Read my review of Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65 (The Simmons family saga) by Dane Pizzuti Krogman @dekester09 @maryanneyarde

Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65

(The Simmons family saga)

By Dane Pizzuti Krogman 

This is the fictional story set in Mendota, Minnesota of the Simmons family who are faced with the consequences of the Dakota Sioux Uprising of 1862 that swept across the state as well as the Civil War.

The father, Dan enlists in the 1st regiment of Minnesota volunteers as a teamster. His two sons, who are both underage join the 2nd Regiment. John, aged 16 becomes a bugler and William, aged 15 becomes a drummer. Their sister, Sara is left behind with their mother, Louise to fend for themselves. Dan is sent east to fight with the Army of the Potomac while his sons are sent to the western theater to serve in the army of the Cumberland. Back in Mendota, their neighbor and close friend, Colonel Henry Sibley is ordered to stay in the state to control the Indian uprising.

Dan will see action up through the battle of Antietam. He will later find himself in the hospital in Washington DC where he befriends a comrade also from the 1st Regiment. His sons barely miss the action at Shiloh but after, are engaged in all the major battles in the West. While they are passing through Louisville, William falls for a young woman, Mary who works as a hospital nurse. Back in Mendota, Sara befriends a young Chippewa native boy while her mother struggles with the breakup of her family. After Colonel Sibley defeats the Sioux, he is promoted to General and ordered to round up all the Dakota and push resettle them in the Dakotas.

This leads to the punitive expeditions that he and General Sully will command up until 1864. William is captured at the battle up Missionary Ridge and then sent to the prison camp at Belle Isle, VA. and then onto Andersonville. GA. John receives a 30 day furlough and returns to Mendota before he re-enlists. Louise and Sara wait for the war’s end so the family can be reunited, but events may not turn out as anticipated.

Publication Date: 15th March 2021
Publisher: Independently Published
Page Length: 416 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

MY THOUGHTS

War causes suffering, there is no getting away from that, but as America fights a bitter Civil War, the Dakota tribes are facing hardship and desperate hunger. Little Crow knows that they could never win a war, but it wasn't as if they had anything else to lose.

Dan Simmons has no real desire to go to war, but his sons think it is his patriotic duty to fight, and so, against his own better judgment he enlists as a Teamster, thinking that such a job would keep him somewhat safe. Before he leaves he reminds his sons that under no circumstances do they enlist. But alas, John and William have war fever and are caught up in all the excitement. As they grind their mother down with their consistent whining and pleading, Louise, after talking to Henry Sibley who promises the boys will drill in the day and come home at night, reluctantly agrees for her sons to become musicians—one to learn the snare drum and the other the bugle. But to her horror, Louise quickly learns that Sibley might talk a good game but he has very little influence and his lies slip from his tongue as smoothly as butter on a burn.

This novel started out a little unsteadily and initially, I wondered if this book was a work of historical non-fiction. But as the characters were introduced the fictional side of the story took off. I must admit, I felt slightly taken back by the writing style, much of the dialogue is muddled together without the use of separate paragraphs, which made it somewhat difficult to decipher who was saying what. A new paragraph is needed every time someone different speaks (I was surprised that the editor did not correct this). But, as I continued to read I found myself looking past these flaws and I became invested in the story.

This novel tells two stories that run parallel to each other. On the one hand, this novel is about the American Civil War, and because of this some of the characters in this novel face unimaginable horrors. The fact that two of the protagonists are children, made it even worse. Running alongside the story of the Civil War is the desperate story of the Dakota tribes and the awful situation that they found themselves in when the annuity payments, promised by the government, were not paid. This plunged the tribes into desperate poverty and hungry bellies made angry men. 

There are many characters in this novel and each plays their part in driving the story forward. All of the characters have a sense of realism, and their reactions to events around them came across as incredibly realistic. The one character that found a place in my heart with Louise. Her trusting innocence and her heartache as a wife and mother were heartrending. I thought Krogman did an absolutely amazing job in portraying her fear and sense of hopelessness. 

