Shelf Control - Jan 29

Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves sponsored by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!

Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. Here's how to jump on board:

• Write a blog post about a book that you own that you haven’t read yet.
• Add your link in the comments!
• Link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your own post.
• Check out other posts, and…

Have fun!

Lordy, it has been eight months since I posted one of these. Yikes! Life can get in the way sometimes.

BLURB:

Caught between two worlds at war, he could lose everything—his country, his faith, and the woman who holds his heart captive.

Brigadier General Jonathan Carleton has pledged his allegiance to the cause of liberty, his service to General George Washington, and his heart to fiery Elizabeth Howard. But when Washington takes command of the American forces, he orders Carleton to undertake a perilous journey deep into Indian country and persuades Elizabeth to continue her work as a spy.

Captured and enslaved by the Seneca, Carleton is stripped of everything but his faith in God. At last rescued by the Shawnee, he is taken deep into Ohio Territory and adopted as the warrior White Eagle. When he rises to become war chief, he is drawn unwillingly into a bitter war against the white settlers who threaten to overrun the Shawnee's ancestral lands.

Meanwhile, as General William Howe gathers his forces to attack the outmatched Continental Army in New York City, Elizabeth despairs of ever learning Carleton's fate. But as the western frontier explodes into flame, the name of White Eagle begins to spread beyond the borders of Ohio Territory.

DATE BOUGHT: This has been on my shelf for at least 10 years. :(

WHY I BOUGHT IT: I read the third book in this series when it came out. At the time, I was reviewing books from Sheaf House Publishers, so I bought more in the series. Historical fiction set during early America is something I love to read almost as  much Civil War fiction.

I recently moved this book to another shelf. I don't know if I will be reading it this year, but it would be nice if I got to it.

First Chapter Review: Crucible of War (The American Patriot Series) by J. M. Hochstetler

Gosh, it feels like forever since I wrote up one of these. Crucible of War is the fourth book in J. M. Hochstetler's American Patriot Series. I have only read the third book in this series, and it was back in 2009. This book is currently available for only $2.99 for Kindle, so I picked up the electronic version to complement the paperback versions of the first three books I own.

BLURB: Returning from the Shawnee, Brigadier General Jonathan Carleton rejoins General George Washington’s army to find the patriot cause on the verge of extinction. In a daring gamble the American force crosses the Delaware on Christmas night 1776, to defeat outposts at Trenton and Princeton before vanishing into the mountain bastions around Morristown.

When she returns to New York, Elizabeth Howard is drawn ever deeper into the intrigues that swirl around British General William Howe. She and her Aunt Tess, move to Philadelphia in summer 1777 to gather intelligence while waiting for a rumored British attack. Ambushed and almost captured as the Americans dig in at Brandywine Creek, Carleton is transferred to General Horatio Gates’s army in the upper Hudson Valley where his old nemesis, British General John Burgoyne, closes in on Saratoga. With decisive battles looming on both fronts, Elizabeth and Carleton face a crucible of war that tests their mettle, faith, and love to the very limits—and beyond.

COVER: Stunning. This is a cover that truly captures what this book is all about. I love the green background too.

FIRST CHAPTER: Brigadier General Jonathan Carleton and other members of General Washington's army are making a dangerous trek across the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776. In addition to the horrible storm, problems such as the fast approaching expiration of many enlistments and a number of men complaining about serving with colored troops and Indians, make it even more important for Washington's army to strike now.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Howard and her Aunt Tess are guests of the Wainwrights. Neither group entirely certain of the other's allegiance, they carefully discuss the current happenings, while the extreme curiosity of one of their servants catches Elizabeth's eye.

KEEP READING: Yes. I've admired Hochstetler's storytelling ability since I began reading her work. Her attention to detail makes Crucible of War come alive for readers. Tensions are at their highest and the author portrays this nicely. Her characters are well-developed and engaging.  I do feel, however, if one was not familiar with the series and its characters, this would be a difficult book to read as a stand alone. There is so much going on in the first chapter and some back story--both historical and fictional--that numerous characters interact with each other. It might be frustrating for someone new to the series to not know how all the dots connected. To help along, though, the author has included a brief synopsis of the three other books in the series before diving into this one.

