Today, I have invited Louise M. Gouge to give a brief talk on her newest book, Love Thine Enemy, which releases to bookstores all over the country today, July 14.
Before I post her comments, I want to say that this is quite appropriate to release on July 14, for this is Bastille Day, the start of the French Revolution. Louise's story is an American Revolution story, which helped fuel the French Revolution, so the connection is quite serendipidous.
Even though I've lived in Florida for almost thirty years, Love Thine Enemy is my first Florida book. Kristy Dykes, another Floridian who wrote wonderful Christian love stories, challenged me to write a historical novel about our home state. Everyone knows that Florida belonged to the Spanish for over two hundred years. But when I looked deeper into our history, I discovered this was a British colony for about twenty years right during the time of the American Revolution. Many Loyalists from the other colonies fled their homes and came to St. Augustine, where they stayed until Florida went back to the Spanish. So I took this footnote of history, created a Loyalist hero and Patriot heroine for conflict, added some customs of the times, and out came Love Thine Enemy. I love the era and my characters so much that I've written a sequel, The Captain's Lady, due out in March 2010, and I'm working on a third book in the series. I hope readers will pick up my book and discover what a fascinating time and place this was.
For anyone who leaves a commnet, you get a chance to win a copy of Love Thine Enemy. I'll run this until the end of July, but you ahve to post to comment on this post.
3 comments:
Though it is very hard to love our enemies the Bible tells us we should love our neighbor as ourselves, so we should really try. We may not like their ways but we should love them as a person.
mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net
Oooh-ooh pick me! I know nothing about Florida, either present day(except it's hot, humid, and has alligators...or is it crocodiles?) or historically. I love historicals and am always looking for a good, clean read. And I can't wait for your next one either. I just finished researching sailing and all things nautical for my latest book and I am really into historical captains and their sea going vessles.
Congratulations on the publishing of your new book! I hope it does well. I am the wife of the pastor of a small church and I always enjoy a good, clean read, so I look forward to reading this new book. I also enjoy sharing books with others, so I hope you choose me for the free book!
Post a Comment