Hallelujah, my eBook novella baby went live on 5/10/23! I hope this historical fiction story blesses you as it did me to write it. To quote Mick in Chapter 7, “I’ve fulfilled me American dream with God’s help.”.
Description: This 1867-1877 Expansion Era novella tells of a resilient Irish emigrant’s resolve to escape his past. Especially an entity he blames for the deaths of his wives and children in Ireland. He struggles with whiskey drinking to numb his pain and doubts God’s love for him. Will America’s promises redeem his heart?
.99 cents on Amazon:. https://www.amazon.com/Muldoons-Minnesota-Darling-V-Sparrow-ebook/dp/B0C51CWT62/
.99 cents also on Draft2Digital:. https://books2read.com/u/bwN7EO where eBooks are distributed in the USA and worldwide for numerous eBook readers other than Kindle and Apple Books.
All characters chosen from Pinterest’s Artbreeder account, and are listed below. First, Mick’s darling (macushla) is Shauna McGann. *All portraits were created by Artbreeder, and pinned on my Pinterest Board, Muldoon’s Minnesota Darling, a new HR novella.
I cut this ten-year portion of Mick Muldoon’s life from May 1867 through March 1877 out of my debut novel, Muldoon’s Misfortunes. While it’s an exciting and important season for Mick, it didn’t fit the rest of his novel, or help move the larger story forward.
Mick hoped to escape from poverty in Ireland with his broken heart in a shambles, while he believed in the rumors of plenty in America. He again encountered disappointments in the tenements of Lower East Side of NYC. Where could he find America’s promises?
Things changed for him in Minnesota with Shauna. Could she be his true love? These two deserved their own focus from readers with more depth and detail than I could give to the couple within the upcoming debut novel in December.
Sometimes, God’s unexpected blessings come to us in the most unlikely ways and places. #unexpectedblessings #1867 #historicalfictionbook #historicalfictionnovella
Below: Shauna McGann
(Below) Mick’s oldest brother, Edward, who had abandoned him and their sisters in Cobh, (Queenstown) Ireland in the moments before they boarded the ship to America. Ed secretly chose to emigrate to Canada instead, leaving Mick to care for their sisters. The siblings knew Ed kept secrets about his life, and was the resentful bully of the family from their parents passing him over in favor of Mick for the inheritance of the tenant farm, but he was their brother. Ed appeared to feel no such loyalty. Until guilt goaded him to find Mick in NYC. He succeeded finding his brother as miscreants were in the act of beating Mick at the docks on the Lower East Side.
Below: Declan McGann is the farmer selling a plot of land. Advancing in age, he’d rather have the funds than the work. Ed hears of cheaper farmland in Minnesota as he’s gambling to multiply his stash, and the brothers decide to head further west from New York. Declan dotes on his youngest daughter, and nicknames her “Bunny.”
Declan
Below: A more suspicious type, Cassandra McGann worries about her daughter’s attraction to Mick. He’s a stranger in town, two of his wives have died, and his obvious limp concerns her. Is he able to provide for Shauna? What can win her over?
Cassandra
Below: The town bully, because there’s always at least one. Hank Humphrey was the newcomer a year ago. He’s had time to interact with the community. The problem is, the young women in the township haven’t told anyone about his behavior towards them. When Shauna confides in Mick, he has no qualms discussing an incident with her friends’ fathers.
Hank
The McGann’s township is small, but Shauna has three friends her age. Below: Gillian Lawson, Lucy Carlson, and Nell Hagerty. All daughters of the town’s leaders, and all wary of Hank. Once Shauna shares Lucy’s story with Mick, the townsmen plan a series of events to oust Hank from town. The girls play a part, unbeknownst by Hank.
Lucy
*All portraits used were created by Artbreeder, and pinned on my Pinterest Board: Muldoon’s Minnesota Darling, a new HR novella.
E.V. Sparrow 