A Becharmed Callie Christmas
Christmas comes but once a year… but will it be different this Christmas? Callie Mae Copeland is the only child of affluent land owner, Sullivan Copeland, and his wife, Faye. Because Callie has been doted on her entire life, she is pampered and outspoken. Although the Civil War is looming and is in its second year, it hasn’t affected the Copelands or their neighbors in north Alabama too much yet. Once she turns sixteen, Callie realizes the influence she has over boys her age, and uses her flirtatious graces to her advantage. She turns her sights on Christmas, and is determined to do everything in her power to make the Copeland’s annual Christmas party a success. Although money is tight, she convinces her father to buy material for her stunning new Christmas gown. She can’t wait for the party so that she can impress her beau, his best friend, and all the other guests who are invited. Even her cousin will be there! But following the party, Callie is abruptly faced with the realization that the war is closer than she imagined, and everything is uncertain. A terrifying thought consumes her. Will this be the last Christmas she will ever see in her family’s old antebellum home? Will anything ever be the same again?
Give Me Shelter
The dual challenges of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that threatens the world and the unexplained loss of two parents that threatens a family are the driving forces behind the lives of two boys and their grandfather. Willie, Denny and their grandfather, Pop, have lived together for nine years, ever since the boys’ parents died in an accident that remains a mystery to the boys. Denny reluctantly leaves for college, while Willie enters sixth grade, fearful of the menacing missile crisis and curious about his parents’ fate. Willie’s best friends are Lucy and Preston. Lucy wonders about the ‘man in the suit’ who seems to be everywhere she goes. Her mom, Trish, grapples with unemployment. Preston is burdened by the trauma his father experiences from involvement in two wars. Denny meets his first ever girlfriend at college, Lucy, who has one leg that’s shorter than the other. Good neighbor, Robert is building a bomb shelter in the back year. Muriel, his mother is a shoot-from-the-hip older adult with dementia. Over time, the connections between them create the shelter they need for their common journey. This is a story of human vulnerability, humor, endurance, secrets, truth, loss, resilience, and love. This is a family life novel with a coming-of-age flavor.
Shot Through Time
Sergeant Nolan Black, a British grenadier, returning from the Battle of Concord and Lexington on 19 April 1775, is shot and falls unconscious. He awakes in the same place, but on 19 April 1975, a short distance from a reenactment of the battle that took place 200 years earlier.
The Private Misadventures of Nell Nobody
The year is 1793, and France has declared war on Britain. Escaping a desperate situation, Eleanor Buccleuch (‘Nell’), a young Englishwoman, dons waistcoat and breeches. Calling herself ‘Ned Buckley’, she enlists in the British army, where she hopes no one will think to look for her. Traumatised and grieving her infant son, she disappears amongst the soldiers of the 69th Regiment of Foot, sent to the Mediterranean where the British hope to take the island of Corsica from the French. After the successful occupation of St Fiorenzo, Ned’s superiors assign him to work with a zealous naval captain by the name of Horatio Nelson, who is spearheading the campaign against Bastia. Ned is to be his ‘liaison’ to the army, which Ned is fairly sure means ‘dispatch runner.’ Recognising Ned’s uncertainty, Nelson makes a point of bolstering his confidence. Ned has one close friend in the army, another rifleman named Jack Mackay. Ned and Jack share a tent with the four other men in their six-man mess, and late one night during the siege of Bastia, an incident occurs that sets off Ned’s post-trauma response, threatening his stability and his disguise.
Tim: The Story of Timothy H. O’Sullivan as a Young Apprentice at Mathew Brady’s Studio
Willy Wonka meets Gangs of New York and Let the Great World Spin
The Story Begins on September 11th, 1850…
Based on the life of Timothy O’Sullivan, Tim is a ten-year-old boy from sleepy Staten Island who is told he must apprentice at Mathew Brady’s daguerreotype studio in 1850.
Tim takes the ferry over to York with his father and rides the omnibus up Broadway to Fulton Street. Across from Brady’s Gallery is Barnum’s American Museum filled with all its relics and wondrous curiosities. As Tim ventures inside, he takes us back into New York’s forgotten past and the history of photography.
The story begins on September 11th, 1850, with Jenny Lind’s premiere concert at Castle Garden near Battery Park — a night that would be remembered for years to come, as the night when the Swedish Nightingale first sang in New York.
All the city is infatuated with Jenny Lind. Great crowds surround her wherever she goes. She is the most sought-after celebrity by all the Broadway photographers, except that her manager, none other than P.T. Barnum himself, will not grant Brady access to Jenny Lind.