Guest Post: Julie Bates – CRY OF THE INNOCENT

Good day, my bookish peeps. Can you imagine not ever knowing anything about the American Civil War, the Regency period, the Dark Ages, WWII, etc.? With the advent of the printing press and the talents of so many gifted authors (fiction and nonfiction), we can travel to these time periods and learn about and from them. Readers are, in essence, armchair travelers. We are fortunate to travel the globe and beyond with the wonder of the printed word. I’m very pleased to welcome today’s guest, Julie Bates, author of the historical fiction read, Cry of the Innocent. Ms. Bates will be talking about time travel with us this morning. Sit back, relax with your favorite beverage, and let’s see what she has to say on this subject. Thank you, Ms. Bates, for joining us today. I’ll now turn the blog over to you.

You Can Travel Any Time You Like
by Julie Bates

When people ask me why I write historical fiction, I have to say that its one way I can travel time. The written word allows us to be in whatever time period and whatever place we desire. I’ve always had an active imagination peopled with unicorns, faeries, classic cars and interesting characters. I still have a few of my teen age notebooks filled with half written stories of wild adventures and exotic places. They run the gamut from westerns to Tolkienish fantasy to hippy-like Miss Marples. I read through them whenever I feel my ego needs resizing. They make me laugh (they’re really awful). But they also remind me that the travels of the imagination know no bounds.

My current series, of which Cry of the Innocent is book 1, takes place during the American Revolution. I was drawn to this time for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that when I looked I could find strong women who overcame the prejudices of the period to have moderately successful lives. As I have read journals and letters from the period, these women became very real to me. They were women I could identify with and could feel comfortable talking too. I realized that the challenges of balancing work and a family have been around for centuries. Laws and customs may change but the need to survive, find fulfillment and care and protect ones family is a universal theme.

Digging into a time fascinates me. I have to know what people wore, what they ate, and what they did to occupy themselves. It can lead to a dizzying amount of rabbit holes that eventually I must drag myself out of, but I regret none of it. It’s the details that make one feel they have transcended time and feel like they have entered another time and place.

Rather than aggrandize historical figures, I strike to make them human. Seeing George Washington on a dollar bill makes him an icon. Discovering how much he loved dogs and how he rescued General Howe’s dog at the Battle of Germantown and returned it unharmed to the British Officer makes him more human. So does hearing some of the names he gave his dogs such as Tipsy and Sweet Lips.

Reading the letters of John and Abigail Adams reveals how deeply they loved and trusted each other. Her admonishment to “Remember the ladies,” as well as her comment during their courtship that “There is a tye more binding than humanity and stronger than friendship.” Their love shines through the over 1000 letters of theirs that survive.

Although my imagination is pretty good, I like to immerse myself in facts so that I can see my characters at home, doing tasks that were every day to them but novel to a modern world. I’ve never cooked dinner over a fire place but my main character, Faith does it every day. I have no idea what herbs to grow for medicine for my family but colonial ladies had to know these things and past their wisdom on to their daughters, much as my mother used to teach me how to identify trees by their leaves.

Armchair travel allows one to explore other places from the comfort of their home. It requires no passport, and you don’t have to worry about maxing out your credit card. It also allows you to draw on the things you do know and that has been shared with you by friends and family.

One day I intend to write about women’s experiences on the home front of World War II, because this was part of my mother story. She worked In Oak Ridge among other places and told me about all the things she and her twin sister did during those years. She told me about being dreadfully homesick at Christmas and getting to experience the novelty of restaurants and indoor plumbing which were not commonly available in rural Kentucky at that time.

I love reading historical mysteries. My Kindle is loaded with stories about Regency England, the Roaring 20’s, India under British Rule and medieval Japan among others. While I read just about anything, my joy lies in sharing the American Experience. It’s a unique culture not often represented in historic fiction. Although I take guilty pleasure in Julie Mulhern’s Country Club series set in the 1970’s, I don’t see a lot featuring American history so I endeavor to fill that gap. I have had great fun learning things I never did in school and finding ways to share what is fun and interesting and mysterious about America.

So you can travel all sort of places by reading a good book. Maybe one day I will meet you in person, all in good time. ♦

Synopsis:

April 1774 – Within the colonial capital of Virginia, Faith Clarke awakes in the middle of the night to discover a man savagely murdered in her tavern. Phineas Bullard was no stranger. Faith’s late husband had borrowed heavily from the man and left Faith to struggle to pay the debt.

With unrest growing in the American Colonies, the British are eager for a quick resolution at the end of a noose, regardless of guilt. Under suspicion for the crime, she must use every resource at her disposal to prove her innocence and protect those she loves. Her allies are Olivia and Titus, slaves left to her by her late husband’s family, individuals she must find a way to free, even as she finds they also have motives for murder.

Faith seeks to uncover the dead man’s secrets even as they draw close to home. Determined to find the truth, she continues headlong into a web of secrets that hides Tories, Patriots, and killers, not stopping even though she fears no one will hear the cry of the innocent.

Praise for Cry of the Innocent:

“An absorbing, fast-paced, and contemplative whodunit.”
Kirkus Reviews

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: June 8th 2021
Number of Pages: 258
ISBN-10: 1953789773 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781953789778 (paperback)
ASIN: ‎ B096KZ5MK3 (Kindle edition)
Series: A Faith Clarke Mystery, #1
Purchase Links #CommissionEarned: IndieBound.org | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookDepository.com | Bookshop.org | Goodreads

Author Bio:

Julie Bates grew up reading little bit of everything, but when she discovered Agatha Christie, she knew she what she wanted to write. Along the way, she has written a weekly column for the Asheboro Courier Tribune (her local newspaper) for two years and published a few articles in magazines such as Spin Off and Carolina Country. She has blogged for Killer Nashville and the educational website Read.Learn.Write. She currently works as a public school teacher for special needs students. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Southeastern Writers of America (SEMWA) and her local writing group, Piedmont Authors Network (PAN). When not busy plotting her next story, she enjoys doing crafts and spending time with her husband and son, as well as a number of dogs and cats who have shown up on her doorstep and never left.

Catch Up With Julie Bates:
JulieBates.weebly.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @julibates1
Instagram – @juliebates72
Twitter – @JulieLBates03
Facebook – @JulieBates.author

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