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Holding On (Colorado High Country #6) —
The Colorado High Country series returns with Conrad and Kenzie's story.

A hero barely holding on…

Harrison Conrad returned to Scarlet Springs from Nepal, the sole survivor of a freak accident on Mt. Everest. Shattered and grieving for his friends, he vows never to climb again and retreats into a bottle of whiskey—until Kenzie Morgan shows up at his door with a tiny puppy asking for his help. He’s the last person in the world she should ask to foster this little furball. He’s barely capable of managing his own life right now, let alone caring for a helpless, adorable, fluffy puppy. But Conrad has always had a thing for Kenzie with her bright smile and sweet curves. One look into her pleading blue eyes, and he can’t say no.

The woman who won’t let him fall…

Kenzie Morgan’s life went to the dogs years ago. A successful search dog trainer and kennel owner, she gets her fill of adventure volunteering for the Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. The only thing missing from her busy life is love. It’s not easy finding Mr. Right in a small mountain town, especially when she’s unwilling to date climbers. She long ago swore never again to fall for a guy who might one day leave her for a rock. When Conrad returns from a climbing trip haunted by the catastrophe that killed his best friend, Kenzie can see he’s hurting and wants to help. She just might have the perfect way to bring him back to the world of the living. But friendship quickly turns into something more—and now she’s risking her heart to heal his.

In ebook and soon in print!


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I grew up in Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, then lived in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe before coming back to Colorado. I have two adult sons, whom I cherish. I started my writing career as a columnist and investigative reporter and eventually became the first woman editor of two different papers. Along the way, my team and I won numerous state and several national awards, including the National Journalism Award for Public Service. In 2011, I was awarded the Keeper of the Flame Lifetime Achievement Award for Journalism. Now I write historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense.

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Seductive Musings

Saturday, July 03, 2010

July 4 — A Day in History

George Washington

The Fourth of July is a special day in the history of the United States — and not just because it's the day when the newborn United States declared its independence from Great Britain. The events that set American independence in motion occurred about 22 years earlier.

Interestingly, those events revolved around the same man — George Washington.

On July 4, 1754, young George Washington retreated from the Great Meadows where he’d been defeated by French forces. But let’s back up a few days...

Young Washington had been sent northward to deal with the French, who'd built a fort at the Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh). The British claimed that territory, and Virginia's burgesses wanted the French to clear out.

On the way to the fort in the month of May, Washington came across a small party of French, and, in part due to the manipulations of an Indian named Half King, Washington, only 22 years old, had his men open fire, killing and injuring some among the French. Among the wounded was a young French officer Joseph de Jumonville, who had papers with him from the French that proved he was an envoy, not part of a military party. But much to Washington's horror, Half King, angry at the French for a variety of reasons, smashed in the wounded French officer's skull with his tomahawk.



Half King’s violent action broke all the rules of European warfare, and because Washington was the acknowledged reader of the party, the blame fell on him. And the French were outraged.

They sent a war party of French and Indians after them, as Washington knew they would. He had retreated to a place called the Great Meadows, where he erected Fort Necessity, a hastily constructed palisade with some wooden walls and a few trenches.

On July 3, the French and their Indian allies engaged Washington and, thanks in part to rain and in part to a rather poorly chosen location for a fort (it occupied the low ground and was surrounded by hills and forest), Washington and his forces were soundly defeated. Negotiations ensued, with a Dutchman acting as interpreter for Washington, who did not speak French.

The site of Fort Necessity

In the end, Washington was persuaded to sign a document which, unbeknownst to him, contained his confession that he had “assassinated” de Jumonville.

On July 4, Washington and the surviving Virginians were allowed to retreat from Fort Necessity.

Young George Washington

The events of July 3-4, 1754, lead in a chain of events to those of July 4, 1776, because they marked the start of the French and Indian War. And the French and Indian War led to irreconcilable differences between the American colonists and Great Britain.

If Washington had not attacked that French party and de Jumonville had not been killed, world history would be very different.

It’s ironic because during the French and Indian War, Washington wanted so very much to receive a commission in the British Army. However, his hopes were confounded, and his attempts to earn advancement through the military were rebuffed. Eventually, he left the military and in January 1759 married Martha Custis, a widow, and turned to helping her raise her two sons and running his plantation at Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon

Here’s what I’m getting at: Not only did Washington inadvertently launch the war that drove the French from North America and alienated the British from the colonists, he himself was alienated from the British — another great historical irony. If the British had made him an officer, chances are he would never have sided with the Founders. But, having had his military ambitions brushed aside by unfeeling British superiors, he attended meetings in Philadelphia wearing an officer’s uniform he designed himself. He had no commission; he simply showed up in military uniform. He was later chosen to lead American forces, which he did with much more distinction that he'd led Virginians in the wilderness 22 years earlier.

When the Declaration of Independence was read aloud on July 4, 1776, Washington commented that he couldn’t help but think of the defeat at the Great Meadows and all that had transpired in the aftermath of that bloody event.

Somehow, that always gives me goosebumps.

But there’s more...

Among Washington’s friends were Thomas Jefferson, a fellow Virginian, and John Adams, a jurist from Boston. Thomas and John were friends who worked together on the Declaration of Independence. They came to develop very different notions about what the Constitution meant. (In some respects, the arguments Americans have today are the same issues that Adams and Jefferson could not resolve between themselves. True fact.)

John Adams

Despite their very heated differences — differences that sometimes drove them to extremes of emotion — Adams and Jefferson respected one another.

Thomas Jefferson (known in my house as T.J.)

They both died on July 4, 1826. I find that rather amazing. Thomas Jefferson died a few hours before John, but John, not knowing this, uttered with his last breath, “At least Thomas Jefferson survives.”

