BOOK EXCERPT We were only about thirty leagues from the Straits of Gibraltar. Adjusting the sails and riggings of our twelve-man ketch, Intrepid, we made in the morning of August 2, 1801, seven days after we left Greece, ready our departure from the Mediterranean and entrance into the Atlantic. We were on our return voyage to Boston when our passage was blocked by two Muslim pirate ships. Each was a three-masted xebec, with crews of about one hundred and fourteen cannons. The

BOOK EXCERPT Chapter 1 “Esther,” Daddy called. “It’s time to go.” I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay and even though it was the first day of summer, I wanted to go to Meadow Springs School and sit next to Dorothy Hoover just like I, Esther Hopkins, had done ever since my first day of school. Why, the alphabet itself had pre-ordained that we would be best friends for life! But no one ever listened to what I wanted. My voice didn’t seem to matter. When I finally climbed into

Book Blurb: She survived a war by drawing it. The cost was everything else. Pulled from an ordinary life into the violent undercurrents of a nation at war, Isabella’s rare talent for drawing becomes both her refuge and her danger. What begins as a means of survival soon draws her into a hidden world of secret commissions, shifting loyalties, and constant risk, where a single sketch can mean protection, betrayal, or death. As armed conflict spreads, Isabella is forced to move

Congratulations to David Fitz-Gerald for his new book "Rathuun: King of the Prairie"!! Cover design by WHITE RABBIT ARTS at The HIstorical Fiction Company With all the swagger of a classic western, a legendary buffalo claims his rightful place among the genre's most iconic heroes. Meet Rathuun. Born in an idyllic canyon, tragedy strikes on his first day. A grizzly bear scatters the herd, devours his twin, and leaves him to shiver and die. But the buffalo calf with a white spo

Congratulations to Jill George for her new release of "Daughters of Stone & Grace" coming soon! Cover designed by White Rabbit Arts at The Historical Fiction Company Book Blurb: They were sold on university lawns and auctioned in the shadow of the state capitol. They built relief networks the federal government would not provide and made legal arguments in courtrooms designed to silence them. They operated as spies inside the Confederate White House, transformed slave jails i

Congratulations to Loretta Miles Tollefson for her new book "Nothing Lasts Forever" - A Novel of Old New Mexico COVER DESIGN by WHITE RABBIT ARTS at The Historical Fiction Company A STORY OF THE 1847 TAOS REVOLT AGAINST THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF NEW MEXICO On Thursday, January 19, 1847, long-simmering tensions erupted in bloodshed in Taos, New Mexico, brought to a head by the recent American takeover during the Mexican American War. Within 24 hours, almost all the Americans

Book Blurb: "In the shadows, there is truth." It’s 1984, at the height of the Cold War, and Colonel Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt IV is a man on the run. A Special Forces legend, fourth-generation soldier, and great-nephew of a president, he led a team of CIA ghosts into the darkest corners of Southeast Asia. When Colonel Roosevelt refused to carry out the last phase of a top-secret mission, powerful men buried him under fabricated charges. The road to redemption is treacherous.

Book Blurb: 1990. The Soviet Empire is unraveling. A circus has just arrived in America. When the first privately owned Soviet circus arrived in America in 1990, as the Soviet Empire unraveled, its elite performers hoped to build cultural bridges through spectacular shows. Instead, this prestigious troupe faced a perilous journey through Cold War America. Circus director Yuri had to navigate treacherous waters where American mobsters, Soviet agents, and political forces circl

Book Blurb: "A kaleidoscopic tale set around World War II with an international cast of characters. Intrigue and color abound… this is well-researched fiction and the scenes feel authentic. A finely detailed war novel with an outsize cast." - Kirkus Reviews Delivering Apple Pie interweaves the lives of several fictional characters between 1940 and 1963, from the war in the Pacific into postwar suburbia and the baby boom. Claire forges a strong personal identity during WW2 in

Book Blurb: Lieutenant Jim Fraser was, in turns, eager and terrified. His Baker Company led the American offensive to liberate Charleston, but would his wife, Florrie, and their twin girls trapped behind German lines survive the coming battle? Wolves at the Gate is the first of a series of three alternative history thrillers from Bart Stark imagining another World War II. Due to a twist of history during his youth, Adolf Hitler turns west and out to sea against England and t

