Do You Remember The Patriots?

When you celebrate Memorial Day, do you remember the original Patriots, The Founding Fathers and Mothers, you know, those guys?  I do.

Maybe it’s because I live in historic rich Virginia and my ancestors were among those early Americans, maybe because I’ve invested years of study in The American Revolution and the  events leading up to it.  I get it.  I know what it was all about.  And it was a big deal, a huge deal with a shot heard round the world.  I’m also acutely aware of how far our country has strayed from those hard-won ideals and the need to get back to them before we are unrecognizable as the United States Of America.  More bailouts won’t get us there.  Nor yet more big government.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. ~ George Bernard Shaw

 

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficient. ~ Louis Brandeis

This country was founded on a fight to the death for the principal of FREEDOM.  Getting to be a rare concept.  But it was.  Those original Patriots didn’t slog through blood soaked fields choked in clouds of musket powder and barraged by cannon fire in the worst weather Mother Nature can hurl at you because they didn’t care about Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  But because they’d rather have these vital qualities in their life than live without them.  They wouldn’t give up, they wouldn’t quit.  Somehow, somewhere when the war dragged on and the days seemed blackest they hung on and found a way.  So can we.

Last year, my Revolutionary War novel Enemy of the King was published by The Wild Rose Press.  Yes, it’s a romance, but my intensive research took years and that story is as accurate an insight into the time period as any serious fiction novel.  If you haven’t read Enemy of the King, do not demean my efforts because it falls under the category of romance.   Surprise, surprise.  They fell in love back then too.  In fact, it was partly the love of a woman that lead Benjamin Arnold to his infamous downfall.  I’ll bet you’ve heard of him.

My colonial American ancestor kept a record of his experience in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse that’s used by historians today.  That alone gives me the right to pen a novel set during the Revolution.  And there are others on all sides of the family who fought in that war.   The journalist was Sam Houston, uncle of the famous Sam.  His account and others from Virginia and Carolina Scots-Irishmen who fought in the Southern face of the war inspired my initial plunge into the high drama of the American Revolution, one of the most  fascinating periods of history.   And vitally relevant to the state of our nation today.  I challenge you to read up on the men and women who sacrificed so much in shaping the country we are blessed to live in.  Cherish the ideals they fought for and remember.  Never take them for granted.  They are all too easily taken away, and not readily given.  The struggle for independence is ongoing.

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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In Enemy of the King I focused on the Southern face of the war in the Carolinas and featured the little known but all-important battle of King’s Mountain. That pivotal battle in the fall of 1780 turned the tide of the Revolution during a very dark year.   I’ve walked that battle field twice atop the wooded knob called King’s Mountain.   Awesome, at least for one with my imagination.  I could almost hear the musket fire and battle cries lingering in the smoky air.  Being a natural born romantic, I wrote a historical romance set during one of the most all-consuming periods ever.    Even with an excellent literary agent representing me, New York publishing Houses declined, said readers aren’t interested in colonial America, that the Revolution wasn’t sexy or exciting enough.  But I’m kind of like my tenacious ancestors and refused to give up.  Years later, the Wild Rose Press was quite happy to publish it.

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OK readers, prove New York wrong. Join in the adventure.   Maybe I’ll even get around to writing that sequel I have on the backburner.

If you would like the opportunity to win a FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD (E-Book) of ENEMY OF THE KING, leave me a comment to that effect.    And God bless you and all who sail with you. 🙂

And now, for your listening pleasure, the opening score from The Patriot. Poignant, perfect for this time period, and a deeply stirring soundtrack.  I love it, but especially the theme song.