We’re thrilled to have here today Jeremiah Creed from S.W. O’Connell’s new historical novel, The Cavalier Spy. Jeremiah Creed is a 22 year old Continental Army officer from Frederick, Maryland.

It is a pleasure to have him with us today at Beyond the Books!

Thank you so for this interview, Lieutenant Creed.  Now that the book has been written, do you feel you were fairly portrayed or would you like to set anything straight with your readers? 

Truth be told, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that the author did not fully reveal why I came to America. Or rather, the reason I was in prison before I, ahem, escaped to this fair land. I am sure he had his reasons. Perhaps he wants to reveal them in a future book in the Yankee Doodle Spies series. But having this hanging over my head like a cloud of musket smoke is a bit disarming. As to my overall character, he may have painted me as a bit too mercenary. He has me taking certain sums of money on two occasions.  I am an idealist by nature. I just believe money is a means to an end. And I believe I put it to good use – supporting the cause of the American independence from an oppressive King.

Do you feel the author did a good job colorizing your personality?  If not, how would you like to have been portrayed differently?

Oh, I should say he did a foin job at that. I am light hearted on the exterior and a bit reflective on the inside. I believe I am more spiritual than the author portrayed. But I do indeed thrive on humor. ‘Tis something that helps me through the darker moments such as leaving home at a tender age, losing loved ones and having to flee more than one country and fight a secret war on behalf of my adopted land. Why, ‘tis a wonder he didn’t have me spewing oaths that would make a pirate blush. I guess he didn’t want me to displease my mum.

What do you believe is your strongest trait?

Well, I mentioned humor. But also, the ability to turn serious when it comes to getting a job done.  After all, I serve His Excellency George Washington – the essential man of the age. And The Cavalier Spy takes place during the times “that try men’s souls.” Failure is not an option… neither for General Washington, nor me.

Worse trait?

I eat too fast. Really. And the lads, that is my men, the White Knights, roll their eyes at my fastidious hygiene. I guess in that sense I am ahead of my time. My peers would say my humor. I enjoy bantering with Abner Scovel. He’s such a dour New Englander.

If you could choose someone in the television or movie industry to play your part if your book was made into a movie, who would that be (and you can’t say yourself!)?

As we don’t have such things in the eighteenth century you pose me an anachronistic question. But…Hmmm… I’d say a young Colin Farrell or Hugh Jackman. Or perhaps a younger version Daniel Day Lewis. But if you read the Cavalier Spy, you will see that I can be a bit of an actor myself.

Do you have a love interest in the book?

In matters of the heart I try to stay discreet. But without naming names – yes. She is the most beautiful woman in 13 independent states. Daughter of a British surgeon. But she is a true patriot.

Unfortunately, we are separated by time and space. You see, she lives with her dad in British occupied New York and I am with General Washington in New Jersey.

At what point of the book did you start getting nervous about the way it was going to turn out?

When I failed in my initial mission and did not find (or save) Nathan Hale in British occupied New York. And the mayhem of occupied New York had me wondering. But for me, the worst was the intense grilling of His Excellency and Colonel Fitzgerald as they tried to “vett” me. Admitting to a secret past is often difficult. But made all the more so by the fact my chief inquisitor, General George Washington himself, was the most important man in the world.

If you could trade places with one of the other characters in the book, which character would you really not want to be and why?

Roy Harry, of course. He is sort of my alter ego. My evil twin, so to speak. Although at heart, he’s merely a rogue.

How do you feel about the ending of the book without giving too much away?

Other than horrendous weather in the Jerseys and missing Christmas mass, I am overjoyed with the outcome. But something tells me my joy will not be long lasting.

What words of wisdom would you give your author if s/he decided to write another book with you in it?

I’d like to spend a lot more time in British occupied New York! But something tells me he has other plans first.

Thank you for this interview, Lieutenant Creed.  Will we be seeing more of you in the future?

