Books, Books, and Torch 180

I recently had the great pleasure of participating in Torch 180's first Market Day, this last Saturday, at their location at 131 Mill Street in Fowlerville.  I had all of my books on display and for sale.  It was a fun day, to say the least.  

As I spoke with people and even directed them to this blog, it dawned on me I hadn't posted nor updated this blog in too long of time.  So now I am doing just that.  Since "A Soldier, His Brother, and a House" was posted on here, I've worked hard on a second edition of the commissioned "Mr. Smith's Forgotten Community," a memoir-of-sorts of past and present residents of Brighton Gardens in Brighton.  I will do a blog post when this revision is available on Amazon through their Kindle Direct Printing program.

For now, though, I'd like to tell you about "She Wore a Hat in Prison."

This historical fiction novel is the third in my collection of traditionally-published stories.  The Wild Rose Press published this one and "Tilly Loves Johnny" (a few years back).  Whiskey Creek Press published my first story, "Juniper and Anise," way back in 2014.

I am so happy with my latest novel and hope you will take a look at it.  It is available on pretty much every online book store but you can easily find it by clicking here.  "She Wore a Hat in Prison" is based on an event that actually took place in 1907 in California.  The woman wreaking Mayhem on her husband was Bertha Boronda.  She was convicted on this felon and served two years of a five-year sentence.  Here is are two pictures of her mugshots taken at the time of incarceration:

I moved this event to Cedartown--a village that looks a lot like Fowlerville--and highly-fictionalized her story because who really knows what happened in 1907.  I did a great deal of research to incorporate much of what happened in California but so much was pulled out of own imagination.

We didn't have cell phones, social media, nothing that would broadcast this story out to the masses.  So different than today's world.

I will be doing an author talk at the Fowlerville District Library on Thursday, September 29, 6:30 pm.  The book will be available for purchase but, of equal importance, I will be showing a power point presentation of Bertha's story.  It should be a fun yet a bit shocking evening.  

Hope you will be there.