More goosebumps.

Five years later, James Monroe, our fifth president, died. Yes, on July 4. Monroe was the last Founder to hold the presidency, a peer of Washington, Adams and Jefferson.


James Monroe

So why the history lesson?

I love history. History is nothing more or less than the lives of others remembered. The people who lived and shaped these events were every bit as real as we are. I love seeing through their eyes, breathing their air and sharing their world.

I admit to having a peculiar passion for the French and Indian War. The mix of cultures, the frontier, the toughness of the men, the strength of the women — it captures me like no other period in history. I feel it in my veins. Everything about it fires me up.

That’s why I set my MacKinnon’s Rangers series during the French and Indian War. Having researched it for Ride the Fire, I didn’t want to leave it behind.

Every year when we come to July 4, I think of Washington, defeated and muddy, trekking back to Virginia with his defeated troops, wagons carrying the injured and dying. I think of Washington listening as the Declaration of Independence is read aloud, remembering what had happened 22 years earlier and wondering how he was going to achieve victory with so few resources against the greatest army in the world. I think of his friends, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and their lifelong friendship and deep disagreement, lying on the death beds, taking their last breaths within hours of each other and thinking of each other.

And now the world is left to us, the nation they made, with its glories and its flaws, now in our hands.

Make something special of today. So many people spend it getting drunk, setting off fireworks and, in general, causing mayhem. (My neighbors have been setting off fireworks late each night for almost two weeks!) While we all have the freedom to do that, we also have the freedom to make something more of our lives and to offer our lives in service to greater ideals.

Happy Fourth of July — truly an extraordinary day in history.

Resources if you want more:
The War that Made America
, DVD<-----------contains info about Mary Jemison (hint, hint)
John Adams, HBO miniseries, also on DVD

p.s. Just wait till we get to July 8! Another amazingly eerie day in U.S. history

6 comments:

Pamela, with facts like this, how could anyone find history boring? That's something I've never been able to understand. It's one great story after another.

There are two historical events that fascinate me the way the French-Indian War fascinates you. One is the American Civil War. What I find so compelling are the divided loyalties, the heart-breaking choices people had to make. Imagine Robert E. Lee turning down command of the Federal Army out of loyalty to Virginia, where all his family lived. The other time period that intrigues me is the First World War. If the French-Indian War made America, the First World War made Canada. It brought a very young country together as a nation and put us on the international map. Some small villages lost all their young men in single battles like Vimy Ridge or The Somme. They grew up together, they enlisted together and they died together. It was also a time of great social change, with more freedom for women and modern amenities like cars and electricity becoming more widespread. I'm doing research for my WIP, which is set here in Halifax at the time of the Explosion in 1917, and I'm wondering if I'll ever get the book written, I get so involved in the historical background. For example, the Halifax Red Cross was run exclusively by women. When the national board informed them that the branch had to headed by a man, they simply appointed a token male and continued as they were. No fuss, no mess. Delicious!

Happy Fourth!

Debbie H said...

I LOVE history up to 1890. I could never take my head out of a history book, even to eat! The local radio stations have been running a commentary on the founding fathers who signed the Declaration and what that had to go through and give up because of what they believed in. I have been sharing that with Anastasia, who, being 9yrs old, can understand most of it. We found a cartoon PBS aired when she was around 4yrs old, on the internet, called Liberty's Kids. It's a wonderful show that helps kids understand the Revolutionary War and the fight for our independence. The older I get the more important it seems to be, to help my grandkids understand what the men, women and children went through to gain independence and how we should treasure it daily.

Scorpio M. said...

Thank you, so enjoyed this post. I love American history. Learned some things I never knew.

Happy 4th!

Diane W. said...

Absolute American history junkie here!! Plus, I homeschool my kiddos, so we WALLOW in history. My husband and I adore taking the kids to historical sites and since I'm from Delaware originally, we have a great "home base" to start from when we visit the grandparents.

We spent time a couple summers ago taking the kids to most of the Revolutionary War sites along the East coast. It was so much fun and really made history come alive for them.

As my son, who was 7 at the time, said to his friends when he wanted to play "American Revolution" upon our return home, "What do you mean you've never heard of Ben Franklin? How can you be an American and not know who Ben Franklin is?" He has his mother's mouth. ;-)

We also have a great children's book about George Washington and his dealings with the French and the Indians before that war. The title escapes me at the moment, but I'll look it up. It was really an exciting story that kept us on the edge of our seats and the kids enjoyed learning about this much over-looked time period. As my daughter, Tessa, said, "Wow, Mom! This was really important, wasn't it? How come nobody knows this?"

That's another reason why I enjoyed your MacKinnon's ranger's series. Well, besides the exceptionally hot men...;) I love that time period and think it's been sadly neglected in our day. The war didn't start with the Boston Tea Party. :) So kudos to you for choosing it for your setting!!

Happy Independence Day!!

Diane

Luci said...

I love history too and your recount gave me goosebumps too!

I had not known this historical background but one of the reasons I love the MacKinnon books is precisely that. i find the historical period really fascinating and the fact that it involved French and English fighting on American soil even more intriguing.

Carrie said...

Thanks for this wonderful post. I'll share it with my daughter who shares you love of history and majored in it at college.

I've learned most of my history while homeschooling my children. We use a literature-based history program throughout the elementary and middle school years and read scores of great historical fiction and biographies. These great books help make the history real and accessible. I've read scores of books aloud to the kids from Mara, Daughter of the Nile (ancient Egypt) to The Land I Lost (Vietnam). In high school we've used courses from The Teaching Company (Great Courses-- www.teach12.com), which are fantastic! They are college professors from across the country teaching their specialty in courses of varying length. If you love history (or math, or science, or philosophy...) check them out.

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