‘Tis my fondest wish… and in the past as well. The Cavalier Spy is, after all, book two in the series. Book one is The Patriot Spy…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S.W. O’Connell is the author of the Yankee Doodle Spies series of action and espionage novels set during the American Revolutionary War. The author is a retired Army officer with over twenty years of experience in a variety of intelligence-related assignments around the world. He is long time student of history and lover of the historical novel genre. So it was no surprise that he turned to that genre when he decided to write back in 2009. He lives in Virginia.

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Title: The Cavalier Spy

Genre: Historical

Author: S. W. O’Connell

Website: www.yankeedoodlespies.com

Publisher: Twilight Times Books

Purchase link: http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/TheCavalierSpy_ch1.html

Amazon / OmniLit 

About the Book:

1776: His army clinging to New York by a thread, a desperate General George Washington sends Lieutenant Jeremiah Creed behind British lines once more. But even the audacity of Creed and his band of spies cannot stop the British juggernaut from driving the Americans from New York, and chasing them across New Jersey in a blitzkrieg fashion. Realizing the imminent loss of one of the new nation’s most important states to the enemy, Washington sends Creed into the war-torn Hackensack Valley. His mission: recruit and train a gang of rogues to work behind British lines.

However, his mission takes a strange twist when the British high command plots to kidnap a senior American officer and a mysterious young woman comes between Creed and his plans. The British drive Washington’s army across the Delaware. The new nation faces its darkest moment. But Washington plans a surprise return led by young Creed, who must strike into hostile land so that Washington can rally his army for an audacious gamble that could win, or lose, the war.

“More than a great spy story… it is about leadership and courage in the face of adversity…The Cavalier Spy is the story of America’s first army and the few… those officers and soldiers who gave their all to a cause that was seemingly lost…”

~ Les Brownlee, former Acting Secretary of the Army and retired Army Colonel

“Secret meetings, skirmishes and scorching battles… The Cavalier Spy takes the reader through America’s darkest times and greatest triumphs thanks to its powerful array of fictional and historical characters… this book shows that courage, leadership and audacity are the key elements in war…”

~ F. William Smullen, Director of National Security Studies at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and Author of Ways and Means for Managing UP

We’re thrilled to have here today Etienne Dolet from Florence Weinberg’s new nonfiction novel, Dolet.  Etienne is a 37-year-old publisher who lived in Lyon, France in the sixteenth century.

It is a pleasure to have him with us today at Beyond the Books!

Thank you so for this interview, Etienne.  Now that the book has been written, do you feel you were fairly portrayed or would you like to set anything straight with your readers?

Perhaps my author was too kind. She left out one of the hottest controversies of my literary life, between me and my arch-enemy Julius Caesar Scaligiero or Scaliger, as we French call him. He was nasty, snide, sarcastic and attacked me ad hominem, but I was nastier and wittier. At least, I think so. I suspect my author thought the whole thing too obscure, scholarly, complicated and nasty to go into the book. She showed the intransigent side of my character in other ways.

Do you feel the author did a good job colorizing your personality?  If not, how would you like to have been portrayed differently?

With what I just said taken into account, I think she portrayed me very well. I was always someone who told my friends and my enemies just what I thought. No beating around the bush, no little white lies. If they couldn’t take it, too bad for them. But they always knew where they stood with me. I had wonderful friends, and they stuck by me to the end. I could be loving, generous, and always had a strong sense of justice. I showed that in taking the print-shop workers’ part when they fought for higher wages that hadn’t been raised for at least 50 years. My author showed all that.

What do you believe is your strongest trait?

What I just said. I made friends who stuck by me through thick and thin. I think they appreciated the fact that nothing I said in their absence was any different from what I said in their presence. Besides that, I was a brilliant scholar of the Latin language and of Marcus Tullius Cicero. I was one of the finest writers of Ciceronian Latin in my age, was a historian with ideas you would call “modern,” and wrote a book on the art of translation with precepts in use in your twenty-first century. But of course I was cut off in my prime—on my thirty-seventh birthday when the Inquisition tortured and burned me at the stake.

Worse trait?

Ye-es…. In hindsight, I know that I unjustly blamed some of my friends for having abandoned me when I was thrown into prison in Lyon for the first time. They actually hadn’t. They were afraid and had good reason to be. However, I never forgave them, never tried to make things right. I was too self-righteous, too intransigent.