BOOK EXCERPT From Chapter 7: Setup: After five years of civilian life, Gil is back in training. The first big test is to march through the unforgiving Western Sahara in Algeria. Five years of civilian life made him soft, and he hated it. Rocks. Gravel. Scrub brush. That’s all Gil saw for miles once Fort Ste. Terese disappeared behind the hills. The singing had long since stopped, replaced by the low-level grumbling of soldiers on the march. They reached the top of a low rise

Book Blurb: 'Tis a truth universally acknowledged that a gentleman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However, our Hero is in possession of no fortune whatsoever. And thus, we have a History to relate... 1865. Somerset. Love and Money , those twin pillars upon which the precarious edifice of Mortal Existence rests, have rarely been more at odds. For Mr Francis Sheringham — a libertine whose charm is far more substantial than his purse — desperate tim

BOOK EXCERPT As we rode out of the town on the wagon, I noticed that the road ahead was made of logs side-by-side, rattling our teeth and making it nearly impossible to speak. The further away from the houses, the closer to the road the monstrous trees came. I had never seen trees so large or green in my life. The invasive smell of pine nearly erased the odor of smoke. It was dim and the trunks played tricks on my eyes, making me think I was seeing people or animals walking t

BOOK EXCERPT This excerpt establishes the main theme and the high stakes. Prologue Vienna, July 1847 Helga winces as a contraction ripples through her. She knows it is time. She dresses and then wakes her mother, who will accompany her to the lying-in clinic. Within the half-hour they are ready, shawls wrapped tightly around them. Helga clutches the banisters as she follows her mother down the stairs and out onto the street. Slivers of dawn start to separate the darkness as t

BOOK EXCERPT ‘Luigsech of the Cornovii?’ Boudicca stopped short, shock widening her bright eyes. ‘What in the name of Andraste are you doing here?’ She smiled ruefully. ‘I could ask you the same. We’re a long way from the lands of the Iceni.’ Boudicca’s face darkened. ‘We were bringing the tribe’s yearly tribute to the Roman scum.’ She gestured to the water. ‘It belongs to the gods now.’ Luciana frowned, regarding the woman. Boudicca, her childhood foe in the Beltane chariot

Book Blurb: A Homeric American Novel An American Slave in Barbary: The Odyssey of Winston Prescott Jones is the story of a first-generation American student whose commercial ship is captured in the summer of 1801 by Muslim pirates. He spends the next sixteen years as a captive in Algiers. He rises to become a confidant to the Dey of Algiers, who is desperate to know what made the American shopkeepers and farmers believe they could defeat the British war machine, and how they

BOOK EXCERPT Sam Clemens Arrives on the Scene John Dee took out his kerchief and wiped perspiration at his brow. Who were these Burtons? This situation was spiraling and not in a good way. “So, you are going to write out a statement about Ricky’s death?” “My cub pilot Sam Clemens is gonna record my statement. Yours too. And the squaw singer’s. He’s damned good at writing things up.” The door opened and a young man with wavy red hair entered. “You called for me, Captain Martin

Book Blurb: A gangster. A dreamer. One city up for grabs. In The Fight for Miami , award-winning author Joseph Kovler delivers a pulse-pounding historical thriller set in the glitter and grit of 1920s-30s Miami Beach - where the American Dream goes to war with the American Underworld. Al Capone, fresh from Chicago's bloody empire, sees Miami as his next conquest. Carl Fisher, the visionary who built the city from sand and swamp, will risk everything to keep it a "sundown town

Book Blurb: Hoarded in the depth of memories of the past decades, this has been a work long overdue. Written as an antithesis to all first-hand and second-hand propaganda written by both Chinese and foreign writers for China in the good part of 20th century in a fictional form, this collection, through different times and lands, gives insights into how human docile nature and characteristics are manipulated and brought about cultural and social corrosion over the century. The

BOOK EXCERPT From Chapter 2 - A Garden’s Secret The abbess sat in her chambers, reviewing the abbey’s ledgers. Sister Agnes entered without waiting for the novice outside to announce her. “My child! What urgency drives you to burst in so?” “I must tell you what I’ve found, Mother. It is deeply troubling.” “Then speak, Sister.” “The piglets did not die by the blade alone. They were prepared first with a potion—I suspect monkshood, judging by the blue tint of their lips and ton