by Lawrence Martin
Abigale Tate, 24, has lost her father and husband in the Civil War, and now General Sherman is about to invade Savannah. She feels despondent and cynical. She attends a black church and is enthralled by the reverend, a free colored man. They have a furtive affair, which ends when she meets a Yankee major. Along the way she is beset by a teenage sister who has no boundaries in seeking love, a stalking German immigrant, and an outlaw brother who is hunted by the very man she hopes to marry.
About Lawrence Martin
I began writing early in my medical career in Cleveland, starting with a book about pulmonary medicine (my specialty) for the lay public. Over the years I wrote several more medical-themed books, some for physicians and others for the general public. I did not tackle fiction until 2011, with a novel about Civil War Savannah. Since then I have self-published several other fictional works, plus two books for children. I learned quickly that fiction is a whole different craft than non-fiction. In my non-fiction books I never had to worry about “point of view,” dialogue or character development.
Another book of mine entitled The Boy Who Dreamed Mount Everest won 2nd place in the 2016 Florida Writers’ Association Royal Palm Awards category of Middle Grade Fiction (Unpublished). Liberty Street: A Novel of Late Civil War Savannah won 2nd place in the 2018 RPLA competition for published historical fiction. Several short stories have also won RPLA awards.
A list of my books, medical and non-medical, can be found at www.lakesidepress.com/books.html. My 3 Civil War novels are described and compared at www.lakesidepress.com/CivilWarNovels.html.
Writing is my main retirement interest but I have another: music. I never played an instrument and decided retirement is the time to learn, starting with the ukulele. This is the go-to instrument for many retirees because it is relatively simple (compared to the guitar) and, especially in The Villages, there are many opportunities to play with others. As a way to learn basic music theory for the uke, I started writing myself explanations. One thing led to another, and I ended up with a 140-page “Uke Syllabus: An Introduction to Basic Music Theory for the Ukulele”. It is posted free online at http://www.lakesidepress.com/UkeSyllabus.pdf. Then I took up piano, and also wrote a basic music theory syllabus for that instrument: www.lakesidepress.com/PianoSyllabus. pdf.
My wife and I are blessed with three wonderful daughters (two in Chicago, one in New York), and 5 grandchildren.