Congratulations to Mary Armstrong for the publication of her new novel "The San Augustin"
and the matching book covers for all three books - "When the Doves Coo", "The Mesilla" and "The San Augustin" - all designed by White Rabbit Arts at The Historical Fiction Company!
Below are the covers, blurbs, and the book buy links:
Book Blurb: In this prequel to “The Two Valleys Saga,” we discover the reasons Jesús’s family sent him to live with the Fountains and learn about his life with his family near El Porvenir, Mexico. Jesus, known by his nickname ‘Chuy,’ begins to feel lonely and an outcast. In the end, Chuy discovers a lot about himself and his family. Will his doubts about why his parents sent him away linger?
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3l9C5OX
Book Blurb: At 14 years old, Jesus ‘Chuy’ Perez Contreras Verazzi Messi is too small and frail to work the land on the family farm near the Rio Bravo in Mexico. The local padre’s tutoring reveals Jesus’s unending curiosity and fertile mind. Noted Las Cruces, New Mexico attorney, and politician, Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain agrees to take his nephew under his wing. Jesus ‘reads law’ with his uncle and shares adventures and adversity with the Fountain family and other historic Mesilla and Tularosa Valley citizens. His coming-of-age story will take you into the wild southwest, a brewing range war, a territory struggling toward statehood, courtroom dramas, and the adventures and adversities of a boy’s quest for manhood.
*A fictional memoir by Jesus about the ten years leading to the notorious and unsolved Fountain murders.
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/30YAULv
Book Blurb:
Jesús continues imparting his memoir journey, hoping to find solace, and understanding about the events that led to his uncle’s and young cousin’s heinous murders. His coming-of-age story reveals the trials, tribulations, and torment of an adolescent’s life as he attempts to claw his way to manhood while discovering life and love and excelling in the legal arena. His uncle, Colonel Albert J. Fountain, continues to mentor Jesús, drawing from his legendary court tactics and antics.
But along with the tutelage comes a budding awareness of the not so pleasant things that go along with the Colonel’s notoriety as one of the most sought-after lawyers in the Southwest.
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3I3najo
Author Bio:
Mary and her husband, Norman ‘Skip’ Bailey, moved to the heart of one of the ‘Two Valleys’ in Las Cruces New Mexico from the Boston metro area in 2010. Their Cavachon child-dog, Java joined them in 2014. Mary’s journey to the release of “The Mesilla” in 2021 was the culmination of a fascination with the life and death of Colonel Albert J. Fountain and his young son. As she became more familiar with the area, she noticed a barely below the surface grating dislike between “The Two Valleys” and the saga to discover the root of this discord led her to “The Two Valleys Saga.”
Mary has diverse interests but has focused on historical fiction over the last ten years. Her writing is fast-moving, thought-provoking and with just enough wordsmithing to satisfy your artistic hankerings. Since retiring from a diverse career in various planning and design fields, she has devoted herself to writing, being a good spouse, serving her dog Java, and slipping away to the golf course when unchained to the desk.
When asked where her writing comes from, she replied, “I haven’t done it all and I may have done too much. Life is full of stories. All you have to do is live them.”