Today on our blog, we have Lynne Tagawa and her book Heart of Courage. Please join me in welcoming her and thanking her for sharing her story. First, let’s hear a little bit about it.
No one would understand. But he had to obey his conscience.
It’s 1753, and troubling news comes to Russell’s Ridge . . .
Susanna Russell longs to escape her valley home. When war breaks out, she gets her wish to study in fabulous Williamsburg. But she realizes she’s lost something important along the way. Something—and someone.
James Paxton is studying for the ministry. But when violence threatens the valley, his path becomes clouded. What is God’s will for his life? The answer is alarming—and impossible.
Red Hawk spies white surveyors near his home, a harbinger of trouble to come. Shawnee chiefs go to Philadelphia to treat for peace, but the unthinkable happens, and Red Hawk loses all he once held dear. Then he has a strange dream. What can it mean?
War, romance, and gospel truth unite in this remarkable sequel to The Shenandoah Road .
“The Heart of Courage is a rare blend of history and inspiration, stirring the heart and spirit while it entertains the mind. Truly worth reading.” —Sydney Tooman Betts, author of The People of the Book trilogy.
The Russells Book
What was you inspiration behind this book?
In my house I’ve got stacks of books here, there, and yonder. One of them is entitled, America in Crimson Red: The Baptist History of America. There’s a picture of a whip on the cover. As you can imagine, it focuses on the persecution of Baptists during the colonial time period. Another book, Esteemed Reproach, is mainly about the life of the minister James Ireland. In the back of this book, there is a list of Baptist ministers who suffered persecution in Virginia.
Martin Kaufman, for example, was “Severely beaten with a stick” in Shenandoah County. Some were jailed. John Waller was “Hauled about by the hair of his head.” It seems half of the opposition was from mobs, and half from magistrates.
James Ireland was jailed, and suffered from cold, thirst, hunger, and a fever: “My friends round the courthouse supplied me amply with wood, it being an extreme cold winter, and a great demand for it.”
His jailer was tasked with supplying food and water, but it was insufficient; his friends kept him alive. Meanwhile, he would preach to bystanders through an iron grate. Listeners were threatened with violence: “… whilst the poor Negroes [listeners] have been stripped and subjected to stripes, and myself threatened with being shut up in total darkness if I ever presumed to preach to the people again.”
But he didn’t stop, and continued to receive vile threats and attacks. He was even poisoned, but recovered. He said of this time: “My prison was a place in which I received much of the divine Presence.”
The Heart of Courage is full of all the things you’d expect in a book set during the French and Indian War: George Washington at Braddock’s Defeat; Shawnee raids and life in a Shawnee village; Williamsburg and a governor’s gala. But I chose to include a character who embraced Baptist doctrine, thinking of James Ireland and men like him.
I suppose you could say that the theme of my book is conscience. What will happen if James Paxton follows his conscience?
Lynne Tagawa is an author, editor, educator, and best of all, grandma to four. She loves to write quality fiction with solid gospel content. Her debut novel, A Twisted Strand, is contemporary romantic suspense, but she thinks she’s found her true home in historical fiction.
Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Lynne-Basham-Tagawa-263573557821364/
Website: https://www.lynnetagawa.com/
Where to buy Heart of Courage
Giveaway
Tagawa is giving away an ebook of The Heart of Courage! Directions below.
Thank you, Lynne, for joining us today!
Did it take you long to come up with the title?