A PLACE CALLED HARMONY REVIEW

First, a few words from Jodi Thomas . . .

Once in a while in my career of forty books, there comes a story I know I have to write.  It waits like an impatient child in the back of my mind for its time to shine.  A PLACE CALLED HARMONY was one of those stories.  As I moved through the Harmony series, getting to know the people of Harmony, Texas, better with each book I knew that someday I’d tell the beginning of their town.  From the day I started writing the characters came through clear.  I had to find men strong enough to influence the generations of Mathesons, Trumans and McAllens.

Many times during the writing of this story I felt all three men standing behind me telling me their lives.  Patrick McAllen, young and full of dreams, thought of it as an adventure and believed love came easy.  Clint Truman felt old at thirty and didn’t believe in love.  When he heard he had to have a wife to get the job, he went to the prison gate and picked the first woman walking out.  And then there was Captain Gillian Matheson who loved his wife but also loved adventure.

When Truman, Matheson and McAllen’s stories began to dance in my mind, I found myself staying up later every night to write more.  I love the way the three men interacted and the way all three loves stories grew.  I have a feeling that readers will be staying up a little later to read one more chapter.

I felt close to all of them, because my great-grandparents settled this same country over a hundred years ago.  My grandmother was even born in a covered wagon. So follow me through A PLACE CALLED HARMONY you’ll love the story.

Enjoy the adventure,

Jodi Thomas

Jodi Thomas is the NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of 40 novels and 12 short story collections.

A four-time RITA winner, Jodi currently serves as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.

www.jodithomas.com

www.Twitter.com/jodithomas  

www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor     

A PLACE CALLED HARMONY by Jodi Thomas

Review by Caroline Clemmons

Yes, I’m another dedicated fan of Jodi Thomas books. I can honestly say I’ve read every book she’s published and enjoyed each one. I admit I’ve wished she’d write more western historical romances even though I love her Harmony series and the two suspense novels she authored.

With A PLACE CALLED HARMONY, Ms Thomas has fed both my addictions by writing a historical western romance about the founding of the town of Harmony. As I expected, this book kept me enchanted from the first word to the end. Those who’ve read the Harmony books will recognize that series’ leading families of Truman, Matheson, and McAllen.

Harmon Ely wants to found a town at the juncture of two Texas Panhandle waterways where he’s built a trading post.  With his dog Davy as a companion, Harmon is used to his own company. He’s a man of vision who believes he owns the perfect site for a town. Though his trading post has been burned to the ground, he’s been shot and left for dead, and he’s been robbed several times, Harmon is not going to give up.

He has a scheme to attract married people to settle in his new town—all he needs are strong, determined, and resourceful couples. He’ll offer work building the town and a house. In exchange for two year’s work, Harmon will sign over their house and forty acres of land. With ads in newspapers, he carefully reviews responses because he only wants good people who will contribute to his town. He’s building for the future.

Harmon also enlists and old friend to help, Sheriff Lightstone of Huntsville, Texas. Lightstone knows a man who appears determined to kill himself with liquor and fights since the death of his family. The sheriff pulls Clint Truman from a brawl and offers him an opportunity to stay out ofjail. Lightstone even has an idea for Clint’s wife.

The two men take a wagon to Huntsville prison for women and wait as that day’s releases file out. Of the several women inmates regaining freedom that day, only one is not met and has nowhere to go—and she carries a tiny baby. Karissa has been betrayed by everyone she trusted and is consumed by fear. After assurances by Clint, she agrees to wed him if her conditions are met: he will never ask about her past, he will never strike her, and he will never force himself on her. He gives her a few days to recover while he sells his farm, then they set out by train for Dallas to buy a wagon and supplies for their trip to the Panhandle.

Meanwhile near Galveston, Patrick McAllen is escaping an overbearing and abusive father with the aid of his mute brother, Shelby. Going with Patrick is Annie Spencer, who is almost as eager to escape her stepmother. Patrick and Annie are friends but not in love. Their motive in marrying is to flee beyond their parents’ reach and they seek Harmon Ely’s town as a sanctuary. Annie requests only that Patrick never lie to her. He agrees and asks for the same. He hopes one day Shelby will join them.

