Description

About the author

As an author with a deep appreciation for history, fiction, and romance, I have infused this story with authentic details and heartfelt character portrayals to transport the readers to a bygone era while making them feel a part of the characters’ lives and struggles. In addition to writing, I am an artist, poet, and gourmet cook-passions that enrich my storytelling with vivid sensory experiences and emotional authenticity.

About the book

Legends of War is set against the backdrop of WWII, following Barton Barre as he navigates the harrowing realities of Operation Overlord (D-Day) and the haunting legacy of his father’s experiences in WWI. Barton, a recent college graduate, hopes to escape the burdens of his family’s past and the enigmatic La Barre curse.

His journey takes him from Beaumont, Texas, to the battlefields of Europe, where he faces the trials of war and seeks to unravel a family mystery. In Louisiana, Barton’s pen pal, Elise Boulanger, is caught between her deepening feelings for Barton and the beginnings of a new romance. Elise’s tale provides a poignant counterpoint to Barton’s challenges. Together, their stories reflect the divergent paths they navigate as they grapple with their innermost fears and longings during the chaos of war.

The Barre family, with its rich history and burdensome legacy, provides a compelling background. Barton, the protagonist, embodies the determination and resilience needed to overcome both the external horrors of war and the internal conflicts brought about by his family’s past. His father, Richard Barre, whose painful youthful experiences in WWI cast a long shadow over Barton’s life, represents the enduring impact of history on the present. The importance of family legacy is a thread that connects us all.

The book opens on inauguration day in 2021. Through the eyes of the protagonist, “Salt Pepper,” whose career included stints with the US Government and a Washington law firm, it portrays the deep disagreements and partisanship that divide our citizens from one another and their Government, and the US from the rest of the world. Salt thinks he has retired and moved to his ancestral farm near the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains in rural Virginia. Then an old acquaintance, who is about to become the Secretary of State in a new Administration, talks him into accepting a temporary clandestine diplomatic role that takes Salt and a new and able female colleague to the White House, London, Berlin, and Prague and into sensitive meetings with diplomats there and from the Middle East.

With roots in history, current events, and human nature, the book provides insight into an inheritance of international disarray, toxic domestic politics, the harmful dissonance emanating from our battered small town and rural America, small business and manufacturing, as well as global clamor for US leadership. The crises and dysfunction are not imaginary; neither is the need for leader willing to grasp nettles and contribute to much-needed solutions, even when risky and inconvenient.