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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