Susan Appleyard's Blog

How many atrocities have been committed by ignorant, bigoted, cruel zealots in the name of religion? Here is another one – this in our lifetime. It would seem impossible that nuns of the Community of Jesus in Massachusetts could impose their will on a Christian College in another country, Canada, to force on it radical doctrines far from what were established in the college’s earlier days. (The community still exists. I googled it.) The author tells us something about her early years with a loving family and then relates how things changed and how quickly when two couples took over the running of the college and introduced the practices of Community of Jesus. She holds nothing back in recounting the cruelty she endured, her intimate life, and her struggles with bingeing and weight gain. It is a story that lays bare the fact that even today, when there is no accountability, children are vulnerable to manipulation, cruelty and neglect in the cause of someone’s interpretation of what is good for them. The author escaped. We who have never been in a cult might think that once she reached adulthood, it would have been an easy thing for her to just walk away. But it could not have been easy, and wasn’t, to escape the doctrines, beliefs, and lifestyle that had been inculcated in her for most of her life, and to risk the approbation of her family. It took courage and determination. It also took courage to write this book, to expose her soul to the public.

The book is well written and easy to read, and should be read by everyone.

The author and other survivors fought back with a lawsuit. Bravo for them.

Beth Granger was the first staff child born at Grenville Christian College, an elite private boarding school in Canada. In truth, it was a cult. After her escape at age thirty-one, she didn’t become a drug addicted streetwalker or go straight to hell, as her cult leaders predicted. Instead, she earned her Bachelor of Education at Queen’s University, got hired after her first teacher interview, married a police officer, and became a mother of two. She’s been recovering from complex PTSD, benzo withdrawal, and a lifelong eating disorder. She also helped spearhead a sixteen-year landmark class action lawsuit against her abusers. Beth is dedicated to shedding light on the long-term impact of trauma inflicted by weaponized religion. Born and Razed: Surviving the Cult was Only Half the Battle is her first book. –This text refers to the paperback edition.

I was shut out from posting on WordPress for some unfathomable reason. But I am now able to announce that my new book, Escape of the Grand Duchess, is available as an Ebook or paperback from your favourite retailers.

Trapped in a loveless marriage, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II, finds hope in the arms of a dashing army lieutenant. When the Russian Empire collapses and the Romanovs are marked for death, Olga faces an impossible choice: risk everything to stay or flee into the unknown with her true love and their family.

This is the cover for my new historical novel about Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, who survived the massacre of other members of the Romanov family and endured some exciting and fantastic adventures.

I extend my gratitude to Ingenium Books for publishing it.

This truly is a rags-to-riches story. Mary Kearney is the daughter of a poor Catholic farmer who farms land belonging to the aristocratic, Protestant Goward family. Thomas would not be able to make ends meet except that his daughter and son work at Goward Hall. When Mary’s mother dies in childbirth, she also begins to work at the Hall.

For Mary, everything is strange and eye-opening. The opulence of the rooms and furnishings; living among Protestants; the young lord, Viscount James Kilkeel, who is having a scandalous affair with a married woman and his parents’ acceptance of the situation. When his lover dies, James finds Mary’s a comfortable shoulder to cry on, and thus begins the remarkable romance. Unlike his contemporaries, James doesn’t want to just bed Mary; he wants her to be his wife, and they marry in secret. Those about them believe Mary is his mistress, and that’s acceptable. If they knew she was his wife, it would be a scandal. Their love enables them to grow in strength and fortitude to survive the difficulties that confront them and survive the differences in station and faith, the disapproval of certain elements of society, and the machinations of a sleazy employee who sees girls like Mary as nothing more than objects for his gratification.

But this is more than a romance. It reveals a time when the Catholics were generally a poor and oppressed, the (mainly) Protestant landowners haughty and complacent and the beginning of the resistance.

The characters are wonderfully portrayed, particularly James’ parents, and the use of Irish words and phrases only adds to the authenticity without compromising the book’s legibility. This is a beautifully told story. I highly recommend it for those who enjoy a tug of the heartstrings.