File Size: 796 KB

Print Length: 371 pages

Publisher: Sheaf House Publishers; 1 edition (August 9, 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

ASIN: B008VV4HYK

Currently $2.99 for Kindle

I purchased a Kindle version of this book. I received no monetary compensation for this first chapter review.

Special Holiday Feature: The Importance of Family Traditions by J.M. Hochstetler

SPECIAL HOLIDAY FEATURE

"The Importance of Family Traditions" by J.M. Hochstetler, author of One Holy Night

When my daughters were tiny, with the holidays fast approaching, I impulsively decided that on the night of Christmas Eve, when they were fast asleep, I would hang candy canes all over our tree as a sign that Santa had come. Well, that idea turned out to be a huge success. When my little girls ran downstairs that Christmas morning, they were so excited to find the treats on the tree that I knew I’d come up with a very special tradition.


Over the years, as holidays came and went, I continued my secret Christmas Eve ritual. As they grew older, however, the children appeared to take less and less notice of the candy canes. They would eat only a few, and then after we took the tree down I ended up throwing most of them away. It seemed a waste. So one Christmas I thoughtlessly came very close to letting that tradition die.

That year I was so busy with holiday preparations and the day-to-day routine that I kept forgetting to pick up a package of candy canes at the store. It seemed like such a simple, unimportant thing. The girls were too old to care about my little tradition anymore, I told myself and I shrugged off the quiet voice that nagged at me to get those candy canes!

One evening just a couple of days before Christmas, I was rushing around the house, as usual, burdened with too many holiday preparations. In spite of my preoccupation, I happened to notice my oldest daughter, Jennifer, who sat on the stairs with my youngest, Katie. Both were snuggled in their nightgowns, slippers, and robes, happily taking in our cozy living room before heading off to bed.

Below them, fire blazed on the hearth and colored lights twinkled on the tree. Holiday decorations were arranged everywhere, and pine garlands and tiny white lights draped the mantel as well as the banister on either side where they sat. The scene was so perfect that I stopped for just a moment to breathe in the heady scents of pine and spices and to bask in the room’s glow. And as I lingered, I overheard what the girls were whispering about.

“Now, you know,” Jennifer told her little sister, “on Christmas morning when Santa comes, he always hangs candy canes all over the tree.”

Katie’s eyes grew round. “Always?” she breathed, in sweet expectancy.

“Oh, yes, always,” Jennifer assured her with the easy confidence of a big sister. “There will be candy canes all over the tree on Christmas morning. You’ll see.”

My heart almost stopped. One look at my daughters’ faces told me that I’d better plan on a special trip to the store the very next day. And suddenly gratitude flooded over me at the realization that the Lord had pulled me up short from my preoccupation with all the things that seemed so urgent to remind me of something I had come way too close to missing—a tradition that was genuinely meaningful to my children.

On that Christmas morning and every Christmas morning since then to this very day, candy canes have adorned my Christmas tree. My grown children expect to see them there when they arrive Christmas morning every bit as much as my grandchildren now do. It’s a tradition I wouldn’t think of ending. Because of that simple, long-ago impulse and the Lord’s reminder to be faithful in its observance, my family is making memories that in one form or another will be passed down to coming generations. It’s a simple thing as many of our traditions are, but oh, how meaningful!


J. M. Hochstetler writes stories that always involve some element of the past and of finding home. Born in central Indiana, the daughter of Mennonite farmers, she graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Germanic languages. She was an editor with Abingdon Press for twelve years and has published four novels. Daughter of Liberty (2004), Native Son (2005), and Wind of the Spirit (March 2009), the first three books of the critically acclaimed American Patriot Series, are set during the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a retelling of the Christmas story set in modern times, is the 2009 Christian Small Publishers Fiction Book of the Year and a finalist for the 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Long Contemporary Book of the Year.

