Today we’re kicking off the month of July’s “Hero” theme and celebrating Independence Day by featuring One Small Spark, a book about Christopher Seider, a boy who had an impact on the American Revolution.

Author’s Inspiration:

When I first learned about the Christopher Seider incident and how pivotal it was to the events preceding the American Revolution, I was surprised that so little was known about him. After a lot of research, I discovered that no one had written a book about Christopher. I felt it was sad that this boy, who had such a profound impact on our country, was lost to history, so I decided it was time to tell his story.

About the book:

It is 1769, and Boston in in turmoil, but Benjamin Pembroke, the sheltered 11-year-old son of a wealthy merchant, is unaware of the growing unrest. His biggest concern is how to achieve his dream of one day joining the British army when his father expects him to become part of the family business. 

An unexpected visit from one of his father’s business associates piques the curiosity of Benjamin and his twin sister Abigail after they eavesdrop on a cryptic conversation. Benjamin becomes even more intrigued after finding a mysterious scrap of paper referring to a shadowy group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty.  Benjamin becomes determined to learn more about them., and, with the help of his more adventurous sister, sets out to learn who they are and what they’re up to.

During a visit to the home of Grizzell Apthorp, a wealthy widow, Benjamin spies a strange boy he finds surprisingly compelling. When the boy arrives at Benjamin’s home the next day, Benjamin learns that he is Christopher Seider, one of Mrs. Apthorp’s servants who shares Benjamin’s dream of becoming a military hero. This begins an unlikely friendship that will change Benjamin’s future, as well as the future of the country.

A series of escalating incidents involving raids by British soldiers, led by an unscrupulous Customs agent, makes Benjamin realize why so many Bostonians are yearning to be free from the jackboot of King George. Even Benjamin’s father, a former Loyalist, begins to waver in his support for England. When Benjamin discovers Christopher’s connection to the Sons of Liberty, he decides to join forces with the patriots in their fight for freedom.

As the political turbulence in Boston reaches a fever pitch, Benjamin participates in a demonstration outside the business of a merchant caught breaking the non-importation boycott. Things get out of hand, and shots are fired into the crowd of boys. The tragic aftermath is the catalyst that propels the people of Boston into revolution and cements Benjamin’s resolve to become a citizen soldier in the fight for freedom.

Excerpt:

No matter how hard I tried, sleep wouldn’t come that night. I lay in bed and twisted from one side to the other. I plumped my pillow. But my eyes refused to stay closed. Now that the deed was done, I was wracked with doubt. A line from the Bible kept running through my mind. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” In my heart, I believed Mr. Lillie was wrong. But was I justified in judging him? Or was I no better than Ebenezer Richardson, informing on his neighbors? And what would Father say if he knew? I wondered if this was how Judas felt.

I finally gave up. Sitting up in bed, I stared out the window at the deserted street. The night was clear with a full moon that hung in the sky like a lantern. A mangy, stray dog nosed through a pile of trash and ran off, holding something in its mouth I couldn’t identify. The branches rustled in a tree as an owl took flight, soaring silently into the night sky. As the minutes ticked by, my eyes began to grow heavy. I was about to lie back down when I heard voices coming from the end of the street. As the voices grew louder, I pressed my face against the window so I could see further down the block. The voices belonged to five British soldiers. From their rowdy laughter, and the way they were stumbling, I could tell they’d had too much to drink.

They stopped right under my window. One of the soldiers shoved another, knocking him into the flowerbed that belonged to my neighbor, Mrs. Proctor, who was an elderly widow living with her calico cat. She was a kindly soul whose greatest joy was her beautiful garden. Mrs. Proctor spent hours pruning and weeding, coaxing lovely blossoms from the plants that blanketed the ground. In spring, she brought Mother fragrant hyacinths to adorn our mantel. In summer, there were roses, large as saucers, in shades of pink, yellow, and red. Fall brought bouquets of orange and gold chrysanthemums. In the winter, Mrs. Proctor covered the flowerbeds with straw and burlap to protect them from the cold.

The fallen soldier was too drunk to get back onto his feet. He lay in the flowerbed while his friends laughed and catcalled. When he didn’t respond, they tore the burlap covers off Mrs. Proctor’s plants and tossed them over their sleeping friend. Then they began ripping out the plants by their roots, arranging them around him as though he were lying in state. One soldier placed Mrs. Proctor’s favorite rosebush on his comrade’s chest. By the time they finished, the garden was destroyed. From the raucous way they were laughing as they staggered off, I could tell they thought this was the greatest joke in the world.

As I watched the soldiers vandalize Mrs. Proctor’s beloved garden, my guilt changed to fury. Were these the men who were sent to Boston to restore order? Where was their respect for the law? Did they have so little regard for the people they were sworn to protect?  And had they no pride in being members of the King’s army? If only I could do something to make them pay for their senseless destruction.

About the author:

Jackie Minniti is a former teacher and journalist. She is the award-winning author of Project June Bug, Jacqueline, and One Small Spark. Several of her stories have been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul collections. She lives in Treasure Island, Florida, with her husband and two noisy macaws.

Author media links:

Website: www.jackieminniti.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Jackie-Minniti

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Jackie Minniti@Jackie Minniti

Pinterest:

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/43961003-jackie-minniti

Blog:  fabulousfloridawriters.blogspot.com

Buy link:

July’s theme is to honor groups of people I recognize as heroes for their efforts in protecting us as citizens: putting their lives on the line for our freedom, safety and healing.

To kick off the month, I’ll be featuring a children’s book about a hero from the Revolutionary War, a perfect story for the the 4th of July.

The other books I’ll be featuring are: a military romance, a romantic suspense, and a series about life-flight doctors and nurses. I’m honored that the authors are allowing me to showcase their books and share their inspiration and excerpts.

