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Saturday, April 14, 2018

Chains of Silver by: Claudia H. Long w/ Interview & Giveaway




Title: Chains of Silver
Author: Claudia H. Long
Series: Tendrils of the Inquisition Book 3
Genre: Historical Fiction/ Historical Romance
Publisher: Five Directions Press
Release Date: Mar 15 2018
Editions/Formats: 1st Edition ~ Formats eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
Crypto-Jews, secret Jews of Spain and Mexico, are still very much in danger in 1721. Fourteen-year-old Marcela Leon's parents are dragged away to face the last auto-da-fé of the Inquisition in colonial Mexico. Although her parents survive, Marcela’s life is forever changed. Sent to the Castillo hacienda for her protection, Marcela has difficulty grasping that safety requires silence about her beliefs. Her forthright speech and budding sexuality lead her into situations beyond her comprehension, ending with her exile to the northern silver-mining town of Zacatecas, where she becomes housekeeper to a Catholic priest.
Marcela grows up to be one of the richest, most powerful women in Zacatecas, adjusting to her separation from her mother and the loss of her religion. But she can neither understand nor forgive her mother’s obstinacy and abandonment. Her husband's death unleashes a new cascade of disasters, and Marcela at last recognizes and appreciates the source of her mother's power, and her own.


“Marcela, I told you there would be no Judaizing in this house. Yes,” he said, gesturing to Consuelo, “she can teach her children whatever she wishes, but I told you, I am the master of this house, and I will not have my children indoctrinated with your heresy. Consuelo has respected my order, but you have not.”

“That is not true!” I exclaimed. “I did nothing of the sort! Who said this? Was it that whore, Martha?”
“Watch your mouth,” Juan Carlos said.
“Joaquin?” Consuelo said.
“No, Marcela. Not Martha. Badilón. My son. And he would not lie.”
“Consuelo just said I wouldn’t either. And I didn’t. I don’t. I didn’t. What did he say?” I could hear my voice out of control, and those tears I had stopped earlier now flowed freely. “I never…”
Joaquin narrowed his eyes. “Are you calling my son a liar?”
“Wait,” Consuelo said, holding up a hand. “What did he say, Joaquin?”
“She told them some heretical story about a queen named Jezebel. A Jewish queen. The queen of the Jews.”
They stared at me. “Doña Consuelo,” I appealed. “You know that story, don’t you? It’s in the Bible. It isn’t heresy.”
“Which gospel?” Joaquin asked.
I swallowed. “Not in the gospels. In the Bible. Kings.”
“The Bible of Moses? The Hebrew Bible?”
“It’s the first part of the Bible! The part with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve aren’t heresy, are they?”
“Don’t get smart with me!” Joaquin was red under his brown skin, and a vein pumped in his temple.
“Marcela,” Consuelo said, “it’s a story from the Bible. But you must only tell stories that are in the Christian part of the Bible. Don’t you understand that?”
I shook my head. “It’s one of the only books we had. I read every word of it. I didn’t know some stories couldn’t be told.” I wiped the tears that wouldn’t stop.
“Don’t cry,” Joaquin said. “You disgust me. As you yourself said, you’re not a child anymore.”
Joaquin’s words stung. The words had been said under much different circumstances. And they didn’t escape Consuelo. “What’s this?”
Juan Carlos rose. “As of this morning, Joaquin wanted to marry Marcela.”
#
I spent the night awake in my room. For the next three days I did the chores I normally did, took the little ones, changed the diapering cloths, and helped Columbina, Ernesto, and Josefina-Merced with their letters. I ate with the family and was treated, if anyone deigned to notice me at all, like a ghost. I did not reenter Josefina’s office.
On Sunday the entire family went to Mass. Joaquin said nothing to me, looked through me. I was not given charge of any of the children, and no one spoke to me except as absolutely necessary. When the midday meal was served, Joaquin cleared his throat.
“Marcela, you will be leaving us. I have written to your mother, and she has agreed. You will be traveling to Zacatecas, in the north, where you will keep house for my brother Neto. He is a priest in that city and in need of a housekeeper. You leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? I will be going home tomorrow?”
“No, you will not be going home at all. Your mother has agreed. It is too dangerous for you in Hermosillo still, and she hasn’t the means to protect you.”
“Or feed you,” Juan Carlos added.
Joaquin shook his head. “I will see to it that your family doesn’t starve. But you will be leaving, and taking your troublemaking ways with you. Your mother was not pleased by our report, you must know.”
I was so taken aback that I was silent.
“She should not have been surprised,” Juan Carlos said. “She herself has beguiled the entire city of Hermosillo, glowing as she does. It seems the apple did not fall far from that tree.”
“Nothing to say? No gratitude?” Joaquin said.
Finally I found my tongue. “Your report?”
“She brought you up to be a decent girl. She has no idea where you got the wiles to attempt a seduction. She is ashamed of you.”
“A seduction? It was you! You who kissed me!”
Consuelo laughed shortly. “You have a lot to learn, young lady. If your mother didn’t teach you, this will. A girl’s virtue is her only worth in a man’s eyes.”
“An unfair comment,” Juan Carlos said.
“Hardly. And your virtue is yours to defend, Marcela. By God’s grace, Joaquin saw through your wiles.”
I could not speak. My defense of my blamelessness would fall on deaf ears, not the least of which were my own. I had enjoyed the kisses, I had wanted more of them, and not only to benefit my family. I stared down at my hands, my face suffused with shame.
Consuelo said my name softly. “A stint in the mountains, away from bad family influences, will do you a world of good. You are a smart girl, as smart as a boy, and as unscrupulous. But your heart is good, and you will grow into a better woman away from here.” I could not meet her eyes. “In any event,” she went on, “it is decided. So go pack your trunk, and say your prayers. Zacatecas is a mining town, its citizens are rough-hewn, but the air is reported to be good and the future is yours to make of it what you will.”
A mining town in the mountains, far from my mother. I could not imagine a worse sentence for my crimes. I didn’t know which of my two sins was the greater: drawing the eye of a powerful man or telling the story of a queen.












