Author Interview: Mary Beth Dearmon
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. I grew up in a small town in southern Alabama. History and reading were early passions, particularly the classics. Everything began with Pride and Prejudice at the age of 11. I’m married with two beautiful children. Motherhood is my greatest dream...
The Presence of God in so Good a Voyage: A Visit to Cotleigh Church
BY TIM PLATEK On December 19, 1606, The Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, carrying 105 passengers, departed Blackwall along the Thames River bound for Virginia. The Virginia Company of London sponsored what was to become the first permanent English settlement in North America. They came looking for rich minerals...
Author Interview: Nicole Pierman
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. My name is Nicole Pierman and I grew up around the Washington D.C. area, but recently moved to the West Coast. I am a self-published author of a wide variety of genres under my given name and I write urban fantasy under …...
Historical Fiction Author Interview: Paul Bennett on the Mallory Saga
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. I am a retired (2019) data center professional. Not that I started out thinking I would spend nearly 50 years working in mainframe computer environments. My major interests, scholastically, in high school and college were history and anthropology. The Cuban...
The Faith of Ibrahim: A Poem for Gaza
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI I have seen the faith of IbrahimSmashing the idols of distractionAmidst Gaza’s desecration,Confronting a world consumed with comfort,Stained by apostasy, and stunted by apathy,Eager to bury its head in the sand.Yet we cannot turn our eyes awayFrom the mettle of the afflictedWho yet bless the One.If there is any...
Leaving One Kingdom for One Better: A Reflection on the Declaration of Independence
BY TIM PLATEK On July 4, 1776, the world was changed forever, as a formal Declaration of Independence was adopted by a unanimous group of men from the North American Colonies of Great Britain. The events leading up to a declared independence had been building for many years, stated as, “The history of the present …...
Reverberations of October 7th: Musings of an American Jew on the Fourth of July
BY JESSICA URSELL the July 4th rat a tat tat fireworks finale sounds no holiday hotdogs here only a fusillade of bullets our porch door creaking no longer a sign of lazy summer now suspicion is all it brings Who will enter? my rational mind knows we’re in the US of A …...
Thomas Jefferson Survives
BY LEAH FISHER It was six o’clock in Quincy, Massachusetts, and would have been considered evening if the summer had not prolonged the days. The unpleasant mixture of heat and humidity might remind one of former days in Philadelphia. But here laid an old man dying. His strength at last was failing, and his kin …...
1776: Movie Review
BY GREG GORMAN In the hot and humid city of Philadelphia, representatives from 13 colonies met to debate the risks and benefits of declaring independence from the mother country of Great Britain, something that had never been done before at the time. This is the core of “1776”, a musical produced for the stage in …...
Bunker Hill
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI “A dear bought victory, another such would have ruined us.” – General Henry Clinton *** They are playing “British Grenadiers” As the Grenadiers advance, Cheering them on, to their doom, For there are no other songs to play, Upon this day of reckoning, But the songs of Englishmen. Is not that, too,...
