Dickinson-area author Maureen McKade has written a new historical romance novel set immediately after the Civil War. It follows Confederate nurse Laurel Covey's mission of delivering the messages of dying soldiers to their families.
The novel "A Reason to Live" is being released by Berkley on Tuesday, Sept. 5, in bookstores around the world.
In Covey's diary entry of May 30, 1865, she wrote, "During the Civil War, I watched over too many young boys in the hospital, comforting them as they cried out for those they loved, as they whispered their final thoughts to me. Keeping a record of their names, families and last words seemed a small tribute to their sacrifice - until the war ended, and I found a new mission in life. I would visit the loved ones of those poor soldiers and deliver their messages, so that some comfort could be found even in grief."
The journey gave her a reason to live after her husband's death at Gettysburg. While encountering a band of ruffians on the journey, Laurel is saved by Creede Forrester - an ex-gunslinger who rode from Texas to Virginia in the hope of finding his son. Their journey together fosters a relationship that is difficult to resist.
McKade developed the idea for the novel while visiting the Fort Carson Post Exchange in Colorado Springs. A picture in the mall area caught her attention. It was a Confederate soldier and a woman whom she assumed was his wife.
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"I remembered the look in their eyes and I began to wonder what might have happened to that soldier. And what about his wife? What happened to her," said McKade.
About the same time, she read an article about the women who served as nurses in Vietnam and the Gulf War. Some had experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) just like the soldiers on the battleground.
Civil War soldiers were affected by what the doctors termed a "soldier's heart" (PTSD). Could a Civil War nurse have experienced a soldier's heart too?
McKade's book explores this possibility.
Near the Civil War battlegrounds were tent hospitals and medical personnel who received the wounded first.
"I put Laurel in one of these tent hospitals where she sees the result of the bloodiest war in America's history," said McKade.
"For me, the utmost importance is the emotions of the characters and how they react," she said. "I get into people's heads and try to describe what they're feeling."
McKade loves the secondary characters in the book who are met along the journey.
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"...the people she's met, the little slave boy who is by himself and the family who adopted him," she said.
"This is a historical romance novel, but it's so much more. The romance takes a secondary back seat," she said.
McKade's novel includes a mule and a cat as symbols for caring. Laurel didn't want to care about anything or anyone because it hurt too much.
"In the end, she came to realize she couldn't stop caring, no matter how much she tries," said McKade.
McKade has a book signing from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16 at RBooks, Dickinson.
Excerpts of her book are available on the Web site: www.maureenmckade.com . The Web site includes excerpts of Laurel's journal written in blog format.
"These are completely original and not found in the book," she said.
As a member of the Midwest Fiction Writers, McKade also is having a book signing at the Mall of America, Minneapolis during September.
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McKade grew up in a small town in Minnesota. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology and taught science for three years. After her husband joined the Air Force, she held various jobs until starting to write.
In 1993, she attended her first writers' conference and began writing in earnest. She's currently working on her 11th novel, which features Creede's brother from "A Reason to Live."
Maureen and her husband, Alan Webster, live northwest of Gladstone.
Excerpts of reviews published on her Web site are as follows:
"McKade enthralls readers with a story short in length but big in impact that takes your breath away with its intense emotions and insight into the human heart." -- Kathe Robin, RT BookClub.
"'A Reason to Live' is part adventure and all romance. It's a wonderful, uplifting tale that has a few surprises for readers, not to mention a tear or two." -- Jani Brooks, Romance Reviews Today.
