Tuesday, January 2, 2018

A young woman braves remote New Brunswick, by Diane Scott Lewis

In my novel, On a Stormy Primeval Shore, a young woman is sent far from home to marry a stranger and forge a new life in a dangerous land.

During the American War for Independence, or American Revolution, the people who remained loyal to Great Britain were called Loyalists. They were persecuted for not joining the 'Patriots', their homes confiscated or burned, some of the men hanged.

When England lost the war, the Loyalists escaped north to the last held British territory--mainly to the western portion of the colony of Nova Scotia (New Brunswick) below Lower Canada.


My heroine, Amelia, arrives in this remote colony from England in 1784, just after hordes of Loyalists have flooded into a wilderness soon to be renamed New Brunswick. Amelia is to marry a lieutenant chosen by her father who is a captain at Fort Howe situated at the mouth of the St. John River on the Bay of Fundy.

Amelia knows at the grand old age of four and twenty that she's no beauty and will the lieutenant even like her. She's also strong-minded and refuses to be intimidated. Her 'betrothed' turns out to be a "Horrid man!" and she rejects him. Out in the wilderness she is growing fond of, she meets an Acadian man named Gilbert. The Acadians inhabited this colony, once called New France, until the British conquered the territory in 1763, expelling the French for refusing to assimilate. Later, they were allowed to return, but their brutal treatment has given Gilbert a hate for the English. He's also furious that his land might be stolen and given to the Loyalists who now invade and seek restitution from the British government.
The Coming of the Loyalists, by Henry Sandham

 Amelia and Gilbert face many obstacles, prejudices, and turmoil. They also must fight their inappropriate attraction.

On a Stormy Primeval Shore is available on: Amazon
For more on my books, please visit my BWL Author Page
or my website: dianescottlewis.org

Diane Scott Lewis grew up in California, traveled the word with the navy, edited for magazines and an on-line publisher. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband.

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