Tuesday, 8 July 2025

An Echo of Ashes by Ron Allen Ames


An Echo of Ashes
By Ron Allen Ames


Publication Date: March 25th, 2025
Publisher: Historium Press
Pages: 247
Genre: Historical Fiction


An Echo of Ashes is a story lost to time, then found again in century-old letters that lay in a tattered box.


Based on actual events taken from the pages, this story tells of when the Great War and the Spanish Influenza forever altered the lives of millions, including a family of subsistence farmers who also worked the oil fields of Pennsylvania.


Ella and Almon make their home in the backcountry. Almon and his sons work in the oil fields, just as their forefathers before them. As war and influenza break out, the parents seek to shield their family from the impending perils. Earl, the eldest son, is a gifted trombone and piano player. He is captivated by Lucile Lake, a girl from a higher social status. All he has to win her heart are his music and his words as the military draft looms in the foreground. Jack, a friend as close as a brother, faces the horrors of war at the Western Front. Albert's free spirit creates chaos as he searches for direction. Arthur's patriotism leads him to the Mexican border. Young Russell must suppress his fear to save a life, while Little Clara remains protected from the distress.


World War One and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic are most often documented separately, yet they intersected in 1918. For those who endured sacrifice and loss during this time, looking forward seemed their only choice. The sharp echo of tragedy, carried through the ashes of what once was, likely dulled but never vanished from their minds. This is just one of countless family stories from such a perilous chapter in American history.


Excerpt

My dearest Lucile,

I have wrestled for days over what to write to you. I must admit that I had previously given up—and then I saw you again. I know your world is different from mine, leaving me nothing to offer other than words of what I see, what I know, and what I feel.

As the raindrops fall, they rush to the streams. And, from the moment we met, you filled my mind like streams fill the rivers. Yet, it is more than your beauty. You unlock, in me, a place beyond the heart.

When you walk by, I follow your every move. My hope is that you glance my way with those eyes that flash like the lightning of a summer storm, yet reveal the promise of a blue sky, tomorrow.
 
The fields of wheat gently wave like your flaxen hair in the breeze and your voice whispers to me on the wind.

This vision I hold has led me to the edge of a dream. If I step in . . . are you there?

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An Echo of Ashes

Ron Allen Ames


Ron Allen Ames is a history enthusiast who attributes his forty-six years of life experience as a hands-on business co-owner, for giving him insight into human nature, a benefit when portraying the lives of others. The information he received, dating from 1914 to 1919, is what prompted Ames to bring this history to light in An Echo of Ashes.

Ames lives with his wife Cathy in Pennsylvania. They have two grown sons.

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The Lydiard Chronicles by Elizabeth St.John




The Lady of the Tower (Book 1)
By Love Divided (Book 2)
Written in Their Stars (Book 3)
By Elizabeth St.John


Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by true events. Follow three courageous women—survivors, strategists, and storytellers—who defy the constraints of society to shape their family’s fate and England’s future. Their voices echo through time. Their legacy changed a nation.

The Lydiard Chronicles is an award-winning, best-selling historical family saga which brings to life the remarkable true stories of the St.John family. Spanning three compelling novels—The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided, and Written in Their Stars—the series follows the legacy of resilient and intelligent women who lived as spies, courtiers, and diarists during England’s most turbulent century, navigating the quicksand of love and war, political upheaval, and personal sacrifice. 

Bound by fierce family loyalty and unforgettable love, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles defy the limits of their time with passion, courage, and unshakable independence. They endure captivity in the Tower of London, exile in the Louvre Palace, and the heart-wrenching divisions of the English Civil War—fighting not just for survival, but for their beliefs, their families, and the right to choose their own fate. Meticulously researched and vividly told, this epic saga reveals how these women created history from the shadows, leaving a legacy of resilience, defiance, and enduring influence.

Rooted in original diaries, letters, and family papers, The Lydiard Chronicles offers an intimate, biographical portrait of women who moved behind the scenes of power. Serving as trusted secret agents, military wives, and confidantes of kings, they were deeply engaged in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Through tragedy and triumph, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles shape their destinies—and the fate of a nation—in this richly researched and vividly told historical epic. 

Each novel is priced at just 0.99c /99p 1-15th July, 2025 
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Elizabeth St. John


Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a trilogy set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley's perilous quest to uncover the truth behind the sudden discovery of the princes' bones. In Charles II's court of intrigue and deceit, Franny must decide what she’ll risk—for England’s salvation, her family's safety, and her own happiness.

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Monday, 7 July 2025

Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald Zan

 


Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence
By Julie McDonald Zander


Publication Date: March 7th, 2025
Publisher: St. Helen's Press
Pages: 290
Genre: Historical Fiction / World War I / Timeslip


A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.


When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.


Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.


As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.


Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.


Pick up your copy of
Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence



Julie McDonald Zander


Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor.

Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories. Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.

She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.

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