Black Bart: The Poet Bandit
By Gail Jenner and Lou Legerton
BLACK BART: THE POET BANDIT follows the life of the infamous and enigmatic California highwayman and scourge of Wells Fargo, BLACK BART. The 55,000 word novel explores the person behind the flour-sack mask and plugged shotgun, Charles E. Boles, aka BLACK BART.
According to the authors, this is the first novel written about the man who successfully held up 28 of 29 Wells Fargo stages across Northern California and Southern Oregon. According to the authors, "All other volumes about Charles are exclusively about his holdups. This story portrays the man and his early life, as well as his criminal adventures. He really is a fascinating character."
Gail Jenner adds, "The story chronicles Bart¹s participation in the gold rush, the Civil War, where he fought admirably and advanced from private to first sergeant, his post-war years and failed marriage, several of his robberies, and even his purported love affair. The story ends with an epilogue that explores the known facts and myriad of tall tales related to his final years. To this day, Wells Fargo offers a reward for Black Bart.
Lou Legerton notes that "Though Bart was an outlaw, he possessed a great sense of humor, was well-liked and often called a gentleman."
Published by Infinity Publishing
_____________________________________________________
The Sacrifice of the Sage-Hen
By Susie Schade-Brewer
1859: Pre-Civil War Independence, Missouri. The people are restless - the effects of prejudice and hate. Blood has already been spilled by some from over the border, and there has been talk of war.
Feisty and full of restless rebellion, Charlotte Mary West - called Charlie by her friends - is concerned, but what captures her most frequent thought is finding relief from her own dreary and uneventful life. Grant, her husband of an arranged marriage, owns a general store in the embarkation town of Independence, Missouri. His only ambition is to make fistfuls of money selling supplies to the pioneers of the wagon trains leaving down the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails.
But stocking shelves and waiting on customers has never been Charlie’s idea of adventure. Her dream is to return to the West where she was born, to explore the new land while it is yet new, to have part in settling it. Why if the world is offering a silver platter of opportunities to anyone who desires it is she not able to partake?
What is worse, her father and her best friend tell her they have joined a wagon train and will soon be leaving for Oregon. She will be left behind, not only to spend her life working in a dreary store, but imprisoned by a loveless marriage. This cannot be! Charlie decides she will fight to live her dream!
Then tragedy strikes. A devastating fire comes off the dry prairie and ravages half the town. Many buildings including West’s Mercantile burn to the ground. Some of the townspeople are injured – and a few die, including Charlie’s husband.
Now at only age 19, Charlie is a widow, no means of support - and quite unexpectedly - a mother to an orphaned mixed-race child. All her life, Charlie has been told what to do. Now she must make every decision regarding her and her new daughter’s futures.
***
Dirks Braelen is on the run from his life as a hired gun in Texas. He is ready to hang up his holster and try to find some peace for his soul. He may be ready to leave his old life behind, but the people he knew then may not let him. Till suddenly he meets a stranger – a feisty young woman with freckles and strawberry-blonde hair. Immediately taken with her, he can’t help but wonder, does she hold the key to his future happiness?
Dirks is trying to escape his past. Charlie is trying to escape her present. To find real happiness, both must reach back into a story from Charlie's father and discover the real meaning of ‘the sacrifice of the sage hen.’
Published by Swimming Kangaroo Books of Arlington, Texas
Visit Susie at www.Schade-Brewer.com or www.TheSacrificeOfTheSageHen.com
Purchase at www.SwimmingKangaroo.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or other online bookstores.
