Summer is streaming away, and I’m 2 months behind on my BLOG. Ay yi yi!! At least they’ve been two fun-filled, enjoyable months. Trips to San Diego, Florida and South Carolina, a week visit from our 12 year old granddaughter, a presentation at the Historical Novel Society Convention, where we met some great writers and made new friends, and adding the final touches to Water To My Soul: The Story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney: my new historical novel soon to be launched, just took up more time than I expected!
As all writers know, the birthing of a book is a very traumatic experience. Is it good enough? Will people like it as much as my other titles? Are there any mistakes that my various editors missed? And finally, did I do the best job I could to tell my protagonist’s story?
Yet once we hold our new baby in our hands, we breathe a sigh of relief and the joy returns. Water To My Soul is my ninth baby, and we’re ready for her arrival!
Eliza Lucas Pinckney was an incredible Renaissance woman who lived in South Carolina during the colonial period. She was born in the West Indies, schooled in finishing schools in London, and then brought by her military father to Charles Town, South Carolina when she was just fifteen, where they settled on one of the three plantations her father had inherited. After only two years, he was called back to military service to fight against the Spanish. Leaving Eliza to care for her invalid mother, younger sister and to run the three plantations, he impressed on her the need to find a cash crop to cultivate in order to help out Mother England as well as free their lands from mortgage.
She chose indigo: against all odds. She was told it would never grow in the New World. Yet with true grit and strong will she proved everyone wrong. This book tells the story of how she made a better future for herself, her family, her society and our fledgling democracy.
My good friend Buddy Sullivan, an award winning Coastal Georgia Historian, penned these words for me as his endorsement.
“Once again, with keenness of insight and perception previously unrevealed in historical novels of this period, Pamela Bauer Mueller provides us with an enlightening glimpse into the world of an exceptional woman in colonial America. Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s story offers an illuminating awareness of the unique culture of indigo planting, while also presenting an intimate perspective of everyday life in colonial Charles Town and its low country environs. Not only is this an educational story of a remarkable 18th century woman with extraordinary courage, skill and grit, but it is also an absolute delight to read!”
I think with that, dear readers, you will be excited and eager to delve into this new historical novel, which we are expecting to make its appearance around the end of the year. Stay tuned!
Pamela
