Visit Hart’s Pierce Family Saga Online
Book 4: Hiram’s War Kansan Hiram Pierce is a stubborn, opinionated man who has alienated his family and local community, but he is a patriot, a man loyal to his state. When Governor Carney calls on every man between 18 and 60 to join the Kansas State Militia and stop Confederate General Sterling Price and his rebel horde from laying waste to Kansas, Hiram immediately signs up. Hiram’s regiment is ordered to the Kansas-Missouri state line where he is wounded in battle and taken prisoner. As Confederate guards drive him and his fellow prisoners south, Hiram faces physical and emotional challenges that have him questioning the rightness of past decisions. Meanwhile, his estranged children gather in Westport, home of the younger two sisters. The youngest, twelve-year-old Jennie, has visions of her father as a wounded prisoner. Fearing he will die, she tries to convince her older siblings to put aside their grudges and rescue him. Can she overcome their resistance, and if she does, will her dream of a reunited family be realized? Buy on Amazon
Visit Hart’s Pierce Family Saga Online
Book 1: Cordelia’s Journey
A brutal stepfather . . . A dying mother. . . A loving daughter who tries to save her Kansas Territory, 1855 In this coming-of-age story, thirteen-year-old Cordelia endures her stepfather's abuse until she learns her ailing mother is pregnant again. Fearing her mother will die in childbirth, she runs away, heading for Westport and her aunt, the only person who might be able to save her mother. She disguises herself as a boy and sets out on foot to make the 150-mile trip. Following the Kansas River, she hitches rides with a variety of travelers going east, facing setbacks along the way while learning lessons about the world and her place in it. Cordelia's Journey is the first book in the Pierce Family Saga, a series of historical novels that follow Cordelia and her family through the latter half of the nineteenth century. Buy on Amazon
Book 2: For Want of a Father Fathers, Daughters, and Expectations In 1859, half-sisters Lucy and Cordelia travel by stagecoach from Westport, Missouri to Kansas Territory. Since their mother’s death four years ago, both have lived with their aunt. Now Lucy’s father wants her home. For Lucy, 13, it is a dream come true. Cordelia, 17, chaperones Lucy on the trip home, then continues on the stage to Denver to search for the father she has never met. Her expectations are low, but she can’t stop the occasional dream. Will either father live up to his daughter’s expectations, or will each break his daughter’s heart? Buy on Amazon
Book 3: Hiram’s Boy A boy’s search for truth and what it means to be a man. Kansas Territory, 1859 Ambrose Pierce has been doing a man’s work in his father’s blacksmith shop since he was ten. At fifteen, he is tired of being seen as a boy. As he struggles toward manhood, his new stepmother’s lies about inappropriate actions toward her result in Ambrose being beaten and disowned by his father. While recovering from his injuries, Ambrose overhears a brief mention of something scandalous in his stepmother’s past. With little beyond a place, New York City, and a name, Gerald Ward, Ambrose and half-sister Cordelia travel cross country in search of the truth. Ambrose hopes the truth will free his father from his stepmother’s influence and they can be father and son again. Before embarking on his journey, Ambrose visits his mother’s grave to say goodbye. Throughout his travels, he consults the book of Aesop’s fables she made for him, remembering her love and being guided by the life lessons she taught him. Buy on Amazon
Also by Hazel Hart
Hazel Hart’s Amazon Page
Photo by Dave Leiker
Hazel Hart has recently retired after more than twenty-five years of teaching English at various levels from seventh grade through college freshman. Her degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in English. A member of Kansas Authors Club, Hazel Hart has won awards for her short stories, including “Amanda Marie,” published in KANSAS VOICES, and “Confessions,” published in WORDS OUT OF THE FLATLANDS. Both prize-winning stories are included in an e-book collection, THE NANCY NOLAN SHOW, which is available on Amazon. In addition, Hazel has three published suspense novels, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, FAMILY HISTORY, and POSSESSING SARA, and one young adult novel, THE SURVIVALIST’S DAUGHTER. She has co-authored two books of short stories, DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW and THE EDGE OF NOWHERE, with Bonnie Eaton aka B.J. Myrick, which are also available on Amazon. Basic Sentence Structure is Hazel’s first nonfiction book. The second book in the Write to Fit series, Basic Sentence Add-Ons: Phrases, published in February 2015, is also available on Amazon. You can find her fiction on Amazon and Smashwords. You can visit Hazel at Write to Fit.