Book Blog Tour Begins Today - 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories by Day

Book Blog Tour Begins Today

13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories by Day

Please visit each of our Participating Blogs

Monday, Mar 25

Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories
http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
and Dr. Bill's Book Bazaar
http://drbillsbookbazaar.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to see Giveaway information...



Tuesday, Mar 26 and Wed, Mar 27

Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest
http://anglersrest.blogspot.com/

Review on Mar 26
Guest Post and Giveaway on Mar 27

Thursday, Mar 28

Biff Barnes on Stores to Tell Books
http://www.storiestotellbooks.com/

Author Interview and Giveaway

Friday, Mar 29

Jason Crews on Genealogy Spheres
http://www.genealogysphere.com/

Author Interview

Saturday, Mar 30

Shannon Combs-Bennett on Trials and Tribulations of a Self-Taught Family Historian
http://tntfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/

Review and Giveaway

Happy Easter

Monday, Apr 1

Miriam J. Robbins at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors
http://ancestories1.blogspot.com/

Author Guest Post and Giveaway

Tuesday, Apr 2

Julie Cahill Tarr on Writing Your Way to the Past
http://julietarr.blogspot.com/

Review

Wednesday, Apr 3

Jana Last on Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog
http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/

Review and Giveaway

Thursday, Apr 4

Gena Philbert-Ortega on Gena's Genealogy
http://philibertfamily.blogspot.com/

Host Author Guest Post

Friday, Apr 5

Pam Schaffner on Digging Down East
http://diggingdowneast.blogspot.com/

Review
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A Big Thank You to each Blogger Participating!
**********

Giveaway Information:

One PDF copy of the 2nd Edition of "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories" to the winner


To Qualify to be the winner, you must:

1) Enter a comment, below, that includes an email contact address
[Use this format: billsmith2003 at gmail dot com]

2) Enter comment, per Blogger time stamp, prior to midnight, Thursday, Mar 28
3) (Optional) If you host Book Blog Tours, please note that - we have another one coming up... ;-)

Winner will be determined using Random.org - and contacted via email address provided.


Thank you for your participation, and sharing this information.

Happy Reading!
Families are Forever!  ;-)

Murder by the Homeplace - now on Amazon

Murder by the Homeplace

A Novella in The Homeplace Series

[Now Available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWZEX50

and in Print Edition]

We met Penny Nixon here, earlier, and now she shares a full story with us. I hope you enjoy it!

This novella is set immediately following "Back to the Homeplace" in the same location and 1987. Secondary characters take a leading role in this novella while the major characters from "Back to the Homeplace" play secondary roles.

Back of the book blurb:

A police radio scanner call of '419' - "dead human body" - on a bucolic fall afternoon in the south-central Missouri Ozarks small town of Oak Springs sends a part-time local newspaper reporter, Penny Nixon, on the adventure of her life-time. Warned by her editor to only look for 'human-interest angles' to the story, her actions bring her perilously close to interviewing the knife-wielding perpetrator of a bizarre murder. The victim is a recently disgraced young attorney who only weeks earlier was involved in a domestic violence incident with his 'banker's daughter' bride in this quiet small town.

Comments on 'Murder at the Homeplace' from advance reader Jason Bolger:

"I like how it's a different slant on the town, but still weaves in the characters from the books I enjoyed so much. I like how the reporter interacts with people, and it seems like the dialog gives a pretty good feel for the emotions, or the state of mind the characters are in at the time she talks with them. I also like how there are little "side mysteries" that are hinted at, but not explained.  This gives me a chance to imagine things on my own as a reader, and not have to be told every little thing.

This story was a nice read, I could put it down and come back to it without having to backtrack.  I guess it just stayed fresh in my mind over the few days that I picked it up and put it down. I really liked it, and am excited to check out the final book."

Reviews welcomed!

Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Ho! For the Black Hills

Ho! For the Black Hills: 
Captain Jack Crawford Reports the Black Hills Gold Rush and Great Sioux War 
Edited by Paul L. Hedren


This is the forty-ninth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


Nancy got this as a LibraryThing book last year - I thought it looked interesting. Seemed to fit well after finishing the fur trade book! ;-)


Book Description of Ho! For the Black Hills on the back of the book:

In 1875 a young man from Pennsylvania known as Captain Jack joined the Dodge Expedition into the Black Hills of Dakota Territory, penning letters to the Omaha Daily Bee during that time and for six months in 1876.

John Wallace Crawford, aka Captain Jack, wrote a vibrant account of this fascinating time in the American West. His correspondence featured unusual and intriguing details about the relative merits of the gulches, the vagaries and difficulties of travel in the region, the art of survival in what was essentially wilderness, the hardships of inclement weather, trouble with outlaws, and interactions with American Indians.

Award-winning historian Paul L. Hedron has compiled these almost unknown letters, writing an introduction and essays, which result in a treasure trove of hitherto hidden primary documents as well as a ripping yarn in the traditions of the old West.





Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Two Upcoming Book Blog Tours - Let's Talk About Them

Two Upcoming Book Blog Tours - Let's Talk About Them

I have recently been organizing a Book Blog Tour for my book, "13 Ways to Sell Your Ancestor Stories - 2nd Edition" - the companion book (non-fiction) to my family history and genealogy blog, Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories. That will occur March 25 to April 5. I hope each of you, my readers, will participate!

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*   *   *   *   *
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Currently projected to begin in mid-April will be the first of several Tours promoting my "The Homeplace Series" fiction novels/novellas/short story collections, current and forthcoming. See more information on this March 8 post.

I would like to invite you (Book Bloggers of any size with similar interests) to contact me if you would consider being a part of this series of tours, one at a time, all of them, or decide as each one is scheduled.

I welcome you to leave a comment, below, or, feel free to send me an email (as noted in the post) to billsmith2003 at gmail dot com. I am happy to answer any questions, as well.

Thank you for your interest!

Happy Reading,

Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Fur, Fortune, and Empire

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Fur, Fortune, and EmpireFur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
by Eric Jay Dolin


This is the forty-eighth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

I started this a couple of years ago, but now, I'm back to finish it.

Book Description of Fur, Fortune, and Empire on Amazon:

As Henry Hudson sailed up the broad river that would one day bear his name, he grew concerned that his Dutch patrons would be disappointed in his failure to find the fabled route to the Orient. What became immediately apparent, however, from the Indians clad in deer skins and "good furs" was that Hudson had discovered something just as tantalizing.

The news of Hudson's 1609 voyage to America ignited a fierce competition to lay claim to this uncharted continent, teeming with untapped natural resources.  The result was the creation of an American fur trade, which fostered economic rivalries and fueled wars among the European powers, and later between the United States and Great Britain, as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations.

In Fur, Fortune, and Empire, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old, when the rallying cry was "get the furs while they last." Beavers, sea otters, and buffalos were slaughtered, used for their precious pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats, coats, and sleigh blankets. To read Fur, Fortune, and Empire then is to understand how North America was explored, exploited, and settled, while its native Indians were alternately enriched and exploited by the trade.  As Dolin demonstrates, fur, both an economic elixir and an agent of destruction, became inextricably linked to many key events in American history, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, as well as to the relentless pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West.

This work provides an international cast beyond the scope of any Hollywood epic, including Thomas Morton, the rabble-rouser who infuriated the Pilgrims by trading guns with the Indians; British explorer Captain James Cook, whose discovery in the Pacific Northwest helped launch America's China trade; Thomas Jefferson who dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi; America's first multimillionaire John Jacob Astor, who built a fortune on a foundation of fur; and intrepid mountain men such as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith, who sliced their way through an awe inspiring and unforgiving landscape, leaving behind a mythic legacy still resonates today.

Concluding with the virtual extinction of the buffalo in the late 1800s, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is an epic history that brings to vivid life three hundred years of the American experience, conclusively demonstrating that the fur trade played a seminal role in creating the nation we are today. 125 black-and-white illustrations






Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)