I'm giving away IRENA's CHILDREN, and a sneak peak at what I'm working on now...

Published: Fri, 05/06/16

Hello ,

I'm always nervous to say too much about a project until my agent and editor are ready to make it public.

So I was very excited this week to see my latest deal announced in Publishers Weekly! I signed this contract last August and have been working on the manuscript and photo research since January.

The Enemy at Home

This is a photo of 50,000 members of Ku Klux Klan parading down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1925.

As a young child on her father's knee Charity Adams watched a similar parade move past her home in Columbia, South Carolina. She was too young to understand this blatant expression of hate.

Understanding of racism came gradually as she grew up, learning to avoid humiliating and dangerous confrontation with whites. Did she ever imagine herself talking back to some of the most powerful white men in America?

Fast-forward to World War II, when Charity volunteered for officer training in the newly formed US Women's Auxiliary Army Corp. That's the subject of my latest book project, tentatively titled The Enemy at Home.

You heard it here first! :) And yes, she tells a white General a thing or two.

The photo above shows Major Charity Adams and the #6888th Postal Battalion in February 1944, Birmingham, England. The US military was segregated until the 1950s, and this was the only African American women's unit shipped overseas.

But, wait...we were fighting the Nazis. What's this about the enemy at home? My book will tell the story of the bravery required for these women to get on a bus in Kentucky, to leave the confines of Fort Oglethope in Georgia, to walk to work at an Army hospital in Detroit, Michigan.

Even dressed in a US army uniform, with officer stripes on the shoulder--these woman ran the risk of getting their teeth knocked out by a police baton. Due out in 2018.

News and Links

Loyal subscribers...as mentioned last week, and all over Facebook--Advanced Readers' Copies of IRENA'S CHILDREN are out!

I wish that I could send one to each and every one of you! But they only gave me a few ARCs. To be fair, I am conducting random drawings to give away two copies. The first drawing is tonight over on my Author Facebook Page.

The second drawing will be here a week from tomorrow! I'll hold a random drawing with the names of all current subscribers, and print the name of the winner in this section of next week's newsletter. The winner must see his or her name and claim the ARC before the following Thursday, or I will draw a second name, and so on until the book is claimed.

Thanks to my friend Kay Dixon for drawing my attention to An Unquenchable Thirst, by Mary Johnson.

In the author's words the book, "provides an intimate, inside view of a closed society and of a woman still admired throughout the world, a woman I knew personally, Mother Teresa."

Kirkus gave the book a starred review, saying "Johnson’s portrayal of her time as a nun is likely to be controversial; her memoir is exceptional."

And... "Mother Teresa actually emerges as a fairly normal person rather than a saintly archetype."

Thanks for you time!

Have you read a great book? Tell me about it. Have a burning question? Let me know.

Until next week....

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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.

My best,

Mary

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