Hochstetler is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Christian Authors Network, Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, Nashville Christian Writers Association, and Historical Novels Society. She and her husband live near Nashville, Tennessee.

You can find Joan online at www.jmhochstetler.com or at this book’s blog http://oneholynight.blogspot.com

Author Interview: J.M. Hochstetler and Wind of the Spirit

We welcome back today, author J.M. Hochstetler. Joan is the author of One Holy Night, a contemporary miracle story—which we reviewed here—and The American Patriot Series, which includes Daughter of Liberty, Native Son and Wind of the Spirit (American Patriot). Joan is on a virtual book tour to discuss Wind of the Spirit and we’re thrilled she decided to drop in again.

Welcome back Joan. It’s great to have you with us. Can you give our readers a brief glimpse into who you are and when you started writing?

I’m delighted to be back again!

I was raised Mennonite and grew up on a farm outside Kokomo, Indiana. I graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Germanic Languages. In 1977, after marrying and while raising 3 daughters, I started writing, mainly for my own amusement. But eventually I decided a story isn’t complete without readers, so I began to submit to publishers and agents and racked up a goodly pile of rejection slips.

Eventually I moved to the Nashville, Tennessee, area, where I became an editor with Abingdon Press. During that time my first 2 books, Daughter of Liberty and Native Son, were published. Then in 2006 I founded my own small press, Sheaf House Publishers. That turned out to be prescient since I was laid off from Abingdon in 2007. At that point, I jumped into building the business full-time.

When I’m not writing or working on my business, I love traveling, gardening, doing crafts, and camping in our fifth-wheel trailer with my husband. My daughter and I have just discovered canning, so this fall we’ve been canning everything we can get our hands on, with some smashing successes and some . . . er . . . mixed results. Our next project is wine jelly. Can’t wait to tackle that!

Now, when you first started Daughter of Liberty, did you know at the time that you were planning a series?

That was the last thing on my mind. I started writing it back in 1983 after watching a TV movie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour. I fell in love with the story—and with Anthony Andrews!—and wanted to write a version with different characters in a different setting. Since I’m not very interested in the French Revolution, I decided the American Revolution would be a natural for the setting. And instead of having my spy and smuggler be a man, I turned him into a woman. The story was an absolute blast to write, and if you’ve ever seen the movie, you may recognize a few scenes, though I’ve tweaked them some. It wasn’t until I was well into the search for a publisher that I realized I’d have a better chance if I made it the first book in a series. And that’s what got me a contract.

Can you share with us who the main characters are in this first book?

The female lead is Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of a well-known and well-to-do Loyalist doctor in Boston who has many ties to the British occupying the city in the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party. Unknown to her parents, however, she’s at heart a rebel who’s working with her maternal uncle and paternal aunt to smuggle intelligence and munitions out of Boston under the noses of the British. As the elusive rebel spy and courier Oriole, she’s infamous and intensely sought by the British, who’ve placed a high price on her head.

The male lead is Jonathan Carleton, the younger son of a Scottish nobleman who was a confidante of George II and a beautiful young French woman of noble birth. As a child Carleton was adopted by his father’s older brother, who fled to the colonies after one of the disastrous clashes between the Scots and the British that eventually led to the Scots’ final defeat. Carleton’s uncle settled in Virginia, where he became as rich as Croesus. So Carleton, who was brought up in Virginia, is immensely wealthy, but he’s also a Major in the British 17th Light Dragoons who is called to Boston to become the British commander’s aide de camp. After the battles of Lexington and Concord, he’s ordered to find and capture Oriole.

Naturally Carleton and Elizabeth are destined to fall madly in love.

Let’s move on to Book 2, Native Son. Who returns from the first book in this one?