Captain Gillian Matheson is a career soldier. Although he loves his wife Daisy to distraction, he cannot settle on her family’s farm and tolerate her brothers ordering him about constantly. He hadn’t realized when they wed that she wouldn’t leave her family to follow him from post to post. What he doesn’t know is that Daisy has grown weary of never seeing her beloved husband for longer than enough time to conceive another child. Writing as her husband, Daisy contracted with Harmon Ely to settle in his new town. Then she convinced her brothers to load all her furnishings into wagons and escort her to Harmon’s trading post and leave. All she has to do now is await Gillian’s arrival. The letter she sent her husband should bring him hurrying to meet her. At least, she prays that’s true.

A PLACE CALLED HARMONY is one of my favorites of Ms Thomas’ books. Each of the three couples plus the secondary characters face different problems that present a slice of 1880’s western life. Settling on the frontier was hard work and dangerous, but joy also awaited those with survival skills. By deftly weaving the good with the bad, Ms Thomas creates a portrait of those who founded not just Harmony, but a myriad of towns across the West.   

 If you haven’t already guessed, I give A PLACE CALLED HARMONY five out of five stars. You can buy this book from www.jodithomas.com

LIFE IN A SODDY BY CHARLENE RADDON

By Charlene Raddon

I’ve blogged quite a bit lately about dugouts, in promoting my new e-release, To Have And To Hold, because the heroine in my book lived in a dugout. But today I’m going to talk about the other typical first home for a frontier settler—the sod house.

Timber was scarce on the Great Plains. Early settlers built their first shelters from what was available, and for many that meant thick prairie sod. A typical “soddy” was about fourteen feet by sixteen feet in size with a seven-and-one-half-foot high wall, a low-pitched roof, a central side door, and one or two windows. Interior walls were often finished with plaster or covered with newspapers. Canvas, suspended from the ceiling, made the room lighter and helped keep down the dust. Furnishings were sparse and simple, although prized lace curtains or an heirloom piece of furniture were not uncommon.

Not all soddies were small

To build a soddy the homesteader first chose a construction site, squared the interior dimensions of the house, and dampened and packed the floor area. Then an acre or so of unbroken ground was selected and a breaking plow used to cut the sod into long strips about twelve to eighteen inches wide and three to four inches thick. These were then cut with a sharp spade into two- to three-foot-long blocks and hauled to the house site on a wagon or sled. Only enough sod was broken and cut for use that day because the sod blocks were easier to handle when the moisture content was high.

Prairie soddie

Walls were constructed two to three staggered blocks deep (providing a wall depth of two or three feet), with the sod blocks grassy side down. Once the third or fourth layer of blocks were in place, a crosswise layer was installed to add strength to the wall. Wood-plank frames were propped in place at the desired locations for the door and windows, and the wall construction continued until it reached about half its final height. Completed walls were scraped on the inside for a smoother, more attractive surface. This also helped to insure a finished wall that was as vertical as possible. 

After the walls were finished, support poles were placed at each end of the soddy, and the ridgepole place across them. Then either planks or poles were attached to form rafters, and poles or brush, sometimes tar paper or canvas, was applied. On top of all this, layers (the number of layers varied) of sod blocks were positioned either with the grassy side down and coated with a thin plaster. Sometimes the grassy side was left up, and vegetation was allowed to grow. Finally, the gabble ends were filled with sod blocks, and a plank door was hung.

Unusually shaped sod house

Windows were the most expensive part of a sod house and were difficult to install. After setting the frame into the wall, the builder continued to lay rows of sod around it. When the bricks reached the top of the window frame settlers left off two layers of brick and laid cedar poles over the gap. The resulting space, stuffed with grass or rags, protected the windows from breaking.

Window and interior
Note beam over window at roof

Dirt floors were found in the majority of the early sod homes. More prosperous families might fasten carpets to the dirt floor. In some cases, rough or planed split logs were used for flooring. But only a few could afford the luxury of wide, rough-cut planks from the sawmill. Many women detested the continual war with dirt, bugs, snakes, leaky roofs and poor lighting. Nothing ever seemed to be clean. Others took the conditions in stride.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD BLURB

A woman without a prayer…

A widow with two children, Tempest Whitney had to mortgage everything to repay the money her husband had stolen. But even as she struggles to hold onto her Utah homestead, a scheming rancher buys up her debts, demanding she either get off his land or marry him. Then a dark-haired stranger shows up, claiming to be her dead husband…

A man without a past….

