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| Welcome to my Blog! Wander through wonderful worlds real and fictional, meet interesting people, visit exciting places and find a few good books to enjoy along the way! |
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| About the Book |
It is 1718 and Duncan
Melville and his time traveller wife, Erin, are concentrating on building a
peaceful existence for themselves and their twin daughters. Difficult to do,
when they are beleaguered by enemies.
Erin Melville
is not about to stand to the side and watch as a child is abused—which is how
she makes deadly enemies of Hyland Nelson and his family.
Then there’s
that ghost from their past, Armand Joseph Chardon, a person they were certain was dead. Apparently not. Monsieur Chardon
wants revenge and his sons are tasked with making Duncan—and his wife—pay.
Things aren’t
helped by the arrival of Duncan’s cousin, fleeing her abusive husband. Or the
reappearance of Nicholas Farrell in their lives, as much of a warped bully now
as he was when he almost beat Duncan to death years ago. Plus, their safety is
constantly threatened as Erin is a woman of colour in a time and place where
that could mean ostracism, enslavement or even death.
Will Duncan and Erin ever achieve their simple wish – to live and love free from fear of those who wish to destroy them?
Buy links
Available on
Kindle Unlimited
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ7FYQVL
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJ7FYQVL
Amazon CA:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CJ7FYQVL
Amazon AU:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CJ7FYQVL
Find out more about Anna, her books and enjoy her eclectic historical blog on her website: www.annabelfrage.com
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Making things hard for you
Many years ago, I was at a writer’s conference. It was my first ever
such conference, and I was feverish with excitement. I had finished my first
book and had managed to get a couple of slots with agents, so I was sort of
hoping that I’d float out of that conference with a publishing contract in my
hand. Did not happen, of course.
What did happen was that one of the agents tilted his head to the side
and asked me “Why the time travel?” He was clearly not a fan. I tried to
explain that to me, reading books with a time travel angle increases the immersive
experience, because it is someone coming from my world that has to grapple with
whatever is happening in the past. Someone who has never worn a corset or eaten
day-old oatmeal for breakfast, now served as lumpy squares. The agent responded
with a “hmm”.
In Times of Turmoil—and in its prequel, The Whirlpools of Time—I
have a woman of colour as my protagonist. That did NOT happen on purpose, Erin
just popped into my head, and that was that. Erin was born in 1990. For her to
end up in the 18th century comes with many, many challenges—but what
I had not really thought through beforehand was how the colour of her skin
would affect her new life. Suddenly, my well-educated, ambitious Erin was
viewed with scorn—or suspicion. What was a coloured hussy doing, wed to an
upstanding white man? Erin would tell you she had little choice in the matter,
Duncan realising almost immediately that for her to survive in the early 1700s
she needed the protection of his name and status.
Duncan is determined to protect his wife. He is also homesick, which is
why they travel back to Maryland. Bad, bad choice. Very bad choice, as Maryland
was one of the earliest adopters of the anti-miscegenation laws that stated a
white person could not marry a person of colour. Ever. Consequences were dire:
enslavement—for both.
This is why they end up in Pennsylvania, because at the time, the colony
founded by William Penn had no such laws, and Quakers were in general sceptical
to the concept of slavery. At least initially.
I thought that by transferring them to just north of Chester,
Pennsylvania, I had finally brought them into a safe harbour. I should have
deepened my research, because while Pennsylvania in 1718 had no discriminatory
laws, by 1726 the colony adopted legislation making cohabitation of marriage
between people of different “races” illegal. Suddenly, Times of Turmoil was not
only a story about Duncan and Erin battling the ghosts from their recent
adventures in Scotland, but also about protecting Erin from constant defamation
while Duncan spent nights worrying about their future. Where to go next?
I had not intended to write a book about the plight of coloured people
in Colonial America. But it would have been impossible to write Times of
Turmoil with any sort of credible historical background without including
this disturbing element of human history. That, dear peeps, was much, much
harder than I thought it would be!
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| Read An Excerpt |
She should probably have kept her
mouth shut. But Erin Melville wasn’t the type of woman who turned the other way
when a big, hulking brute of a man chose to punish a scrawny boy in the middle
of the street. Especially not when the asshole was using a whip on the child.
So she waded in.
“Stop!”
“This is no
matter for you to meddle in,” the man snarled, bringing the crop down in yet
another vicious strike across the boy’s narrow shoulders.
Erin shoved
him. “He’s bleeding!”
“As he
should! A worthless, useless servant is what he is!”
Servant? The
boy was at most twelve—or so she guessed, given his size. Too thin, the linen
of his worn shirt clinging to a knobbly spine and bony shoulder blades.
The man
raised the crop. Erin placed herself between him and the boy.
“Move!” He
was sweating, the broken veins on his nose and chin looking almost purple
against the red of his skin.
“No.”
