Behind the Scenes with Author Laurie Alice Eakes

I'm so pleased to have author Laurie Alice Eakes on the blog today! The first book I read of hers was Lady in the Mist, and I absolutely adored it. So much so, in fact, that after hearing that Laurie Alice offered book coaching services, I hired her to coach me through writing my first novel, Wedded to War! She is a very talented storyteller, and I can't wait to dive in to her new book, My Enemy, My Heart. 

Laurie Alice has written a behind-the-scenes guest post for us today, but first, I want to share with you more about her new book. Here's the blurb:

 The sea has always been Deirdre MacKenzie’s home, and the crew of her father’s Baltimore clipper is the only family she loves. She’s happier wearing breeches and climbing the rigging of the Maid of Alexandria than donning a dress and learning to curtsey. But, when the War of 1812 erupts, the ship is captured by a British privateer . With her father, the captain, dead, Deirdre sees her crew herded into the hold as prisoners-of-war. Their fate is the notorious Dartmoor prison in England. Her fate as a noncombatant prisoner is uncertain, but the one thing she knows—she must find a way to free her crew.

 Kieran  Ashford has caused his family one too many scandals. On his way to exile in America, he is waylaid by the declaration of war and a chance to turn privateer and make his own fortune. But he regrets his actions as soon as the rich prize is secured. Kieran figures his best chance at redeeming himself in the eyes of his family is to offer Deidre the protection of his name in marriage. He has no idea that secrets from his parents’ past and Deirdre’s determination to free her crew are on a disastrous collision course.

 Love and loyalty clash, as Kieran begins to win Deirdre’s heart despite her plot to betray him and his family.  While Kieran works to mend the relationship with his family, he begins to love his bride in spite of what lies between them.

Sounds fantastic. You all know I'm drawn to war stories anyway! And now without further ado, I'm handing the post off to Laurie Alice Eakes. She writes:

The play “The Mouse that Roared” could have been written about the United States going up against Great Britain for what has become known as The War of 1812 in the United States and not even talked about in Great Britain, except by military historians. We had 18 ships in our Navy, most of which weren’t even seaworthy, and the British had 506 or so, all commissioned. Half of our country was against the war, and the Army was a joke. Yet in June, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain.

We lost nearly every land battle, had our capital burned, and our First lady and president sent fleeing for their lives. Yet we signed a treaty giving us everything we wanted.

No one should have been surprised by this turn of events. For over half a decade, we had been building up to such a momentous and drastic decision to go to war. The British thought they owned the seas. They impressed our sailors, declaring they were British citizens, not American. They told us where and with whom we could trade our raw and finished materials. They were just generally arrogant about what was their empire—the entire world, if they had their way. We were just trying to survive as a nation.

We had tried peaceful means of resolving these issues, from an embargo against British goods, which went over like a crowd volunteering for the flu—that is to say, it didn’t make Mr. Jefferson popular.

Diplomatic means failed. That left war.

Against this background, I have, for many years, wanted to set a book.

The idea has lived in my brain and partially on my computer for well over ten years. What if an American lady ends up stranded in Great Britain during the war.

But no, I had to make it worse. She had to be in Great Britain against her will.

Into the research tomes I delved. Out of them I picked up bits and pieces of information about British privateers, noncombatant prisoners of war, and, most of all, Dartmoor Prison.

Dartmoor was built in 1809 for French prisoners. When America declared war on Great Britain, the English began to cram Americans into this stone fortress built on the bleak and inclement wasteland of Dartmoor in Devonshire. That is near Plymouth in the West Country, maybe 40 miles east of Poldark country, for those who follow that series. It is still a prison today, and I could write more just about Dartmoor and the St. Bartholomew Day massacre.

Another time, should Jocelyn invite me back to talk about prisoners of war.

For My Enemy, My Heart, I don’t talk much about the battles or loss of ships and money; I focus on the human toll of the war. Deirdre loses her father, her crew, and the merchantman on which she has lived for most of her life. Losing her freedom and having to act like a proper lady is possibly the hardest thing she has ever done. Falling in love with an Englishman is worse, for Deirdre plans to free her crew from prison, but to do so, makes her a traitor to the family who have shown her nothing but love and kindness.

The enemy is good. Her crew have always been her family. Deirdre is loyal to both. She must betray one or the other.

I can’t tell you how My Enemy, My Heart ends, and I can tell you how the war ended.

On Christmas Eve, 1814, we signed the Treaty of Ghent. The British stopped impressing our men. They stopped telling us where and with whom we could trade. And we stopped scarfing up their merchantmen like children at a Halloween candy bag.

Yes, our Navy, though vastly improved by the war experience, didn’t win the war; our privateers did. We built fantastic and fast merchant ships we turned into fighting vessels and sailed off to scoop up rich, British prizes. Our vessels were so fast we could cut out those sluggish British merchantmen and sail them off as prizes. We took so many, the merchants of Great Britain hollered ‘uncle’ and demanded an end to the war.

Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Laurie Alice! I'm beyond intruiged. Happy reading, everyone! You can find My Enemy, My Heart at Amazon, Goodreads, ChristianBook, BarnesandNoble, and more.

About Laurie Alice Eakes:
“Eakes has a charming way of making her novels come to life without being over the top,” writes Romantic Times of  bestselling, award-winning author Laurie Alice Eakes. Since she lay in bed as a child telling herself stories, she has fulfilled her dream of becoming a published author, with more than two dozen books in print.

She has recently relocated to a cold climate because she is weird enough to like snow and icy lake water. When she isn’t basking in the glory of being cold, she likes to read, visit museums, and take long walks, preferably with her husband, though the cats make her feel guilty every time she leaves the house.