Buck Maddux spent two years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Now a death bed promise has brought him to Tempest’s dugout. A man without roots, he doesn’t plan to stay—or to feel so fiercely protective of this feisty beauty he saves from a forced marriage. Suddenly, Buck yearns for a home, a family, a lasting love. But what can he offer Tempest? The surprising answer lies in the forbidden canyons of an ancient Anasazi tribe, where fortune and danger await—along with a passion more precious than gold…

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/To-Have-Hold-ebook/dp/B00B5GWFCY/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1359145410&sr=1-5&keywords=charlene+raddon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charlene Raddon began her writing life at an early age, often penning stories where she cast herself as the heroine. It was after college when she dug out her old college typewriter and started her first novel, which came from a spirited dream she'd had the previous night.

While that book never sold, her second novel did. Tender Touch became a Golden Heart finalist and earned her an agent who signed the book, and two others, in a three book contract with Kensington Publishing. Kensington went onto publish five of Charlene's western historical romances: TAMING JENNA (1994); TENDER TOUCH (1994 Golden Heart Finalist); FOREVER MINE (1996 Romantic Times Magazine Reviewer's Choice Award Nominee and Affaire de Coeur Reader/Writer Poll finalist); TO HAVE AND T HOLD (1997); and as Rachel Summers, THE SCENT OF ROSES (1999).

Charlene took a break from publishing, but not from writing. A KISS AND A DARE is Charlene's first paranormal romance.

DIVINE GAMBLE is Charlene's latest work and won first place in the western historical category of the 2010 Romance Through The Ages contest.

When Charlene isn't writing, she loves to travel, do genealogy, digital scrapbooking and dyes eggs in the Ukrainian style. And she enjoys camping and fishing with her husband in the Utah wilderness. 

Find her at 
http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com
http://www.charleneraddon.com
Tirgearr Publishing

Photos supplied by the author

Thanks for stopping by!

THE MOST FAMOUS WOMAN IN 17th CENTURY AMERICA!

Hannah's statue in
Haverhill, Massachusetts
shows her holding scalps
and a tomahawk

Usually, I talk about Southwestern events, places, or trivia. Today's post is one I originally wrote for the Hearts Through History online chapter of Romance Writers of America blog, Seduced By History. Forgive my reusing the story now, but life has interfered with art again and I’m under the weather. Besides, I was very impressed with this woman, who was once called “The Most Famous Woman In America.”


Ever heard of Hannah Dustin? In her lifetime, folk figure Hannah Emerson Dustin became a role model for pioneer women as her exploits spread across Anglo America. She is the first woman in the U.S. to have a statue erected in her honor. In fact, she has two statues . . . but I’ve gotten ahead of the story.


The time is March 15, 1697 and toward the end of King William’s War. When she learned they were being attacked, Hannah urged her husband, Thomas, to take their other eight children, aged two to seventeen, and flee to the nearby garrison and safety. Reluctantly, he left her in order to save their children. Less than a week after the birth of Martha, her ninth child, forty-year-old Hannah and her young aunt who cared for her, Mary Neff, were captured by Abnaki at Haverhill, Massachusetts.

For fifteen days the Abnaki marched the two women north and into New Hampshire. On the way, the Abnaki smashed baby Martha to death against an apple tree. Taken with at least ten other people from Haverhill, those who couldn’t keep up the Abnaki’s pace were killed. Hannah and Mary were parceled out as slaves to another Abnaki group consisting of half a dozen adults and several children, including an adolescent captive boy, Samuel Leonardson, who had been taken from Worcester eighteen months earlier.

The band set up camp at the conjunction of the Merrimack and Contoocook Rivers (now known as Dustin Island) near what is now Boscawen, New Hampshire and near Concord. One of the Abnaki men told Samuel that they would soon be moving to Canada where the captives would be stripped and forced to “run the gauntlet.” The white women knew they would never live through that experience.

Hannah Dustin, Mary Neff, and
Samuel Leonardson escape

As the story goes, Hannah led a captive rebellion. One of the Abnaki men had been teaching Samuel to fight and had showed him how to kill with a tomahawk. Hannah, Mary, and Samuel tomahawked ten Abnaki men, plus two women, and several children to death as they slept. They left only one elderly woman and a small boy. Hannah had the foresight to take scalps before leaving the enemy camp.


