Historical Trees

An interview with Jason Goodwin, author of The Janissary Tree.

Lovely Margaret Stewart was a proud and spirited young lady - too proud to accept the unwilling hospitality of her only living relative. But in strait-laced New Orleans early in the 19th century, there were few means for a respectable young woman to make her own way in the world - and that was why Margaret came, as governess to the forbiding Villars mansion. In her charge was a child who seem possessed by satanic evil. Invading her dreams was the darlky handsome, fierce-tempered man who employed her.

It is a history/autobiography book with constructive/insightful messages.

—Southern Historical Fiction at Its Best... A Visit to the Rural South that will Bless Your Heart— —VOLUME 6 ANTHOLOGY (6 volumes in all). Faith & Family Friendly— - The Egg Wagon (novella 1): There are some things that just do not burn. Gold and silver, for instance. Fire and water only purify, and tumultuous earthquakes can just make these metals rise closer to the surface. Some human persons fit that description. Adversity and pain seem to peel away the chaff of life, leaving only the nucleolus of survival. Like being in a slippery simply refuse to die and manage to claw their ...

—Southern Historical Fiction at Its Best... A Visit to the Rural South that will Bless Your Heart— —VOLUME 3 ANTHOLOGY (6 volumes in all). Faith & Family Friendly— - Lace Collar (novella 1): What happened should never have happened to any girl, but the product of this calamity was taken over by a doctor who saw great potential. And there was that lace collar that had been lovingly made for a child not yet born. - Chestnut Cottage (novella 2): Something needed to be done for the youngest of humans who had the misfortune to be born without protectors. Hence, the creation of Chestnut ...

Adelaide, a young midwife in an 1833 Ohio village, overhears a stranger charge Josef, the town's autocratic leader, with fraud. The next day the stranger is found murdered, and soon the sheriff arrives to arrest Josef. Without Josef there telling the villagers what to do, chaos ensues.

The year is 1789. France is reeling under the impact of a civil war between its social classes. When a secret agent from Rome joins forces with a vindictive politician bent on revenge, the stage is set for an explosive outcome that will shake the country to its core. Meanwhile, Queen Marie Antoinette engages the help of her lady-in-waiting, Viviane de Lussan, in a desperate battle to keep her throne...and her head. But how can she win a struggle she seems fated to lose?

When Pearl’s grandmother Nell dies unexpectedly, she and her family - mother Diana, sister Lucy - return to Kangaroo Island to mourn and say farewell to her. Each of them knew Nell intimately but differently, and each woman must reckon with Nell’s passing in her own way. But Nell had secrets, too; and as Pearl, Diana and Lucy reflect on their feelings about the island, Pearl starts to pull together the scraps Nell left behind - her stories, poems, paintings - and unearths a connection to the island’s early history.

When Pearl’s grandmother Nell dies unexpectedly, she and her family - mother Diana, sister Lucy - return to Kangaroo Island to mourn and say farewell to her. Each of them knew Nell intimately but differently, and each woman must reckon with Nell’s passing in her own way. But Nell had secrets, too; and as Pearl, Diana and Lucy reflect on their feelings about the island, Pearl starts to pull together the scraps Nell left behind - her stories, poems, paintings - and unearths a connection to the island’s early history.

Ireland is about to be torn apart by the War of Independence. Hannah O'Donovan helps her father hide rebel soldiers in the attic, putting her family in great danger from the British soldiers who roam the countryside. An immediate connection between Hannah and O'Riada, the leader of this hidden band of rebels, will change her life and that of her family forever....

Emmy Darling has a secret. She has a few. Her lemon meringue pie is a recipe from a women's magazine, she's always wanted to be a playwright, and the best parts of her husband Sebastian's plays are the scenes she's written during edits. But when charismatic theatre impresario and leading lady, Virginia van Belle, insists Emmy write about her wartime experiences as the lead play in her 1957 season, Emmy is faced with every writer's dilemma. Because Emmy's biggest secret is that her name is actually Emiko Tanaka.

—Southern Historical Fiction at Its Best... A Visit to the Rural South that will Bless Your Heart— —VOLUME 5 ANTHOLOGY (6 volumes in all). Faith & Family Friendly— - Persimmon Jam (novella 1): The thing about raising pups is that there is no stopping point. Sort of like the chicken and the egg. Even if you love the job, it can turn into its own sort of prison. Just about the time you get it under control, something weird happens. But our Paula is a ‘can-do’ gal, and it just takes a bit of thought, good planning, and maybe an ad in the Classified column of the Wishbone Echo. - ...

—Southern Historical Fiction at Its Best... A Visit to the Rural South that will Bless Your Heart— —VOLUME 2 ANTHOLOGY (6 volumes in all). Faith & Family Friendly— - Daughters (novella 1): Sudden widowhood left her totally unprepared, just as most things in her life had done. It had not been her fault, but it would truly be her fault if she condemned her daughters to the same life. And she wasn’t going to let that happen...no matter the cost. - Love and a Locomotive (novella 2): Lennie M. Marshall was named after Grandad, Leonard Marshall. By age 12, Lennie could shoot a rattler ...

Southern Historical Fiction A Visit to the Rural South that will Bless Your Heart ROADSIDE STAND Burley Collins was a wanderer—had been all his life. Stopping here, staying a while there, doing this and that, learning more with each adventure. He stopped to rest where the old man used to have a stand where he sold odds and ends. The old man was gone and the stand was falling apart, but the view was as good as ever. He set his things down and looked around again, taking everything in. There was really nothing to keep him there long...except, perhaps, whatever was hanging from that tree ...

Forced to flee Rome, merchant Nicander meets an unlikely ally in the form of Marius, a fierce Roman legionary. Escaping to a new life in Constantinople, the two land upon its shores lonely and penniless. Needing to make money fast, they plot a wicked plan to steal precious silk seeds from the faraway land of Seres. Nicander and Marius must embark upon a terrifyingly treacherous journey across unknown lands never before completed.

Their lives were forever changed when a widow with seven children, married a widower with seven children. Three step sibling marriages are arranged to benefit from a dowry that was doubled by their filial unions. The way in which their lives intertwine is the grist for Twisted Trees. It is a story of one man's ambition to rise above the oppressive class system, where men were judged by their heritage and not their ability; where women often endured loveless marriages rather than face the stigma of divorce.

When Luftwaffe pilot Hermann Kaestner falls in love with a French clairvoyant, who will he be forced to betray - his country, his lover, or his own soul? The world has now forgotten the Druidess of Brocéliande, but at the height of her fame she was predicting the fate of nations and the outcome of the war to thousands seated in the Salle Pleyel in Paris. In the streets outside, the French police were rounding up Jews while German officers were entertained in brothels and slept in the city’s best hotels. Based on the lives of Geneviève Zaepffel and Abbé Henri Gillard, creator of a ...

Richard Atkinson was in his late 30s and approaching a milestone he had long feared - the age at which his father died – when one day he came across a box of old family letters gathering dust in a cupboard. This discovery set him on an all-consuming, highly emotional journey, ultimately taking him from the weather-beaten house of his Cumbrian ancestors to the ruins of their sugar estates in Jamaica....

When her father, chief of the Gypsies, died, headstrong Etti lost her status but none of her spirit. She's the first woman to race her horse in Marseilles. She survives attacks by her drunken brothers, the very men who should have protected her, and she's turned the head of Rafa, a delicious Gitano Gypsy from Spain with a tantalizing sense of adventure and breathtaking passion. She dares to break all the rules to pursue Rafa - and the exciting life she craves.