Here's the story in a nutshell: The hero returns to his family's NW Ohio farm to find his fiancee married to someone else, his stepmother dead and his father dying. He gets another big wallop after his father dies and he discovers that the will is entailed: If he does marry and have a child before he is 30, only 18 months away, he will lose not only the farm but guardianship of his 16-year-old sister.And yeah, it gets worse for poor Coulter. Riding to rid himself of anger despite a pending thunderstorm, he is shocked when a young woman collapses in his path.
Naturally, he has no choice but to take her home ... and soon discovers that this maid of mystery intends to stay that way.
Intrigued yet? Let me say it just gets better and better.
Why post-Civil War when everything else I write is contemporary?
Blame my mother. And maybe "Gone With the Wind."
My mother is a huge history buff with mad research skills. GWTW hooked me the first time I read, and I have made a habit of re-reading it every five years or so. Add in the fact that I edited a Civil War diary that was reprinted in the newspaper I worked for, and there you have it.
I don't care about battles or military formation. I am, however, fascinated with how ordinary people resumed their lives after the epic war that tore apart families and led to mass destruction of towns and farmlands.
That's what started me thinking about how horrible it would be to come home and find your whole world changed. Or losing everything in your world and not knowing how to go on.
Coulter and his mysterious guest, the beautiful Amelia, are both forced to step out into an unknown future, where things aren't always as they seem and danger invades when they least expect it.
I hope you'll give "Bittersweet" a try, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'd love to know what you think!
Cat Shaffer
catshaffer@windstream.net
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