I thought the depiction of Little Crow was fabulous—he is a man conflicted. He knows that they do not stand a chance against the white man's army, but what else could they do? When they were refused credit and faced terrible hostility it seemed they had little choice—fight or starve. The way there were treated was awful, but the war that was to follow meant that terrible acts of atrocities were carried out on both sides. Krogman has detailed a very shameful episode in American history with a keen authority on the subject.

The war caused shortages of everything and Krogman has depicted just what it was like when a soldier did not have replacement equipment, especial things like boots, medical supplies, and food. The abject poverty and the terrible conditions that the soldiers had to endure meant that many thousands of men died from things such as dysentery. I thought Krogman portrayal of this desperate situation was spot on. He has captured the misery and the hardships of this era.

Aside from the shaky beginning, I thought this book was really rather good. It is certainly one of those books that once read is difficult to forget. 

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Dane Krogman

Dane Pizzuti Krogman was educated in the fine arts at the University of Minnesota, receiving BFA and MFA degrees. He also specialized in Asian art history, with a concentration in textile and surface design. After graduation, he worked as a freelance designer creating fashion samples for women’s athletic wear. He eventually relocated to California and taught at Cal-Poly Pomona in the Environmental Design program then moved on to work as a pictorial artist for outdoor advertising. Moving back to the Twin Cities in 1981 he formed a scenic design company call Artdemo which in 10 years did over 1000 designs and productions for sets, props, and special effects for television commercials and feature films. In the early 90’s he relocated to Charleston, SC to work as a spec writer for feature film scripts. Six of his screenplays have won major writing awards and two of these have been optioned for production. During this time he also taught scene design at the College of Charleston. This position led to an adjunct teaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University where he taught art direction for filmmakers. In 1998 he took a full time teaching position at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he taught art direction, life drawing, set construction, and Asian film studies, eventually becoming chairman of the department. 

The common thread through all of this has been his passion for Japanese design, art, and fashion. He has lived in Kyoto, Japan for the past 20 summers studying Japanese kimono and obi design of the Heian and Edo periods. In 2002 he won the Grand Prize for the best graphic novel at the Hiroshima manga competition. His graphic Novel Skeleton boy was selected for inclusion into the Hiroshima peace memorial library in 2007.

He was most recently an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate Program in Digital Filmmaking at Stony Brook Southampton. He is also an award-winning screenwriter. His screenplay, The Schooner was produced as the Australian film, AUSTRALIA in 2008. He has other award-winning films that have been optioned for production or are in production.

As a Civil War historian he has worked as a technical advisor for the films, Dances with Wolfs, Gettysburg, and Glory. He currently has one Civil War novel in pre-publication; MENDOTA, AND THE RESTIVE RIVERS OF THE CIVIL AND INDIAN WARS 1861-65.

He also works part-time as a crew member on a Grand-Am Rolex series race team. The team won the national championship in 2008.

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My review of The Pact (The Illustrated Colonials, Book One) by Tom Durwood #YoungAdult #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub

The Pact

(The Illustrated Colonials, Book One)

By Tom Durwood

Six international teens join the American Revolution.

Coming of age and making history.  

They went into 1776 looking for a fight. Little did they know how much it would cost them… 

Six rich kids from around the globe join the Bostonian cause, finding love and treachery along the path to liberty. 

A new perspective on one of history’s most fascinating moments. 

Amply illustrated edition of a young-adult historical fiction novel. 

 

Publication Date: 8th April 2021

Publisher: Empire Studies Press

Page Length: 218 Pages

Genres: Young Adult / Historical Fiction / Adventure

MY THOUGHTS

This is a really short novel so the review will reflect the length. 

I was slightly disappointed to read in the notes at the end of the book that the author thinks so little of his writing that he decided to use illustrations to help his readers understand his story. I am all for illustrations in novels and for the age of the readers that this novel is aimed at then illustrations are very important, but I hated reading about the author's self-doubt. But, this self-doubt does explain an awful lot. 