Hannah, Mary, and Samuel scuttled the enemy canoes except for one, which they used to travel down river at night. They reached Haverhill in three days. After some weeks of recovery, the now famous trio traveled to Boston where they requested bounty money for the scalps. The Massachusetts Bay courts had enacted a bounty on scalps in 1694, but it had been repealed. However, the Massachusetts General Court made an exception for Hannah and her two companions.

Accounts vary, but the most widely mentioned is that Hannah received twenty-five pounds and Mary and Samuel each received half that amount. In 1697, that was a considerable amount of money.

Hannah's statue at
Boscawen, New Hampshire

Hannah became famous for her escape and exploits. A statue of her stands in Haverhill, Massachusetts showing her with a tomahawk in one hand and scalps in the other. Another statue is located in Boscawen, New Hampshire, site of the escape. Her story is retold in “The History of Haverhill, in “Notable American Women,” in Henry David Thoreau’s “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and in Laurel Ulrich’s “Goodwives” and other accounts too numerous to mention. In some accounts, Dustin is recorded as Dustan, Durstan, or Duston.

Hannah's grave. She died in 1737

Was she a heroine or a murderer? Don't view her from a politically correct perspective, but from the ideas and practices of colonial life. Imagine the grief of seeing your baby killed in front of you, of watching others murdered because they couldn't keep up the pace. Imagine her concern for her other eight children and her husband. Were they all right? Who was helping care for them? None of us knows whether or not we could have followed in her steps. Would I have been able to kill and then scalp people? I don't know, but I doubt it. If they stood between me and my family, and to protect my aunt and a teenage boy, perhaps I could. It's hard to imagine ourselves in that terrorizing setting.

Regardless of your thoughts on whether or not you could follow her example, don’t you agree she was a formidable woman?

Please also stop in to visit me Tuesday, January 10th, at Calisa Rhose’s blog at http://calisarhose.wordpress.com/chit-chat/.

And please return here on January 11-12 for a new post and a chance to win lots of free books with the Amazing Authors Tour.

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BOOK REVIEW - TRAIL OF THREAD: A WOMAN'S WESTWARD JOURNEY

Do you like history? Do you like stories of pioneers? Wagon trains? Genealogy? Quilting? If you answer yes to any of these, this book and its companion series will interest you.

Linda K. Hubalek has written TRAIL OF THREAD as if it were a series of letters written by her great-great-great grandmother, Deborah Goodpaster Pieratt. Deborah and John Pieratt left Kentucky to find better land in the newly opened Kansas Territory. Ms Hubalek has researched this history so well the letters engage the reader immediately. I have often studied this era in both family history and in writing historical fiction. I thought I was well versed on what went into a covered wagon, but I learned a great deal from this book.

The letters are  filled with Deborah's emotions at leaving her home and family. Along the way, she exchanges quilt patterns and recipes with other travelers she meets. The reader joins Deborah in facing the dangers and hardships of her trip.

The author includes small details most would not consider. She writes of incidents that must have meant surprising hardship for pioneers--such as yoke sores on oxen, moist flour, mosquito coated bread, storms, river crossing accidents, lost supplies, walking in mud, sleeping on damp bedding, sleeping in winter clothing to keep warm, not having clean water for laundry or bathing.

I found the descriptions of building the covered wagons and stocking them very helpful for my personal research.

As the Pieratt family travel to their new home, they are aware of the trouble brewing over slavery. Not wishing to become embroiled in the controversy and endanger themselves, they answer the inevitable question of where they stand on the issue in nomcommital ways to Southerners. In fact, they were not slave holders and were against slavery. Even in 1854-55, the time period covered in this book, abolitionists and slaveholders were drawing lines in the sand. The readers sees the Civil War building.

I can highly recommend this book to anyone who answered yes to any of the initial questions. Even though my historical novels are set in Texas, I'll keep my copy of TRAIL OF THREAD in my research library.

TRAIL OF THREAD is followed by THIMBLE OF SOIL and STITCH OF COURAGE and is one of three series Linda K. Hubalek has released from http://www.butterfieldbooks.com/ The books are available individually or in a set.

Please return on Wednesday, May 25th, when author Linda K. Hubalek will be my guest here. She will answer questions regarding her writing, research, and any comments from readers.

Thanks for stopping by!