It’s finally happening! Way back in 2017 while reading Greg Grandin’s Fordlandia I thought, “This would make a great setting for a novel.” Nine years later that novel is finally going to be in the hands of readers. On May 19, Jungle of Ashes launches and we’re going to celebrate at The Book Bird in Avondale, GA. If you’re in the Atlanta area, you’re invited! I’m so honored to have national best selling author Lynn Cullen join me in conversation about Jungle of Ashes, the importance of historical fiction, the writing process and more. The event is free! Just RSVP! No book purchase is necessary. Although we are having a giveaway! The first 30 pre-orders with Book Bird will receive a free audiobook book copy!
I am so, so proud of this book. I believe it’s timely and important that we discuss its theme of the human cost of unchecked power and empire, be it political or corporate. I love my characters. They say write what you know and I wrote an American girl and a Brazilian boy whose crushing sense of responsibility may or may not be inspired by my own Brazilian boy. (Nobody tell him!) If you can’t make it to the Book Bird on May, I’ve got a few other events around Georgia and South Carolina lined up. There’s also a virtual event with the fabulous audiobook narrator, Carolin Hewitt, so keep an eye out.
If you love historical fiction set during a time and place you probably never learned about. If you love the hope and tenderness of first love. If you love the trials as young adults come of age in a world they can’t help but question. If you love tales of man versus nature where nature counters every punch man can throw. If you believe the most dangerous people are the ones who can never admit they’re wrong. Jungle of Ashes is a story for you. You can pre-order it at History Through Fiction and support an indie publisher. You can pre-order it through Bookshop.org and support a local indie bookstore of your choice. You can pre-order through Amazon paperback, ebook or audiobook. You can also ask your local library to order a copy.
It’s official! Jaguars and Other Game, my debut historical fiction, is out today! I’ve been writing and working toward the goal of being a published author for more than a decade. This is literally a dream come true.
If you have the chance to read Jaguars and Other Game, 
The first woman to rule Portugal, Maria Francisca Isabel Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joana (why’d her parents stop there?) married her uncle in order to remain in line for the throne, saw her hometown destroyed by an earthquake-tsunami-fire mega disaster, calmed political unrest in Portugal by proving infinitely more competent, less corrupt, and not as prone to mass incarceration as her father and his advisors, outlived her husband and all but one of her children, and became the only European monarch to leave the content and rule her empire from a colony. Although, by the time the court fled to Brazil, she wasn’t technically in charge anymore as she’d been declared insane and unfit to rule fifteen years earlier.
Maria was born in 1734 and became the heir presumptive when all her brothers were still born. Now Portugal had never had a Queen rule in her own right, and they had this totally just and reasonable law that said a princess could NOT marry a foreigner and remain in line for the throne. Because obviously a man would be strong enough to resist manipulation from his Spanish wife, but a woman would be a puppet to her mustache-twirling Spanish husband. (This is hilariously ironic if you know about Queen Maria’s son and daughter-in-law.) So how can a princess marry a prince but not marry foreigner?
In 1755, when Maria was just shy of 21, Lisbon was left in smoldering ruins after being hit by so many disasters in day even Hollywood producers would call it over the top. A massive earthquake hit at 9:30 in the morning on All Saint’s Day, while the churches were packed for mass. Almost every church in the city collapsed. Thousands of survivors rushed to open squares around the port, only to be swept away by the tsunami triggered by the quake. Fires then broke out and raged for five days destroying whatever parts of the city were left.
As Queen she took a much more hands on approach to governing compared to her father who had taken the “everyone listen to my advisor because I’m going hunting” approach. She rolled back a lot of her father’s more extreme measures such as mass incarceration of political opponents. She’s remembered as a good ruler in Portugal and Brazil. By all accounts Maria was kind and affectionate with her family.
When the Portuguese court fled Napoleon to Brazil, Maria thought she was being kidnapped and had to be carried aboard the ship by the fleet commander. She spent much of the three month voyage screaming. It sounds horrible for everyone involved.