Tuesday ebook spotlight: Kathleen Walls

When I first met Kathleen Walls on a travel writer’s trip, I knew where she was from the moment she spoke. Since we’re both from New Orleans, we had to do that “Where’d you go to school,” “Who’s your mama?” thing.

In addition to travel writing, Kathleen publishes a host of books, many of them travel related. But she has two books out in print, ebook and audio forms at Amazon and iTunes that have a Louisiana connection. “Under a Bloody Flag” and “Under a Black Flag” revolve around character Dan Fitzgerald who flees St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, after finding out his slave, Andre, is his half-brother.

“Dan and Andre go to Kansas but the war brings Andre back to New Orleans,” Kathleen explained. “Dan and Andre both spend part of the book in Shreveport at General Kirby Smith's headquarters. Don't want to give away the ending but that brings both Dan and Andre and their wives back to St. Bernard.”

Here’s the description for “Under a Bloody Flag,” which continues with “Under a Black Flag”:

In Kansas and Missouri, the War Between the States started long before Fort Sumter. Daniel Fitzgerald, a Southerner who tries to settle Kansas and leave behind his tormented Louisiana roots, soon finds that in Kansas Territory you have to take sides or die. Taking sides doesn’t lessen the chances of a violent death, it just determines who is going to try and kill you.

For Massachusetts-born Rebecca Styles, who comes to Kansas to insure freedom for slaves, the choice is easy. Or is it? When she meets Daniel, she is forced to take a new look at all the ideas she took for granted, like all Southerners are evil and all abolitionists are good. 

Daniel’s half-brother and former slave, André, knows his first loyalty belongs to his friends and family, not a lofty ideal, but he can’t sit by and do nothing when injustice stares him in the face.
Throw into the mix all the larger-than-life characters who played a part in the sectional violence which led the nation into its bloodiest war and you have a novel with all the drama of the era. You’ll meet James Lane, John Brown, JEB Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Joseph Shelby, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and the other men and women who have shaped this nation into what it is today. 

Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first two books in her award-winning series are free as ebooks! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.