Katherine writes:

I am an Irish author of mainly historical fiction, living in Italy with my husband and three eccentric cats. In addition to The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Histria) and The Maiden of Florence (Fairlight) I am the author of four novels with Zaffre with the pen name Katie Hutton. I have also published three contemporary romances, writing as Kate Zarrelli, with Romaunce Books.

The coincidences of history.

There was a prophecy in Russian history that the Romanov dynasty, which began with a Michael, would also end with a Michael. It is certainly true that the dynasty began with Michael Romanov, a sixteen-year-old boy. Following the Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century, Michael was elected Tsar of Muscovy by the Boyars. They thought they could control him. They were wrong.

As to the last tsar, it is generally believed that Nicholas II, who was murdered along with his family by the Bolsheviks, was the last tsar. But was he? World War I was raging, and Nicholas was at the front when the burdens of his office became too great for him to bear, and he abdicated. He sent the following telegram to his younger brother, Grand Duke Michael, who was in St Petersburg, helping to quell the disorders.

To His Majesty the Emperor Michael…

Recent events have forced me to decide irrevocably to take this extreme step. Forgive me if it grieves you, and also for no warning – there was no time. Shall always remain a faithful and devoted brother. Now returning to HQ, where hope to come back shortly to Tsarskoye Selo. Fervently pray God to help you and our country. Nicky.

There is no doubt that in sending the telegram, Nicholas put a target on his younger brother’s back. Also beyond doubt is the simple fact that until he formally renounced the throne several hours after receiving the telegram, Michael was the Tsar.

A further coincidence is that Michael Romanov was found by the boyars in the Ipatiev Monastery. And then we come to Nicholas II and his family, who were assassinated in the cellar of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg.

Below is a charming picture of Grand Duke Michael (or Tsar Michael II). He is actually smiling, which was unusual for photographs of that time, so I suspect it wasn’t a formal portrait.

Michael is the subject of my book The Disappearance of Michael Romanov.

The book describes the relationship between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson from their beginnings in Chicago to the heady days in Paris of the twenties defined by such literary giants as Ezra Pound, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce. It was a group to which Hemingway longed to belong, but let his ego get in the way. We also see them in Pamplona and at the bullfights and when the next Mrs Hemingway comes into their lives. The book is a very intimate look into the deterioration of their marriage.

Even as a young unknown, Hemingway was ambitious and charismatic. With increasing fame, he became egotistical and self-centred, treating even close friends poorly. There were times when I wanted to slap him and other times when I wanted to hug him, but I never lost my admiration for him. I wondered if he was damaged by his genius. It must be hard for such individuals to live among lesser beings.

The author portrayed Hadley with great sensitivity, and although the book is written from her point of view, she really is a supporting character. A girl-next-door type, old-fashioned, she was thrust into a group of literati, so out of her element, it is hard not to feel sorry for her. She was a steadying influence on Hemingway in the beginning, but then she became his willing victim, too tolerant and considerate when someone more alluring came into the picture.

All in all, it is a brilliant portrait of a golden age and a literary giant with all his warts.

*****

Paula McLain is the author of the the New York Times bestselling novels The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, and Love and Ruin. Now she introduces When the Stars Go Dark, an atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies and heart-wrenching suspense. McLain was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working as a nurses aid in a convalescent hospital, a pizza delivery girl, an auto-plant worker, a cocktail waitress–before discovering she could (and very much wanted to) write. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and is the author of two collections of poetry, a memoir, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, and the debut novel, A Ticket to Ride. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, O: the Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, Huffington Post, the Guardian and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Cleveland.