“Fine,” he
sneered. “I dare say you’ve tasted a crop once or twice, hey? Once a slave—” He
broke off on a yelp.
“Best not
finish that,” Duncan said, blue eyes flashing. Erin smiled at her husband,
received a frown in return. She sighed inwardly. Inconspicuous, she
reminded herself, you should always strive to be inconspicuous. Well, so
Duncan thought at any rate, hemming and hawing when he verbalised that she did
not need to bring attention to the fact that she was a woman of colour. Not
something to be flouted in a day and age where anyone with less than lily-white
skin was suspected of being a slave, at least here in the American colonies.
In Erin’s
opinion, just being a woman was something of a trial in the year 1718. There
were definitely days when she longed for her other life in the twenty-first
century. Until she remembered that had she not fallen through time in 2016,
she’d likely have been burned to a crisp in the fire engulfing her home.
Discreetly, she took a couple of deep breaths, attempting to calm her
thundering pulse: a time traveller, an impossibility, that’s who she was, and
should anyone find out . . . well, being a woman of colour would be a walk in
the park in comparison! She swallowed, took yet another breath and redirected
her attention to her husband and the man with the crop.
“There’s no
hiding it, is there?” the unknown brute sneered. “Look at her: where did you
find her? In one of the French colonies? After all, everyone knows those
Frenchies are happy to fornicate with their slaves.”
“As are the
English colonists,” Duncan retorted. “But my wife is not—has never been—a
slave.”
“No? Her
skin says otherwise.” The brute laughed. “Should I find her alone, I’d claim
her as mine and—” Whatever he had intended to say became a loud gurgle.
“Careful,” Duncan said, releasing the man to double over and gasp for breath. “Anyone touches my wife best be prepared to meet me at dawn—to die.”
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| MJ Porter Loving post United_States_slave_trade,_1830_LCCN2008661746_(cropped).jpg |
1. What was the first novel you read that made you think: ‘Wow, I want to write like this!’. Very difficult question! Amanda Quick perhaps? (Her dialogue, her humour) Sharon Penman? (because she writes epic in a way that has me bawling) Ruth Rendell? (Her precise use of words, her excellent syntax and tight prose…)
2. What book (fiction or nonfiction) is a treasure that you’d pass on to a grandchild? My very battered Lord of the Rings copy
3. If you could have a holiday anywhere in the world (for free!) where would you go? I would like to ride or hike across the Continental Divide in the US, taking my time to enjoy all the natural beauty along the way.
4. Your favourite time period – and why. I don’t have a favourite time period. I have a very NON-Favourite period which is Tudor England. Yes, I can enjoy a book set then, but I would never, ever write a book which (however indirectly) might feature Henry VIII, Mary I or Elizabeth I.
6. Name one thing you regret that you didn’t do. I should have believed in myself and my story-telling abilities when I was young. I should have dared to follow my dream back then, instead of opting for the safer, more conventional life.
7. Name one thing you’re pleased that you did do. Have my four beautiful children. People thought I was nuts to want that many, but they are a constant source of joy.
You might also like
books written by Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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| Coffee Pot Book Club Bronze Award2022 |
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| The story of the events that led to The Battle of Hastings in 1066 Harold the King (UK edition) I Am The Chosen King (US edition) 1066 Turned Upside Down an anthology of 'What If'' tales |
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| The Forever Queen (US edition) a USA TODAY BESTSELLER A Hollow Crown (UK edition) |
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| Book 1 -THE KINGMAKING Coffee Pot Book Club Bronze Award 2023 |
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THE PENDRAGON's BANNER TRILOGY |
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| US editions |
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Historical Stories of Exile by 13 popular authors Cryssa Bazos, Anna Belfrage, Elizabeth Chadwick, Cathie Dunn, J.G. Harlond, Helen Hollick, Loretta Livingstone, Amy Maroney Alison Morton, Charlene Newcomb, Elizabeth St.John, Marian L Thorpe, Annie Whitehead. With an introduction by Deborah Swift |
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| Amazon: FREE ebook! |
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Anna Belfrage's time travel novels sound enthralling. She was inspirational to me with some delightful help many years ago when my own first Time Travel book (FAIR WEATHER) first came out . Now sadly, I have no eyesight left and can only read with the help of Audible - but this series sounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteIt is comming on Audible. In fact, Whirlpools of Time, teh first book, is on Audible any day now! I LOVED Fair Weather. Jasper . . . Aaaah!
DeleteI thoroughly recommend Anna's timeslip series - especially the Graham Saga
DeleteI love Erin! Time travel – the "stranger in a strange land" concept – is such a good way to inform the reader as well as pile up problems for the heroine. It helps us understand just how different the past was. (Or should that be "is"?)
ReplyDeleteWell, your Carina knows how that feels - stranger in a strange land.
DeleteAnna Belfrage has such great imagination - and just the right prose to put it on paper.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Delete100% agree Inge!
Delete