The story, set against the backdrop of the American Revolution, is about six, for the most part, wealthy individuals all of whom have nobility running through their veins. These individuals are collected, for want of a better word, and sent to a special school where they can learn and grow together (the why for this is never really explained). Here they learn to put aside differences and rub along together and learn from each other. The collecting of these characters happens in the first part of this novel and it is also where we are introduced to the characters one by one. I have to admit that these short sharp chapters that went from one end of the world to the other left me rather confused. At one point I thought that instead of reading a novel I was reading a collection of short stories that did not make a great deal of sense. It is only when I reach the second part of this novel that the story become a little clearer and I was able to follow it.  

There were several things that I disliked about this book, so l am going to talk about them first to get them out of the way. They are as follows:

Repeated sentences, highlighted in blue, in the middle of the story - I did not understand why they were there and they completely threw me out of the world the author had created.

The excessive amount of quotes - if this book is aimed at young adult then some of these quotes would have flown right over their head and there was just so many of them that they interfered with the story.

On the other side, there were several things that I really liked:

The characters' individuality and how they slowly began to build a lasting relationship with each other. All six protagonists come from very different backgrounds which I thought was fascinating and I liked how they learned from each other.

The originality of the story. I have never read a book quite like it, and I liked where the author was going with the story.

This novel would certainly appeal to a younger audience. I just wish the author did not doubt in his writing abilities as much because he is a talented writer - BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

I have found this novel very difficult to rate because there were a lot of things that I did not understand or like about the way the book was presented, but there were moments of brilliance in the writing itself. I have, after much deliberation, gone with a four-star rating because I think this story has a lot of potential and I think this series, once the author has more confidence in his own abilities, promises to be a very good one.

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Tom Durwood is a teacher, writer and editor with an interest in history. Tom most recently taught English Composition and Empire and Literature at Valley Forge Military College, where he won the Teacher of the Year Award five times. Tom has taught Public Speaking and Basic Communications as guest lecturer for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam’s Neck Annex of the Naval War College.

Tom’s ebook Empire and Literature matches global works of film and fiction to specific quadrants of empire, finding surprising parallels. Literature, film, art and architecture are viewed against the rise and fall of empire. In a foreword to Empire and Literature, postcolonial scholar Dipesh Chakrabarty of the University of Chicago calls it “imaginative and innovative.” Prof. Chakrabarty writes that “Durwood has given us a thought-provoking introduction to the humanities.” His subsequent book “Kid Lit: An Introduction to Literary Criticism” has been well-reviewed. “My favorite nonfiction book of the year,” writes The Literary Apothecary (Goodreads).

Early reader response to Tom’s historical fiction adventures has been promising. “A true pleasure … the richness of the layers of Tom’s novel is compelling,” writes Fatima Sharrafedine in her foreword to “The Illustrated Boatman’s Daughter.” The Midwest Book Review calls that same adventure “uniformly gripping and educational … pairing action and adventure with social issues.” Adds Prairie Review, “A deeply intriguing, ambitious historical fiction series.”

Tom briefly ran his own children’s book imprint, Calico Books (Contemporary Books, Chicago). Tom’s newspaper column “Shelter” appeared in the North County Times for seven years. Tom earned a Masters in English Literature in San Diego, where he also served as Executive Director of San Diego Habitat for Humanity.

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Read an excerpt from Pied Piper by Keith Stuart #HistoricalFiction #WW2 #BlogTour @len_maynard @maryanneyarde

 

Pied Piper

By Keith Stuart

In September 1939 the British Government launched Operation Pied Piper. To protect them from the perils of German bombing raids, in three days millions of city children were evacuated - separated from their parents. 

This story tells of two families: one whose children leave London and the other which takes them in. We share the ups and downs of their lives, their dramas and tragedies, their stoicism and their optimism. But. unlike many other stories and images about this time, this one unfolds mainly through the eyes of Tom, the father whose children set off, to who knew where, with just a small case and gas mask to see them on their way

Publication Date: 1st March 2021

Publisher: LMP- Len Maynard Publishing

Page Length: 176 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction / WWII 

EXCERPT

The next few minutes’ thoughts were drowned by the clatter of pots and cutlery and plates but there was an unusual absence of chatter. Alice and Micky always had something to say, correcting and contradicting each other about things they had been doing together and interrupting each other as they shared what they had done alone, each certain the other was being given too much time to tell. But that night they were subdued, quiet.