The full cast returns in Native Son, and the story begins right after the Battle of Bunker Hill, which concludes Daughter of Liberty. Carleton, who is now a brigadier general under General George Washington, is sent on a mission to the Indians to try to persuade them to support the Americans instead of the British. Meanwhile, Elizabeth returns to Boston to spy on the new commander, General William Howe, and the 2 generals sent along with him to get the situation in the colonies under control.

What new situations are they dealing with?

Everything has changed in book 2. Elizabeth and Carleton are now engaged to be married, but Washington refuses to grant them permission. Because of Carleton’s background with the Shawnee, Washington needs him to be his ambassador to the native peoples. And he desperately needs Elizabeth to keep him informed about what the British are up to. So he effectively gives them no choice but to do his bidding.

Out on the western frontier, Carleton is captured by the Seneca and enslaved, and Elizabeth can find no information about what happened to him. She’s placed in grave danger herself and narrowly avoids being exposed. After the British evacuate Boston the conflict moves to New York City, and she and her aunt must follow. There she meets a handsome and kind young doctor to whom she is very attracted. Yet her heart is fixed on Carleton, and she can find no peace.

Meanwhile, Carleton is rescued by the Shawnee, taken even farther west, and adopted by their sachem. As he fights to guard his heart against the advances of the beautiful young widow Blue Sky, he must also walk a deadly tightrope in a brewing conflict with the malevolent shaman Wolfslayer. When he’s forced to become war chief and lead a war against white settlers flooding into Ohio Territory, he despairs of ever returning to Elizabeth, for he has again become her enemy.



Elizabeth and Carleton return in Book 3, Wind of the Spirit. Where in history are we at this point and what is going on in these characters’ lives?

Wind of the Spirit begins in July 1776. The Declaration of Independence has just been signed, and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights looms for Elizabeth. While Carleton continues highly effective raids against the white settlers, he is increasingly pressured to marry Blue Sky, and the conflict with Wolfslayer is coming to a head.

Elizabeth is caught up in battle and almost killed as the British overrun Washington’s forces on Long Island, and the patriot cause is all but extinguished. Yet by a miracle, Washington manages to withdraw the remainder of his army across the East River and out of Howe’s clutches under cover of night. Elizabeth finally learns of Carleton’s possible whereabouts, and she takes a perilous journey to Ohio Territory in the hope she can find him and persuade him to return home with her.

With this series being set during the American Revolution, there must have been a great deal of research involved. How did you accomplish it all?

I did a ton of research, that’s for sure. I came up with the idea for Daughter of Liberty in 1983, and it was finally published in 2004. So although life happened and I wasn’t writing all the time, I still had a long time to make sure it was accurate. Having accumulated considerable knowledge and a wide range of research materials, the subsequent volumes haven’t been as time consuming to write.

Thankfully, I’m obsessed with this era and I love to do research, so I enjoyed all of it. My library has expanded considerably since I began writing this series, thanks in large part to Amazon. I also have a number of older works on the period that I’ve accumulated over the years from library book sales, antiques stores, and other places that have been invaluable. I especially look for primary materials—firsthand accounts that provide the small details that give the story authenticity. It’s like a treasure hunt. I love it!

How did you know it was time to stop researching and time to start writing?

What? Stop researching? Um . . . well, I’m usually researching as I write!

There are additional books planned for The American Patriot Series. What can you tell us about those?

So far I have 4 more books planned for the series. Each one of the stories picks up right after the previous one ends, and they continue the stories of all the main characters. Of course, from time to time I’ll introduce more important characters whose stories will become continuing threads. Crucible of War, which I’m writing now, begins with Washington crossing the Delaware to attack Trenton and covers 1777. Then Valley of the Shadow takes the war onto the high seas in 1778 and 1779. Refiner’s Fire follows the war into the southern colonies in 1780, and Forge of Freedom ends with the final British defeat at Yorktown in 1781.