If you could choose someone in the television or movie industry to play your part if your book was made into a movie, who would that be (and you can’t say yourself!)?

It would have to be a British actor, someone who has gravitas but a sense of humor at the same time. He would have to be tall—I was over six feet—and dark haired, dark-eyed. He would have to be fairly young or at least in early middle years. Patrick Stewart could carry it off, but he is bald, blue-eyed and way too old. He could portray the character traits, though, that I had. Well, at least you know the type of actor I’d look for—if such another exists.

Do you have a love interest in the book?

Yes, of course. I passionately loved one woman, Louise Giraud, who became my wife and with whom I had a lovely son, Claude. I only hope and pray that she can make it without me, and that Claude will grow up to be a fine man, even without his father. I have confidence in Louise, though, that she can pull that off.

At what point of the book did you start getting nervous about the way it was going to turn out?

When Henri Guillot forced me to fight a duel with him that night. I had never even held an epee before that but, with fool’s and beginner’s luck, I killed him—ran him through the throat—and he, who had practiced fencing for months died. I knew right then I was in deep trouble. Guillot belonged to one of the old Lyonese families, you see, and I was a relative newcomer. I ran for my life with his bodyguard pelting after me, and, in a sense, I kept on running for the rest of my life.

If you could trade places with one of the other characters in the book, which character would you really not want to be and why?

It’s a hard choice between the Chief Inquisitor, Matthieu Orry, and Cardinal François-Juste II de Tournon, but I think I’ll choose de Tournon. Both men desired most passionately to burn me at the stake, but Orry could have been—and was—overruled by King François I, whereas de Tournon dominated His Majesty’s policy decisions toward the end of the king’s life. I blame de Tournon for the total extermination of a sect of Christians called the Vaudois. They had existed since 1179, were not Protestants, but based their faith on the Scriptures rather than on decrees from Rome. De Tournon had the army attack them, slaughter them, lock them in houses and burn them. None survived, and he had a solemn Te Deum Mass sung in Notre Dame Cathedral to celebrate his satanic deed.

How do you feel about the ending of the book without giving too much away?

My author did me justice in the end, as she did in most of the book. I behaved reasonably well under torture, even with a bit of humor in extremis. What I like most about the ending is how my author showed the courage and virtue of my wife Louise.

What words of wisdom would you give your author if s/he decided to write another book with you in it?

I would tell her to put in the bit about Scaliger. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Thank you for this interview, Etienne.  Will we be seeing more of you in the future?

No, I think this book wrapped up my life pretty well. Not much else to tell. Goodbye, and thanks for letting me speak my piece.

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Title: Dolet

Genre: Nonfiction Novel; Historical Fiction

Author: Florence Byham Weinberg

Website: www.florenceweinberg.com

Publisher: Twilight Times Books

Read Chapter One

Amazon / OmniLit / Twilight Times Books

About the Book:

Dolet depicts the life and times of Etienne Dolet. Etienne, who told the bald truth to friend and foe alike, angered the city authorities in sixteenth-century Toulouse, fled to Lyon, and became a publisher of innovative works on language, history, and theology. His foes framed him; he was persecuted, imprisoned, and ultimately executed by the Inquisition for daring to publish the Bible in French translation.

What readers are saying:

“[Dolet]  …I read it all with pleasure, and delighted to see names that I have known for some time coming alive as “characters,” albeit fictitious ones. I especially liked the way in which you brought out the sense of community, of being a band of brothers that so many of those amazing people shared.”
~ Kenneth Lloyd-Jones, Professor, Trinity College, Hartford, CT

About the Author:

Florence Byham Weinberg, born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, lived on a ranch, on a farm, and traveled with her military family. After earning a PhD, she taught for 36 years in three universities. She published four scholarly books. Since retiring, she has written seven historical novels and one philosophical fantasy/thriller. She lives in San Antonio, loves cats, dogs and horses, and great-souled friends with good conversation. Visit her website and connect with her on Facebook.