Mayflower Chronicles Book Launch Party

Come Celebrate with Us! Zoom Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83678586136 Will you join us for the Mayflower Chronicles Book Birthday Bash Party? OCTOBER 16 @ 6 p.m. Central Time This week is the week we’ve been waiting for since, well, it seems like shortly after the Mayflower set sail to return to England. After numerous delays and obstacles, Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures is here! That is, it is in warehouses ready to deliver to you […]

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Mayflower Voyage Anniversary

Happy Mayflower Voyage Anniversary! This Sunday, September 6, 2020, marks the 400th anniversary of the third and final attempt by Master Christopher Jones to sail the Mayflower from England to New England. I suspect if Master Jones had known what was in store for him, his crew, and the 102 passengers, he’d have declined the honor. Jones and his crew sailed the wooden cargo ship Mayflower from London to Southampton in July. He’d probably navigated that […]

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Leiden and the Future Pilgrims

Today Leiden in the Netherlands is a delightful city of about 125,000. The center city is much as it was hundreds of years ago, but easily reached today by modern bus service. In 1609 the Scrooby Separatists religious refugees relocated there from Amsterdam. At that time Leiden was a significant industrial community of around 15,000 and growing. By 1650 the town had grown to a city 55,000. Though I grew up knowing our family tree […]

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Amsterdam Refugees

When the Scrooby Pilgrims’ 1607 first attempt to immigrate to the Lowlands failed, they returned to Scrooby and organized for another attempt. Their 1608 efforts resulted in successfully becoming the Amsterdam refugees. It was a mixed blessing. No longer must they worry about searchers and enforces rounding them up and handing them over to authorities. Instead they had to worry about where they would live and how they could support themselves in a bustling city, […]

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Twelve Generations After the Mayflower

I met Beth Splaine last summer at the writer’s retreat where I was working on Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures. Each evening we read portions of our work, so she was aware of my efforts to retell this famous story as a historical novel, with special emphasis on the perspective of the Natives and women. As a result of that event, I signed a contract with Green Writers Press to publish the book. […]

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