Did you always want to be an author? I’ve been writing for thirty years! Is that “always”? Even before I started writing novels, after my now-adult daughter was born, I wrote terrible poetry and some not-too-bad short stories. But once my daughter was born I felt the creative urge unleashed. I wrote a romance, and got a phone call from a publisher who said she couldn’t publish it because it was the wrong era, but that she loved the book. I wrote some food articles for the paper. I wrote some bad poetry. And then I wrote a mystery. I self-published it, in the very very early days of self-publishing. It sold, and it was actually good. Then I wrote some, er, adult fiction, and that too sold quite well. (I’m a pillar of the community. Of course, I used a pen name!) And then, at last, I wrote Josefina’s Sin. I got an agent, Simon & Schuster published it, and the rest is history!


Who are your top five fictional characters (Who YOU have Created)?    Of course, Josefina! She’a a landowner’s wife who goes to the vice-royal court in Mexico in 1690, and meets Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. And Consuelo, the hidden, secret Jew, whose family was converted at the point of a sword by the Inquisition, was maybe my bravest character. Another fun character is Violetta, the first embedded journalist, who reported on women in the labor movement from the point of view of a prostitute in San Francisco in 1920 in The Harlot’s Pen. Marcela, in Chains of Silver, is so outspoken, so hard-headed, that she might be, well, me! And my favorite man? Altamiro. You’ll meet him in Chains of Silver.

How many hours a day do you spend writing? In November, maybe five hours a day. Other times, more like five hours a week. I write all my first drafts in November, 50,000 words in a month, as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.) It’s a powerful way to ignore the censor that lives at the end of your fingers, that keeps you from writing what you really want to write.

Do you have a specific writing routine? (i.e. quirks) In November, I try to schedule lightly at work. Everyone knows I’m a novelist, and I use a lot of my time off to write. I drink a LOT of coffee! I block out the world and just pound away. At the beginning of my session I read the last page I wrote, just to pick up where I am. At the end, I reread everything I wrote that day.
Once the first draft is done, I let it sit for a month. And then I read it. Oh. My. Gosh. It’s awful. I hate it. But that little part right there, it’s not so bad. And this character has legs. And hmmm, I get what her story is. And I take a year to fix it. Then I send it to one of my trusted mentors and hold my breath, waiting for the answer. And then, once I get the novel back, it’s time for some serious editing. At last, it’s a book. I let it sit another month, go through it once more, then it’s off to my agent.

Do you work with an outline or just write? I’m a plotter with a pantser’s soul! First I research. That’s so much fun, since it involves reading books, searching on line, going to museums, seeing plays, making notes, and chasing scraps of paper all over my office! Then I outline. And outline. And Outline. Once November starts, I start to write, and the story takes off in surprising directions. My characters go off outline and do crazy things. And I have to let them, since they know what they want. So I revise the outline… and keep on writing!










Claudia Long is the author of Josefina's Sin, The Duel for Consuelo, The Harlot's Pen, and Chains of Silver. Three of these take place in Colonial Mexico during the Inquisition. She lives in Northern California where currently practices law as a mediator for employment and housing discrimination cases as well as complex business disputes. She is married and has two grown children and one magnificent grandchild.

















Twitter  @CLongnovels






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