I’ll also introduce you to a Christian author and her new summer romance release.

My quest for entries in my “Who is your Hero?” contest didn’t pan out. However, if you have anyone you would like to honor this month as your hero, feel free to comment below, or send a message to authorcarolunderhill@yahoo.com.

The contest is over so there are no prizes, but I’d still love to hear your stories.

Last week I had CPR training through my work.

I’m now certified.

I pray that I never have to use it, or if I do, then it will be with victorious results.

As I worked on the dummy during training memories came back to me in full force.

On August 17, 2010, my husband was on the job. He was working on a truck that had an arm on it when the operator hit the power line. He was electrocuted. He fell to the ground, and his heart stopped.

His coworkers acted quickly, bringing out an AED unit and were able to get his heart beating again.

Victory.

But because his injuries were so severe, having received internal burns, he never regained consciousness. A few days later we said goodbye to him.

Losing my husband left a gaping hole in my heart. For many months, I had dreams where we had a funeral for him and he wasn’t really dead. It’s as if my subconscious had as hard a time accepting the loss as I consciously did. I got out of bed each morning because I had kids who no longer had two parents and depended on me to meet their needs.

They say that time heals wounds.

It takes more than just time.

I had many people praying for me. I also had the support of family and good friends who prayed for me and listened to me cry. I went to grief counseling. I took an antidepressant faithfully. I found comfort in songs, both from the hymnal and contemporary Christian music.

In 2013, I passed the third anniversary of his death wishing I were a drinker. I’ve never had an alcoholic drink, but I craved it and the escape it could provide.

Instead I bought a “death by chocolate” cake and ate almost the whole thing. My blood sugar skyrocketed.

A few weeks later, I believe God answered my prayers and all those who’d been praying for me when I was introduced to a Christian counselor in my area. I started seeing her once a week.

I was stuck in grief and depression. Through her counseling and effort on my part, I gradually came out of that dark pit. At first I lived life in the shadows. After an especially hard 2020, I feel like now, in 2021, I am living in the full light of victory in my life.

I have two books published and a third underway. I have more ideas for future books than I have time to write. I have a blog that is thriving. I have a good job that challenges me and helps me be a better person.

I have three independent adult children whom I’m close to and who enjoy each other’s company.

I’m “living the dream” as a bread distributor once said every time he was asked how he was doing.

The downside is: I no longer have my best friend and rock that was my husband.

Still, I can say today that the wound from my husband’s tragic death has healed. There is a scar there. I’ll always remember him and miss his presence in my life. I’ll never be the person I was before he died.

But I’ve become independent and confident in my abilities. I have more empathy for people who are suffering. I recognize that time with our loved ones is precious.

Scars show up when a wound has healed.

May God begin healing your wounds today.

Before my novella, Angelica’s Christmas Wish, was published in 2019, I independently published a series called Legacy of Courage. The idea for the books came to me in 2003. I did indepth research into the history of our country. I chose to set the book in the southern part of Indiana in a little fictional town. The story begins in 1857, and continues on through several books.

I first sold the Courage books in a spiral bound copy that friends and family purchased. I wrote five books and published them, selling less than 50 copies of the series. Each time I wrote a book, readers asked when the next one was coming out. I did some editing over the years to the first book as I learned more about writing style and also correcting errors in research.

Then my husband passed away in 2010. I wrote a sixth book and sold it in the spiral bound print, but I didn’t sell any more copies of the first few books.

In 2012, I decided to independently publish the books in a nice paperback binding. I hired a professional designer to create covers for me. He did some amazing work for me. He also set up the text in the books.

Instead of a working with a publisher, I paid a printing company to print the books and purchased the copies from them directly. In doing so, I retained full rights to my books. The difficulty was marketing them beyond friends, family and local stores. In 2014, I put them on Amazon for Kindle. I didn’t know how to set them up properly, but I kept them up on the Amazon website for a few years.

After I received a contract with Anaiah Press for my Christmas novella, and my full-length novel, I took the Courage series down from Amazon. I had learned a lot about contemporary writing style through the editing process and felt that the Courage books needed a lot of work to make them marketable.

Earlier this year, I took another look at the series, trying to decide whether to rewrite them and find a publisher, or offer them on the market as they were. I have a following of around 300 readers. I asked a question on Facebook: Should I rewrite the books and try to find a publisher, or should I keep them the way they are and continue to self-publish? I didn’t get a lot of responses, but the answers pointed to keeping the books as is and not rewriting them.

A few weeks ago, I literally dreamed up a scene for the next book in the series. I woke up in the night, laughing as I remembered a story that a former Bible study leader told me. His wife had made some yeast rolls that turned out really hard. When they went to a friend’s house later that night, he took one of the rolls out of his pocket and knocked on the door with it.

One of my characters, Seth, the brother to the hero, has lost his way spiritually, but he has his eye on the teacher at the country school his nephew goes to. He’s known her since they were kids, but he’d never paid much attention, preferring to flirt with girls who were not as proper as she is. When she catches his interest, he has to do some convincing before she will give him a chance to court her. He likes to joke around, so I can see him acting out this scene with dinner rolls she bakes to tease her.

With fresh ideas for the series, I’vedecided that I will go forward with marketing them again as they were. I’ve had the interior of the books designed to comply with the proper Kindle format.

You will most likely find typos and other errors while reading the books. You may not agree with the historical research. I’d like to think I could make them perfect, but I don’t think that’s possible. For now, I’ve done the best I could in catching errors. I think you’ll be able to look past some of the imperfections and see that the characters and the story are as heartwarming as my traditionally published books.

The first two books in the Legacy of Courage series are available on Amazon in the Kindle version now. I’m hoping by the end of the year I can have them in print form.

Buy links for Kindle versions: