Interview with Ann Hardy the Heroine in the Historical Fiction Novel The Northeast Quarter

Interview with Ann Hardy, the heroine in the The Northeast Quarter, a historical fiction novel. 

Do you want revenge or do you want your land back?”

Winfield, Iowa. 1918. Colonel Wallace Carson, the ruler of a vast agricultural empire, asks Ann Hardy, his ten year old granddaughter and eventual heir, to promise she will safeguard The Northeast Quarter, the choice piece of land from which the empire was founded.  Ann readily accepts – little knowing what awaits her.  When The Colonel is killed unexpectedly the same afternoon, the world around Ann and her family begins to fall apart.

Welcome Ann, 

Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. 

Ann, you’ve had a pretty rough story in The Northeast Quarter. You had to go up against some unscrupulous individuals. Do you think the author portrayed you accurately in the story? 

Ann: I would say so. Between 1918 and 1929 I had to grow up pretty fast. I had to learn to stand on my own two feet. I think he captured that period and all the details.

What is your dilemma in the story?

Ann: Just before he dies, my grandpa asks me to promise to safeguard The Northeast Quarter, the most valuable acreage on the estate, when it is my turn to take over.  My problem is being able to keep that promise when every crook and conniver in the county converges on the Carson empire, looking to carve out a portion for themselves. My goal is to keep that promise to my grandpa.

Against the background of America sliding from a post-war boom into The Great Depression, The Northeast Quarter tells the story of Ann’s struggle to keep a promise no matter what. She witnesses the remarriage of her grandmother to Royce Chamberlin, the seemingly humble banker who institutes a reign of terror over the household and proceeds to corrupt the entire town.

What are your achievements?

 Ann:  One of my achievements is encourage other members of my family to believe in each other while our world is falling apart.  It doesn’t prevent things from collapsing, but there is a strength in family. Another is that I do become a lawyer, but that’s after the story is over. The Northeast Quarter is about how I get there.

Do you talk about your achievements?  

 Ann:  Not so much.  My grandpa always said, “If you are anybody and you’ve done anything, people will find out in their own due time.”

 Do you keep your achievements to yourself?  

Ann: In The Northeast Quarter the achievements are private and personal.  They’re like skirmishes on a battlefield.   You chalk up your victories and defeats and prepare for the next one.

Do you have any special strengths?

 Ann:  I can endure. I don’t realize it at the time because for most of the story, I’m reacting. My enemies, led by Royce Chamberlin, heap a lot on me, but I am able to take it and bide my time until I am old enough to make my move.

Over the next ten years, she matches wits with Chamberlin, enduring betrayal, banishment and even physical violence.  She grows from a precocious child into a tough-minded young woman – watching, observing her enemy and waiting for the moment to make her move.

And when the moment comes in July 1929, life in Winfield will never be the same.

What do you think of yourself?          

Ann: The events in the story prevent me from doing much introspection.  I’m like a soldier on a battlefield – dealing with whatever is in front of him.  Looking back at the skirmishes, I would say I come through it pretty well.

How does the author see you?

Ann:  He better see me favorably.  I’m  modeled on his mother.

Do you have a hero?   

Ann:  Arabella Mansfield.  The first female lawyer in America and a native Iowan.  I look up to her.  Whenever I run into a legal problem, I always ask myself how Arabella Mansfield would have handled it.  She inspires me to become a lawyer myself.

Ann, seeing you circumstances, I want to ask if you actually get to keep that promise to your grandfather.

Ann: You will have to read the book to find out the answer. 

Social Media Channels

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smharriswrites

Twitter handle: @smharriswrites

Facebook: S.M. Harris

https://www.facebook.com/S-M-Harris-1076962675676927/

Linked In:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-harris-236b358\ 

You Tube Channel ( link is a custom link to book trailer on you tube channel)

http://bit.ly/TheNortheastQuarter

Author Bio

Author Stuart M. Harris

Stuart M. Harris began writing for the theater professionally in 1991 when he was invited by the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York to attend a summer conference.  The experience led the native Californian to move to New York to become a playwright.  Several of his plays have been produced Off Broadway and around the country, among them. Oona Field produced by Diverse City Theater Company and Colleen Ireland, about a 90-year-old retirement home resident and her great granddaughter, that played in New York, Spokane and other cities, including Hamilton, OH, where it won ‘Best Play’ at The Fitton Center One-Act Playwriting Contest. A follow-up to Colleen was Spindrift Way, the first of ten more plays in the series.  The Northeast Quarter began as a full-length play developed by the Works in Progress Theatre Lab at Manhattan Theatre Club Studios.  Harris put playwriting on hold in order to weave the story of generations of Iowan farmers into his new historical novel. He lives in Brooklyn.

This author interview brought to you by Rebecca's Author Services. 

Five Things About the Character Jenet in Thwarted Queen

Welcome to Bluebell Books, Cynthia,

Would you share with Five Things About one of the characters in Thwarted Queen.

 “Five Things You Didn’t Know About Jenet”

Item no. 1: Jenet became Lady Cecylee's maid in the summer of 1424. At that time, her ladyship was only nine years old. 

Item no. 2. Jenet has never known exactly how old she is. Except that she is older than Lady Cecylee. When Lady Cecylee was betrothed to Richard of York in October 1424, she was still only nine years old. Richard had just turned thirteen. Jenet would put herself nearer to his lordship's age.

Item no. 3: Jenet's mother tongue was French, because she grew up in Picardy in north-eastern France. She learned English only after moving to Castle Raby to join Cecylee's family.