I—and several good friends who are following the story avidly—are praying it doesn’t expand any farther than that. They’d like to see Elizabeth and Carleton finally get married—which they will, of course! But I have gotten e-mail from readers who encourage me to keep on writing more volumes and not to stop. So who knows? I seem to be making a career of the American Revolution!

Where can readers purchase a copy of any of the books in The American Patriot Series?

Daughter of Liberty and Native Son are currently out of print, but they’re freely available from most online retailers such as Amazon, Christianbook.com, and Barnes and Noble. They’re also available directly through Sheaf House at www.sheafhouse.com. We’re planning to release new, updated editions, but since readers can still get them easily, and Sheaf House still has a good-sized stash, it may be another couple of years before they’re issued. Sheaf House may release the updated versions in e-book format before then, however.

Wind of the Spirit is available from most local booksellers and also online at all the same places books 1 and 2 are, so readers won’t have any trouble getting it. It’s also available in the Kindle format.

Do you have a website or blog where readers can find out more?

Absolutely! My Web site is www.jmhochstetler.com, and the American Patriot Series blog is at americanpatriotseries.blogspot.com.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I just want to thank you very much for inviting me to do this interview! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Thanks for spending time with us today, Joan. I hope you’ll come back when your next book comes out. We wish you continued success!

You can view a video trailer for Wind of Spirit by visiting the book section of Joan's website.

To see where Joan's virtual book tour stops next, visit http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/

Wind of the Spirit by J.M. Hochstetler - Book Review

A young country struggling for independence is the setting for Wind of the Spirit by J.M. Hochstetler, the third book in The American Patriot Series.

As the overwhelming forces of British General William Howe threaten to wipe out General Washington's Continental Army, Elizabeth Howard risks her life to obtain and return with critical intelligence. Meanwhile, the man she wished to marry is far out on the western borders. General Jonathan Carleton, now known as the Shawnee war chief White Eagle, has helped his braves drive white settlers out of Ohio territory, while fighting a more personal battle of his own--finding a way to get Elizabeth out of his heart and steeling himself against the seductive charms of Pathfinder's widow, Blue Sky, as the conflict between him and the shaman Wolfslayer escalates.

With Washington putting in a last-ditch gamble to save the American cause at Trenton, Elizabeth rejoins Colonel Charles Andrews on a journey to find Carelton before the British close in on his whereabouts and try him for treason. Will she find him before the British do? Will he be the same man she still loves? And will her love be enough to convince him to come back with her?



In the continuation of this sweeping saga of the American Revolution, Hochstetler has one again proven herself to be a masterful storyteller. The rich descriptions, the complex characters, and the balanced mix of history and fiction, all combine to create an engaging page turner.

While I have not read the first two books in this series: Daughter of Liberty and Native Son, I fell easily into this storyline and was able to connect the dots through the backstory that is seamlessly woven into the present day events, though I did purchase books 1 and 2 to read later.

The level of research the author must have performed to create The American Patriot Series is evident in every page, but it is her characters that make this story as wonderful as it is. I am eager to read the next book when it comes out.

Having now read two very different books from Hochstetler--our review of One Holy Night, a contemporary miracle story appears here--I can easily add this author to my list of favorites.

Lovers of historical fiction, historical romance, and inspirational fiction will certainly want to own Wind of the Spirit!


Title: Wind of the Spirit
Author: J.M. Hochstetler
Publisher: Sheaf House Publishers
ISBN-10: 0979748534
ISBN-13: 978-0979748530
SRP: $13.99 (U.S.)

Winner of One Holy Night by J.M. Hochstetler

Our congratulations go out to Katy, the winner of One Holy Night by J.M. Hochstetler. We'll be contacting Katy this week to get her mailing address.
Thanks to all who participated in our recent giveaway. That was the last planned giveaway of the year. Look for more giveaways coming in 2010.

You can find One Holy Night by J.M. Hochstetler at Amazon and it also comes in a Kindle edition.

Visit J.M. Hochstetler online at http://www.jmhochstetler.com/ where you'll also find a moving video trailer for this book.