Wilmont Kreis

Book Thirteen: Calvados: the place. Today, the department of Calvados is in the region of Normandie. The town of Mortagne is in the department of Orne in the region of Normandie. In 1650, the geography was the same but the political geography has been ever changing. Normandie was called a province in 1650, and Calvados was a comté or county. Mortagne was a town in Perche which was also a comté or county, but today what was Perche is officially called Orne. (However, anyone you ask will tell you they still call it Perche.) In the French Revolution (1790), the traditional political geography of France was changed from Provinces to 83 Departments and the target has been changing ever since. I, for one, now find it incomprehensible. Maybe if I drink some Calvados… Read More 

On arrival in Mortagne, Francoise is a lost soul in an unfamiliar place, looking for a relative she has never met . She finds help at the local convent where the Mother Superior helps Identify the relative as Nicole Boucher. By coincidence, Nicole's precocious eight-year-old son, Pierre is studying in the next room. This gifted boy brings Francoise to his home, beginning a lifelong relationship where Young Pierre grows into a man becoming one of the most important fathers of Canada. Read More 

Book Thirteen: Young Pierre: One of the joys of writing (and reading) historical fiction is that one is provided with a few or many delicious tidbits of history that are very possibly accurate. The strict history writer is stuck with these facts and these alone. The historical fiction author has the wonderful luxury of filling in the blanks with probabilities, possibilities, and out-right imagination. One of Françoise’s first encounters with Perche is eight year old Pierre. Much of his early story is provided by the author, but as the book evolves, Pierre becomes a pillar of history. More to come.  Read More 

Book Thirteen: Françoise Grenier: Of the people who returned to the new world in 1634, Françoise is certainly the most enigmatic. Unlike the other women: Mathurine Guyon, Nicole Boucher, etc. she has no written early past. For authors of straight history this is a dead end, but for historical fiction, she is a bonanza, a chance to spread one’s authorial wings. There are a number of theories about our heroine. Was she a native? is popular. However, I felt her subsequent life and history, particularly her many children born in a very French-immigrant fashion as opposed to the scant births of typical Indians of the time, made my version of her more realistic (at least in my mind). The remainder of her life is as well chronicled as any in this time and situation, and I have adhered to it as much as I usually do. This includes her mysterious death, for which you, dear reader, have a ways to go. Read More 

Book Thirteen: The Kirke brothers: These five men were French Huguenots who took religious refuge in England. They became privateers, basically pirates sailing under a government’s flag to raid its enemies (think Sir Francis Drake). In 1628 one or two of them did sail into the St. Lawrence River to take Canada, but when they managed to raid French ships on the way in, they returned to England. In 1629 they did return and take Québec from its founder. Samuel Champlain may have never seen it this way, but it allowed him to eventually return to France and build a force capable of taking Canada back, and with the addition of five hardy families from the rural area of Perche, France, make it a viable entity. Read More 

Book Thirteen: 1628: The Father of Canada is despondent. Samuel Champlain has spent most of his adult life trying to forge New France out of the Canadian wilderness—and he is failing. After many years of struggle, he has little infrastructure, few people, and scant support from the Kingdom of France. Little does he know that things are about to get worse. Read More 

So now it's time to begin discussion of Book 13. I know a lot of you have read it and many have had questions. As always I will spend the next several Blogs discussing this work. HANG ON! Here is the trailer.

1634
RETURN TO THE
NEW WORLD

Upper North America, 1628: Françoise Grenier’s life had been a combination of bad circumstances, worse luck and even poorer choices. Orphaned near Paris at the age of twelve, she became a street urchin. At fifteen she fell in with an older man who convinced her to follow him to the new world of Québec where he would marry her. Instead he abused her. Only when he failed to return from trading with the natives and she heard they had killed him, did she find herself liberated.
Taken in by the few women of Québec, she was just recovering when English privateers captured the failing colony, sending its few inhabitants, including Françoise, back to France. One of the ladies gave her a letter to deliver in France which led her to a new life, allowing her to return to help rebuild the colony five years later. It was here she prospered, beginning one of the early prominent families of Canada, helping to forge a great nation from the frozen wilderness.
If you enjoyed Fearful Passage North, The Allards Series, and the author’s ability to bring history to life, you will love this one. Read More