Item no 4: Jenet acquired her position as Lady Cecylee's maid because of Audrey. When Jenet's mother died, Audrey invited her to come to England, promising her a position in the Neville household. It turned out that Aunt Audrey (her mother's sister) had a lot of influence, because she was maid to Cecylee's mother Joan de Beaufort. She saw to it that her niece was granted a similar position with Cecylee.

As a result, Jenet led a long and happy life, forging a deep friendship with her somewhat mercurial mistress. It was Jenet who made her clothes. Jenet who embroidered them. Jenet who made all the salves, tonic waters and potions her mistress needed to beautify her face. It was Jenet who helped in the delivery of the thirteen children Cecylee bore her husband.

It was Jenet who provided a shoulder to cry on when that husband turned cruel. And it was Jenet's skill in herbal craft that kept her mistress together in body as well as spirit for many a long year. As for Jenet herself, she accompanied her mistress all over England and into France. And, as a member of the household of one of the wealthiest peers in the land, she never had to spend one day wondering where her next meal was coming from.

Item no 5: Jenet didn't have a family name, because her family was too obscure for that kind of thing. But if she had to have one, her family name would be "Dompierre" after the village she came from in Picardy.

About Cynthia Haggard

Born and raised in Surrey, England, CYNTHIA SALLY HAGGARD has lived in the United States for twenty-nine years. She has had four careers: violinist, cognitive scientist, medical writer and novelist. Yes, she is related to H. Rider Haggard, the author of SHE and KING SOLOMONS’S MINES. (H. Rider Haggard was a younger brother of the author’s great-grandfather.) Cynthia Sally Haggard is a member of the Historical Novel Society. You can visit her website at: http://spunstories.com/

Thwarted Queen Synopsis

Cecylee is the apple of her mother’s eye. The seventh daughter, she is the only one left unmarried by 1424, the year she turns nine. In her father’s eyes, however, she is merely a valuable pawn in the game of marriage. The Earl of Westmorland plans to marry his youngest daughter to 13-year-old Richard, Duke of York, who is close to the throne. He wants this splendid match to take place so badly, he locks his daughter up.

The event that fuels the narrative is Cecylee’s encounter with Blaybourne, a handsome archer, when she is twenty-six years old. This love affair produces a child (the “One Seed” of Book II), who becomes King Edward IV. But how does a public figure like Cecylee, whose position depends upon the goodwill of her husband, carry off such an affair? The duke could have locked her up, or disposed of this illegitimate son.

But Richard does neither, keeping her firmly by his side as he tries to make his voice heard in the tumultuous years that encompass the end of the Hundred Years War - during which England loses all of her possessions in France - and the opening phase of the Wars of the Roses. He inherits the political mantle of his mentor Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, and become’s the people’s champion. The rambunctious Londoners are unhappy that their country has become mired in misrule due to the ineptitude of a King prone to fits of madness. Nor are they better pleased by the attempts of the King’s French wife to maneuver herself into power, especially as she was responsible for England’s losses in France. But can Richard and Cecylee prevail? Everywhere, their enemies lurk in the shadows.

This book is filled with many voices, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time. By their courageous acts, these fifteenth-century Londoners set the stage for American Democracy.

Pictures of the Past - Historical Fiction Novel - author Deby Eisenberg

Join Deby Eisenberg, author of the historical fiction, Pictures of the Past (Studio House Literary), as she virtually tours the blogosphere February 6 – 29 2012 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book!

About Pictures of the Past

First-time novelist Deby Eisenberg hits the ground running with PICTURES OF THE PAST, an epic family and historical saga, sweeping through Chicago, Paris and Berlin, reliving events from pre-World War II Europe, but beginning in contemporary times.  An Impressionist painting, hanging for decades in the Art Institute of Chicago and donated by the charismatic philanthropist Taylor Woodmere, is challenged by an elderly woman as a Nazi theft.

Mary Lignor of Book Pleasures says, “This novel is one of the most intriguing and beautiful books that I have ever read.  The ending of this book will touch your heart… The writing is first class.”

Taylor’s story takes the reader to 1937.  Sent to Paris on family business, he reluctantly leaves his girlfriend, Emily, a spoiled debutante from Newport, Rhode Island.  But once in Europe, he immediately falls in love – first with an Henri Lebasque painting, and then with the enchanting Sarah Berger of Berlin.  After Taylor returns home, the Berger family becomes trapped in the Nazi web, and any attempts for the new lovers to be reunited are thwarted.

Interwoven with this narrative is the story of Rachel Gold, a beautiful and bright Chicago girl caught up in the times of the late 1960’s.  Pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend Court Woodmere, Taylor’s son, she moves to New York to live with her aunt, a Holocaust survivor.  Years later, as the controversy surrounding the provenance of the painting becomes public, Rachel’s grown son is disturbed by his inexplicable familiarity with the work of art.  And it is only Taylor Woodmere who can unravel the complicated puzzle of their lives.

As a Book Club leader for the past sixteen years, Eisenberg came to understand the kinds of stories that grabbed her group and she challenged herself to write a novel that her avid readers could not put down and would love to discuss.

The result was PICTURES OF THE PAST.

About Deby Eisenberg

As the leader of an established Chicago area Book Club, Deby Eisenberg challenged herself to write a novel that her avid readers could not put down and would love to discuss. With a Masters Degree from the University of Chicago, she is a former English teacher and journalist. Inspired by so many wonderful books and formidable authors, and drawing on her love of literary research, art, architecture, Jewish history, and travel in the United States and Europe, she tried to envision a multi-generational love story that would inform as well as entertain, that would broaden the mind and open the heart. Deby and her husband Michael, an obstetrician-gynecologist, live in Riverwoods, Illinois. They have three grown children and two grandchildren.

Her latest book is the historical fiction novel, Pictures of the Past.

You can visit her website at www.debyeisenberg.com.