Book launched!

DIVIDED LOYALTIES said hello to the world today. I didn’t see it, mind you, until someone brought it to the house after it arrived on her doorstep. But today was its release day. Launching a book was a nerve-wracking process. I didn’t have to do anything. It was just a date on the calendar. On…

BOOK QUOTE: “…for good luck.”

Maureen was a only a girl. Why would anybody want her to help them? Her father grumbled at her when she insisted she would volunteer in a battlefield hospital. Nothing could make Father change his mind. She begged and pleaded. What would it take to convince him she could make a difference helping soldiers wounded…

BOOK QUOTE: “Maureen wanted to help…”

Like her brother Joe, Maureen longed to serve her adopted country. An Irish immigrant, she had found a home in the Maryland farming community of Sharpsburg. Instead of famine, she had found abundance. Instead of English troops marching by, she had found peace. She and her family had a new life filled with such promise.…

BOOK QUOTE: “Instead of corn…”

Maureen and her friends, Eliza and Amy, who lived on the next farm, didn’t know what to expect when they ventured out away from their homes. They weren’t even sure they wanted to see after they’d heard the thunder of battle for a long, horrible day. Amy, married to a Union soldier, led the way…

BOOK QUOTE: “Something’s brewing…”

Divided Loyalties begins in the summer of 1862. It’s been a difficult summer for Maureen, an 18-year-old Irish immigrant, and her brother, Joe. After their father was injured in a fall earlier in the season, care of the farm became their responsibility. And then they begin to see troops, Union and Confederate, on the road…