Fiction
Fiction
A. by Alan Lindsay
When nineteen-year-old Holly Perkins decides, against the wishes of her devout family, to raise her baby on her own, her family retaliates. This young woman from a small New Hampshire town is forced to leave college, to move out of the house, and to return to the job she thought she’d left for good. Alone, unsupported, and overwhelmed, Holly finds herself reassessing her respectable upbringing as she tries to figure out how to live. A. traces Holly’s struggles with the complex array of forces, human and divine, that harry her under the banner of love.
More Details
About the author
Alan Lindsay lives, writes, breaks rocks, and harvests trees at his home in the woods. His poems and stories have appeared in The Bend, New-Works Review, Wired Hearts and various other publications. He attained an M.A. in fiction writing and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame. He teaches literature and writing at New Hampshire Technical Institute.
Dead Sand: A Lewis Cole Mystery by Brendan DuBois
Plaidswede Publishing has re-published the first novel in the acclaimed Lewis Cole mystery series by award-winning New Hampshire author Brendan DuBois. The novel, DEAD SAND, was first published in 1994 by Otto Penzler Books, a division of Macmillan Publishing. Since that first novel in the Lewis Cole series, five more novels have been published. However, for newer readers of the Lewis Cole series, it has been nearly impossible to find a copy of DuBois’ first published novel.
More Details
DEAD SAND tells the tale of Lewis Cole, a former Department of Defense research analyst who investigates things mysterious in and around the New Hampshire seacoast.
In DEAD SAND, the discovery of a body buried for more than 40 years and the murder of a teenage waitress are connected to a decades-long grudge of death and betrayal.
Kevin: The Last Invisible Vermonter by Steve Delaney
Who is Kevin Beaujolais? Some of the people in Nilesburgh, Vermont, know a bit about him … but they don’t know everything. Newcomers know nothing. Kevin keeps to himself, works hard for the townspeople and hunters, and is somewhat of a Robin Hood figure. But he is a mystery man — even where he lives in town is a mystery.
More Details
How, in this day and time, can a fellow like Kevin Beaujolais live with us, work with us and … not exist?
Broadcaster Steve Delaney brings to life Kevin Beaujolais in his first novel, “Kevin: The Last Invisible Vermonter,” published by Plaidswede Publishing Co., of Concord, N.H. This is Delaney’s second book. The first, “Vermont Seasonings,” a collection of essays on life in Vermont, was published in 2007 by Plaidswede.
Kevin is one of the most vivid characters ever to bubble up from the deep well of Vermont fiction. His struggle between the fears that drive him to hide from bureaucracy and the love that tugs him toward the alluring Maureen drives this tale of romance and mischief … and mayhem. Their story unfolds in the northern Vermont town of Nilesburgh … a town that holds many secrets.
Delaney's distinctive voice has been heard on Vermont Public Radio for the past decade. He has won national honors for two NBC White Paper television documentaries, and for radio documentaries and news programs produced for VPR. Delaney is a fifty-year broadcast journalist who has covered politics and other petty crime in Washington, finance and other felonies in New York and wars on three continents. He is the middle link in a five-generation family love affair with Lake Champlain and the state and now calls Milton his home. "Kevin" is his second book.
Live Free or Die, Die, Die!
The mystery anthology is the second is a series of collections of short stories to known as the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction series. The first anthology, “Live Free or Undead: Dark Tales from the Granite State,” was published by Plaidswede Publishing last fall and is available at most N.H. book sellers and from nhbooksellers.com. Volumes featuring science fiction and historical romance are planned as well. Stories featured in the series will be written mostly by New Hampshire authors but they will always be embedded firmly in the Granite State.
More Details
“The state is rich with fascinating lore and compelling locales,” says Broussard. “With our combination of deep, rugged nature and fast-growing urban complexes, any writer seeking a setting for fiction can find ample inspiration here.”
For those of you who have been wondering who actually made the cut and got into this edition of NH Pulp Fiction, here’s a list of the chosen few:
Rob Azevedo
Robin Curtis
Jeffrey DeRego
Brendan DuBois
Brian Edmonds
Judith Green
Simon Harling
John Hirtle
Margaret Bobalek King
Rebecca Leeb
Gregory Nicoll
Susan Nye
David O’Keefe
Lorrie Lee O’Neill
Douglas Osterhoudt
Adi Rule
J.E. Seymour
Philip Soletsky
Tom Sweeney
Dan Szczesny
Live Free or Undead: Dark Tales from the Granite State
First in the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction series.
More Details
Local horror invading New Hampshire bookstores: 20 stories of New Hampshire Pulp Fiction.
An anthology of short fiction in a horror vein written by local authors and set in the familiar locations of New Hampshire. "UNDEAD" presents 20 spine-tingling tales, some by first-time writers and some by such well-known New Hampshire authors as Rebecca Rule, Brendan Dubois, David Elliott and Hugo Award-winner James Patrick Kelly.The book cover is illustrated by Dover artist Marc Sutherland and the project was edited by New Hampshire Magazine Editor Rick Broussard.
