Google Play Books:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?pcampaignid=books_read_action&id=9Jv1DwAAQBAJ

 

Apple Books:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/patriots-courage/id1526512077

 

 

 

The Official Release Day of PATRIOT'S COURAGE!

 

September 11, 2020, is the official release day of PATRIOT'S COURAGE, the third book in my Patriots Series. To mark the occasion, I will be celebrating with a Facebook LIVE event at my fan page https://www.facebook.com/penelopemarzecbooks. If you can, join me at 11 a.m. tomorrow. I'll be talking about the origin of the story as well as giving away a paper edition of PATRIOT'S HEART and another paper edition of PATRIOT'S PRIDE. I will also give away an ebook edition of PATRIOT'S COURAGE. 

This will be fun! 😃

Excerpt: Meet Ryan and Lewis

PATRIOT'S COURAGE tells the tale of the twins, Ryan and Lewis, who were introduced in Patriot's Heart. They were only three years of age in that book and liable to get into trouble, though their mother kept a tight rein on them. The twins were first cousins to Agnes and Margaret. 

Here's a short excerpt from Patriot's Heart featuring young Ryan and Lewis. Enjoy!

“Where’s Jonas?” Ryan and Lewis had seen them coming and ran toward them. 

“He’s taking a nap with Edwin,” Margaret explained.

“Why is Edwin napping at this time of the day?” Aunt Sally demanded from the doorway of her house. 

“Hobart gave him strong spirits to ease the pain in his leg,” Agnes explained. 

“Your mother’s cousin is more trouble than he’s worth,” Aunt Sally pronounced.

“Edwin is nice,” Margaret stated. “Puddles likes him and so does Jonas.” 

“They are animals,” Aunt Sally sniffed. 

Agnes, Margaret, and the twins stepped into the kitchen. Margaret sliced the bread. Agnes lifted the kettle to pour the tea, but beside her mug on the table lay two pieces of a chain. The one Aunt Sally used to hang her pot over the coals. 

“The twins broke that,” Aunt Sally said as she ladled stew into the bowls. “I’ll be needing it fixed by this evening. The stew nearly burned.”

“How did they break it?” Agnes held up the chain and examined each link. 

“Ryan did it,” said Lewis.

“Lewis broke it,” said Ryan.

“There will be no trifle for either of you,” Aunt Sally scolded.

The twins lowered their heads and sobbed in perfect unison. 

Agnes did not believe they did it. They were so cute and sweet. Too tender to be so destructive. Besides, Aunt Sally seemed to watch over their every move. 

Setting the broken chain to the side of her bowl, she sat. Everyone said the blessing, and ate.

If you haven't read Patriot's Heart and Patriot's Pride, now is the time to download them! Both are available for FREE on Kindle Unlimited. 

What About Music In a Novel?

Photo by stevepb on Pixabay

I learned the words to many songs when I was young. My mother sang all the time--mostly the songs of her generation, but some even older than that. I took piano lessons for a short time, paid for with my babysitting money. My middle sister took guitar lessons, so I learned a bit about the guitar as well. I sang in the madrigal choir in college. For many years, I sang and played an accompaniment with the guitar in the folk choir at church. Then I married a man whose main hobby was music. Our daughters took piano lessons for years--until they went to college.

While I am not an accomplished pianist or guitarist, I have memorized the lyrics to a gazillion songs from the past, though I don't know much about current popular music. However, sometimes when I'm strolling through a store, I might hear a nice tune playing through the speakers as I load my cart with groceries. Then I'll go and search for it. If it really touches me, I'll buy the sheet music.

Surrounded by an abundance of musical scores, I have sometimes included the mention of a number of songs in the books I write. In The Cowboy's Miracle, I used several ancient western ballads. In my newest release, Patriot's Courage, I referenced "Amazing Grace," one of my favorite hymns. It was first published in 1779 by John Newton. (There's an interesting conversion story on John Newton that you can find at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace)

I am well aware that a writer must be careful about using lyrics or songs in their stories and not only because it is difficult to secure the copyrights on the songs. Using song titles often dates the story and since songs go out of fashion quickly, future readers may never have heard of the song you are referencing in your book. See Jason Sanford's blog post: http://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2015/8/why-writers-should-rarely-name-songs-in-their-fiction

Writer's Digest has a very succinct post about using song lyrics: https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/questions-and-quandaries/legal-questions/can-i-use-song-lyrics-in-my-manuscript  Jane Friedman has a longer and more detailed guide: https://www.janefriedman.com/permissions-and-fair-use/

In Clear As Ice, I was tempted to use the titles from a playlist for EMTs and paramedics. Instead, I made vague references to the heavy beat of the songs and the way the protagonist reacts to the music. That's the safe way. 