I have a few words to say about this book: funny, engaging, quirky… The author fancies a trip to South America, but because it’s the rainy season, he chooses a two-month-long luxury safari in Africa. Luxury? Not quite. The trip is a problem-plagued odyssey on a bus whose windows and roof leak rain. Instead of the high-end hotels he expected, he is given a tent which he names Ursula, which of course leaks. Rain in the countries our hero passes through is generally a deluge, in which tents and belongings are swept away. This happens to Sheldon only once because he’s resourceful and manages to avoid such consequences. Many others would have given up somewhere along the route, or done the tour guide some serious mischief, but Sheldon soldiers on despite the problems and disappointments, always optimistic and without bitterness, enjoying among other unforgettable adventures a hair-raising level 5 rafting trip, baboons getting onto the bus, and a facial tongue licking from the long blue tongue of a giraffe. Despite everything, he wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Thanks to the adventures, animal encounters, and problems Sheldon encountered, he brought back a wealth of stories for this book, which I recommend for anyone who enjoys a good laugh. And who doesn’t?

I wonder what he will do next. South America, perhaps?

*****

Sheldon Herman was born in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Sheldon followed in his parents’ footsteps and served a long career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Recovering from a life-threatening carbon monoxide poisoning, Sheldon focused on cooking, travelling, and writing, and became a professional magician and licensed race car driver. 

Since his travels never seem to go as planned, there’s a good chance he’ll grow a series.

Maybe not who you think. Most would say it was Nicholas II who, at that time, had been tsar for twenty-three years, but there was another with a claim to that distinction. During the February-March 1917 Russian Revolution, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s younger brother, left his home and family in Gatchina and went to St. Petersburg to try to offer his help in quelling the disorders. While there, Michael received a telegram from his brother that read:

To His Majesty the Emperor Michael…

Recent events have forced me to decide irrevocably to take this extreme step. Forgive me if it grieves you, and also for no warning – there was no time. Shall always remain a faithful and devoted brother. Now returning to HQ, where hope to come back shortly to Tsarskoye Selo. Fervently pray God to help you and our country. Nicky.

The Tsar had abdicated, leaving his younger brother to deal with the impending crisis, knowing that Michael didn’t want to be tsar. He was a man of simple tastes who wanted nothing more than to live his life in peace with his family. In the present climactic situation in St. Petersburg, the Tsar had put a target on his brother’s back.

This picture is of Michael.

Reluctant though he was, Michael recognised that his birth imposed a duty on him that he could not ignore. After consulting with ministers and other leading men the next day and being warned that if he accepted, he would be killed, a compromise was reached. Michael agreed to assume the supreme authority only if and when a Constituent Assembly elected by the people to determine the new form of government invested him with such power. He would accept the burden if it was the will of the people. Aside from all the arguments and his wishes on the matter, the accepted tradition that the Russian throne belonged not to the tsar but to the people is what ultimately influenced his decision.

Although it is little known, for one day, Michael Alesandrovich was the last Tsar of Russia. Coincidentally, the first Romanov tsar of Russia was named Michael, and so was the last.

This picture is of Nicholas.

The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

Because of DNA testing, we know Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna perished along with the rest of her family in a cellar room of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg. In this book, the author imagines her survival. That part, I admit, was a little hard for me to swallow, but once past that, it was an intriguing look into the lives of ordinary Russians from 2019 until the death of Stalin in 1952. Maria a child of wealth and privilege, suffers the losses, starvation and heart-stopping dangers experienced under the Lenin and Stalin regimes and comes to understand what life must have been like for many under imperial rule.

In a parallel story set in 1973, Australia, Val Scott has escaped an abusive husband and is trying to make a fresh start with her daughter. Val has questions about her parents. Why did her father send her mother back to China when Val was thirteen? Why was he such a grim and unloving man, and why did he have items connected to the Romanovs in a lock box?

It is mystifying what the two stories have in common until the last pages when they converge in a satisfying ending that only a gifted author could deliver.

****

Gill Paul is the international bestselling author of thirteen novels, many of them reevaluating extraordinary twentieth-century women whom she believes have been marginalized or misjudged. Her novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Toronto Globe & Mail charts, and have been translated into twenty-three languages.

Yes, it’s celebration time here at Digging into the Past as I look toward the future. What is all the song and dance about? After years of struggling with such tedious matters as marketing and promotion (and often ignoring them), I have been accepted for publication by Ingenium Books, a hybrid company, whose owners live and work in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Nice.

I am thrilled to have the chance to work with Boni and John.