Mutual Aid by Ruth Doan MacDougall
As Mercy Wheeler Blodgett says of herself, she seems to be related to almost everybody in the small town of Chiswick, New Hampshire. To those she isn’t, her husband, Bob, is likely to be. Just when a mill closing in 1986 costs the Blodgetts their jobs, this town is suddenly terrorized by an arsonists, and heart attacks may cause Bob his life.
More Details
( The title of Ruth Doan MacDougall's new novel, Mutual Aid, refers to the emergency system in which fire departments from neighboring towns assist each other, but it also emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of all people, whether they are family, friends, or, as with Mercy and the young man who has become her pen pal, strangers at the outset. The word 'aid' summons up the word 'AIDS,' and this, too, is part of the story.)
Ruth is the recipient of the New Hampshire Writer's Project Lifetime Achievement Award, and Professor Ann Norton of St. Anselm College said in her nomination, "Critics have accorded her high praise for her spare yet lyrical realism. To my mind, MacDougall is the quintessential New Hampshire writer..."
Ruth Doan MacDougall was born and grew up in New Hampshire, where she lives with her husband, Don. In addition to writing novels, she updates her father's hiking books.
Wah-Say-Lan by James Herbert Smith
She is a Seneca, a unique, courageous and adventurous woman.
He is a slave, a Continental soldier fighting for his freedom.
In their journey, they fall in love and cross paths with Cornplanter, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lafayette and Red Jacket.
More Details
In his first novel, author Jim Smith tells the story of the Seneca, one of the six nations of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy and allies of the British in the Revolutionary War, and the love story of Wah-say-Lan and Freeman Trentham/Jamwesaw.
James Herbert Smith has been a journalist for 40 years. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is a member of the Academy of New England Journalists. He is the author of A Passion for Journalism, A Newspaper Editor Writes to his Readers. Smith is executive editor of The Bristol Press and The New Britain Herald in Connecticut.
Boy, would I like to go “point-counterpoint” with Mr. Smith. I am the author of “Year of the Hangman: George Washington’s Campaign Against the iroquois” (Westholme 2005).
The review was going fine until the last line. One has to remember the Six Nations of Iroquois were not some kind of eighteenth century Sierra Club.
Washington’s orders to Sullivan never said (as I recall) to “extirpate” the Iroquois. In fact, the primary mission was to “not merely overrun but destroy” their towns and cornfields.” this was done for three reasons.
One: After more than two years of brutal raids by pro-British Iroquois warriors against lightly defended American frontier communities, it was an effort to “chastise” or “scourge (punish) those of the Six Nations as were hostile to the United States.” The mission was also to “countenance (encourage) the friendly ones”! Nowhere did Washington order, nor at any time did Sullivan’s army engage in, the massacre or indiscriminate killing of Indian men, women and children.
Two: The raid was intended to give the pro-British Iroquois an opportunity to revert to neutrality and show their sincerity by befriending the U.S. and turning away from the Crown.
Three: Another mission, overlooked by many historians, much less historical novelists, was to force the British pay a heavy financial and logistical price for enlisting Indian allies to wage a war of terror against American frontier communities, by forcing them to support their Iroquois surrogates with an already strained supply system.
Glenn
Mr. Williams,
Thanks for your comments. I’ve ordered your book and look forward to reading it.
My novel is written from the Seneca point of view.
Some of my sources:
“Sullivan’s orders were to destroy totally the villages of the Iroquois …” Anthony F.C. Wallace, “The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca.”
Washington would “‘extirpate them from the Country.’ They were to call him ‘Town Destroyer’.” . . . (Sullivan) received formal instructions for his expedition from Washington: ‘The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements…”
Washington wrote to Lafayette on July 4, 1779 about the need to extirpate the Iroquois. From “Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, Selected letters..” is this from Washington Sept. 30, 1779: “By my last advices from Genl. Sullivan of the 9th. Instt. I am led to conclude that ere this he has completed the entire destruction of the whole country of the Six Nations, excepting so much of it as is inhabited by the Oneidas who have always lived in amity with us.” (And dozens of Oneida braves served directly under Lafayette).
Yours,
James Herbert Smith
I thoroughly enjoyed Wah-say-lan … its an engaging read. I’m a native of the Finger Lakes region making it even better. And I learned a lot of the history of the Senecas and the Six Nations even after studying it in grade school so many decades ago.
My particular interest is in the Senecas perspective of the giving land which is mentioned often. I’m interested as I begin writing a sequel to my first novel, Twisted Vines, which takes place in the Finger Lake vineyards. In my second book I’m hoping to reflect on the Native American heritage of the vineyard lands.
My congratulations to James Herbert Smith on bringing the history of the Senecas to life, from their perspective.
Frankly, the book is a better read than I expected … and many contemporary writers could learn from James on how to write a sensuous scene. (But, what happened to that island in Canandaigua Lake?)
Many thanks, Art Maurer