PATRIOT'S COURAGE Available for Pre-Order Now!

The long awaited sequel to Patriot's Heart and Patriot's Pride will be released soon, but you can pre-order it now and discover what the McGowans did with the promissory note for the one hundred acres received for service in the War for Independence. 

Here's the blurb:

In retaliation for his brother's death, Ryan McGowan vows to kill every Indian in Ohio territory. When his captain assigns him to teach English to a woman found sobbing over a dead warrior, he resents the task. But the woman melts away his vengeance. He begins to understand the way to peace is through forgiveness. Then he learns the woman carries the child of her Indian husband in her womb.

Màxkchulëns, a white woman adopted by the Lenape at the age of four, is confined at the fort and longs to return to her people. Though Ryan leads her to recall part of the faith her biological parents held dear, she struggles to understand it and the power of grace. 

Can she rely on that grace in desperate times? And will faith protect her unborn child as well?

Order PATRIOT'S COURAGE now and enjoy another exciting adventure in our country's early years. 

Cover Reveal for PATRIOT'S COURAGE!

I am delighted with the cover for PATRIOT'S COURAGE! This is the third book in my Patriots series and reveals what happens when the twins, Ryan and Lewis, decide to use their father's promissory note to get land in the Ohio Territory. Soldiers in the Revolutionary War were promised one hundred acres of land, which applied to them or their heirs. (You can read about that in another post https://penelopemarzec.blogspot.com/2014/06/one-hundred-acres.html.)

The book will be released in September. I can hardly wait!

Challenge Complete, Contract Signed, My Cowboy Finals, and Spring Is On The Way

Raritan Bay and the mouth of Whale Creek as seen from Cliffwood Beach's Middlesex County side. 

It was a busy, though short month--and fortunately a mild one as far as the weather goes. Our little part of the world got plenty of rain, which is fine with me because I didn’t have to shovel any snow. The snow fell a few times, but the weather was so warm it all melted quickly. There were several incredibly lovely days and whenever the sun is shining I enjoy going outside to take photographs at one of our wonderful parks or at the beach. I'm always looking for another scene to put on canvas--the photo above might be one of them.

I am happy to say I finished the JerRoWriMo writing challenge. In fact, I finished two days early. For now the title of the book I worked on is Home Somewhere. It’s a contemporary romance and needs a ton of revising, but writing it was lots of fun. I had the basic plot and characters planned before I started the challenge, but much of it was done in the seat-of-the pants style of writing—which for me is a glorious delight. Some writers like to have everything carefully worked out before they start writing. I just like to let it rip—and the challenge helps me do that by forcing my internal editor to keep out of my way. I held myself accountable to write enough words everyday to get to the finish line.

There were days when I didn’t get many words down. My mother-in-law wound up in the hospital and then went to rehab. Friends bought hubby and I tickets to see a show with them. (It was a fun show!) And we went house hunting with our daughter and her husband. Still, several dreary, rainy days were a boon to my word count. The weather helped me even the score for the days when I was unable to get much writing done. In addition, hubby (God bless him!) is not a stickler for an immaculate house and we frequently go out to eat, which is a big help when it comes to writing.

While I’ve never made a lot of money from all my writing, I have received some accolades, which have been very, very sweet. The Cowboy’s Miracle, which won 3rd place in the Ancient City Romance Writers' Heart of Excellence Reader's Choice Award also became a finalist in EPIC's eBook Awards. It's not a Pulitzer Prize, but it gives me joy. 😊

Most of all, I am happy to say I've signed a contract with the Pelican Book Group for Patriot's Courage, which is the third sequel in my Patriot books' saga. 

Oh yes--and spring is coming. The daffodils are daring to reach toward the sun as are the chives and my beautiful Lenten roses.  Along with spring comes EASTER! I can hardly wait to sing all the Alleluias!

My Patriot's Saga Heads West

This is a portion of the Cuyahoga River. I saw it last year when hubby and I attended a reunion of my mother's cousins. Long before our trip, I considered extending my Patriot's saga by having some of the McGowan clan head west. The past few weeks, I've been researching the Ohio Territory and I've settled on a place and time for my story's beginning. While this latest addition to the Patriot's saga will not be set along the banks of the Cuyahoga, it won't be too far from it.

The book will be called Patriot's Courage and it will be a historical Christian romance like Patriot's Heart and Patriot's Pride. It may take me a while to put it altogether, but I'm looking forward to it. Ohio is a lovely place to visit. :-)