“Right, you two, hands washed quickly,” and I whisked Micky off his feet towards the sink, trying my darnedest to tickle his ribs and illicit a giggle. Instead, he twisted in my arms and threw his arms round my neck, pressing his warm little cheek against mine and whispered in my ear. “I don’t want to go, Daddy.” I wrapped him in my arms and clasped him so close I wanted him to melt into me so we couldn’t be parted.

“I know, Soldier, but it won’t be for long and you’re a lucky thing getting extra holiday in the country. Wish I was coming.” He could never know how much I meant that. “And you have to look after Alice, too, ’cause you know what she’s like, she won’t want to go either.”

Alice could not have heard the exchange, but she sensed the moment and came running from the sink and crashed into my legs, trying her best to join her hands round my waist and bury her face into my belly. I could feel her shoulders heaving with her sobs and, clutching my son in one arm, I reached down and clasped the back of her head and pressed her closer still. Without looking, my eyes were so tightly shut they hurt, I could see in my mind’s eye her soft, golden hair, tumbling in bubbling curls half-way down her back.

When I dared open my eyes, I found myself instinctively looking straight into Mary’s. She made no sound as tears slid down each side of her face.

“Right, you silly lot. This won’t do. We’ve got tea to eat and lots of getting ready for your adventure. You gotta choose the things you want to take, then everything’s got to be packed, Mummy’s got labels to write. And I…well I’ve got things to do, too.”

“What have you got to do, Daddy?” It was Alice who managed to join me in breaking the moment.

“Now that’s for me to know and you to find out. But you won’t be finding out till tomorrow.”

“Oh Daddy, that’s not fair. That’s teasing and you say we shouldn’t tease.” Micky had eased his cheek from mine and was looking straight at me.

“Yeah, but I’m a grown up and I’m allowed.”

As I lowered Micky to the floor again, I kissed the top of Alice’s head and inhaled as deeply as I could. I needed to lock in the smell of them both. We took our usual places at the table, Mary nearest the stove to fetch and carry, the children either side and opposite each other, and me at the end opposite Mary. It had never been decided that this is how it would be, it just happened. It was a bit like the colour of eyes, or the size of feet being handed down, inherited. It was just the way we did it and it felt right and comfortable. It was the shape of our perfect little family. 

Tea was eaten more quietly than usual: the questions the children must have had I suspect could not be asked. They were too big, too difficult to voice because then they would become real issues instead of potential ones. Neither Mary nor I could guess their thoughts for certain and feared we might sow a seed of fear they might not have had if we were to explore the possibilities with them. So, we sat in a cloud of denial. Not lying to each other by saying but doing so by not.

Micky looked the most lost in his thoughts. It wasn’t right that such big things had to be considered by one so small. I daren’t even try to put myself in his place, wonder what I would have felt like at six years old, leaving my Mum and Dad to go off to who knew where, to live with who knew who, for who knew how long. One thought poked itself into my head but, as the possibility of never seeing my little ones again flitted across my thoughts, Micky spoke and a shutter seemingly came down and ‘what ifs’ returned to ‘what now?’

“Can I take Bunners?”

In all the magnitude of the situation, in a mountain of potential consequences, Micky’s troubled, almost tearful fear that he might be separated from his beloved, stuffed and threadbare rabbit broke the silence at last. And I laughed. It was so absurd, so incongruous and had I not laughed I would most certainly have cried.

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Keith Stuart

Keith Stuart (Wadsworth) taught English for 36 years in Hertfordshire schools, the county in which he was born and has lived most of his life. Married with two sons, sport, music and, especially when he retired after sixteen years as a headteacher, travel, have been his passions. Apart from his own reading, reading and guiding students in their writing; composing assemblies; writing reports, discussion and analysis papers, left him with a declared intention to write a book. Pied Piper is ‘it’.  Starting life as a warm-up exercise at the Creative Writing Class he joined in Letchworth, it grew into this debut novel.

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