This week we welcome Ruth Axtell to Author Memories.
Ruth Axtell has loved stories set in the 19th century ever since she read Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and other 19th century classics in junior and senior school. Like many romance writers, Ruth decided to write her own in order to read the kind of story she liked best. Ruth has published 13 historical romances under the name Ruth Axtell Morren.
Currently, Ruth lives on the downeast coast of Maine with her three children and two rescue cats. She enjoys the challenge of vegetable and flower gardening in a cool, foggy climate, long
walks along the Maine coast, reading, watching British period dramas like Downton Abbey, and doing historical research for her novels.
Currently, Ruth lives on the downeast coast of Maine with her three children and two rescue cats. She enjoys the challenge of vegetable and flower gardening in a cool, foggy climate, long
walks along the Maine coast, reading, watching British period dramas like Downton Abbey, and doing historical research for her novels.
Graveyard Treasures
by Ruth Axtell
Names and family histories are interesting things. Here in New England, we have some pretty old gravestones in the local cemetery. It’s a shame to see many of the stones falling over after each winter. Many are covered in lichen, the inscriptions so worn they are hardly legible.
Neglected Headstones, New England, photo by Ruth Axtell
But it’s a great place to find historical names when one is writing about the area in the 1800s. For one of my first published books, Wild Rose, I found my heroine’s name, Geneva, off one of these gravestones. I pretended it was short for Genevieve.
Geneva, photo by Ruth Axtell
This past spring, my father died at the ripe old age of 100. My brother and I had not been to the family plot in Connecticut since we were teenagers, so we hardly even knew where it was. But when we went there for the funeral, I was fascinated to read the names of my father’s forefathers on his mother’s side: Hopsons, Cornwalls and Hubbells—all solid English names.
On my next trip I visited another family plot where my grandfather’s side of the family is buried. These were Pattersons (a surname I used in Wild Rose, making my heroine Geneva
Patterson).
Here in this part of Maine, there are some names that hark back to the founding of this village back in the 1700s: Cates, Maker, Ackley, Corbett are some of the surnames that appear on many gravestones.
On my next trip I visited another family plot where my grandfather’s side of the family is buried. These were Pattersons (a surname I used in Wild Rose, making my heroine Geneva
Patterson).
Here in this part of Maine, there are some names that hark back to the founding of this village back in the 1700s: Cates, Maker, Ackley, Corbett are some of the surnames that appear on many gravestones.
Obed Cates, photo by Ruth Axtell
Many times a man had both his wives listed, so you could tell he’d been widowed. Others had a few lines of verse denoting their sadness in their departed loved ones but hopes for an eventual reunion in Heaven and rest from their earthly toils.
Headstone Verses, photo by Ruth Axtell
| Asleep in Jesus! Blessed sleep, From which none ever wake to weep! A calm and undisturbed repose, Unbroken by the last of foes. |
Many of the tombstones not only listed the age of the departed one in years, but in years, months and days! I was amazed to see two who had died in the 1830s who’d lived to 90 and another to 86. There must have been something in the water! More common were deaths in people’s twenties, thirties, or sixties (in the mid-1800s). Some were children’s gravestones.
90 years, 7 months, 21 days. Photo by Ruth Axtell
It’s fascinating to think about these many lives before us. People who walked these same roads (rutted horse tracks back then, I’m sure) or sailed the seas I see out my kitchen window. They must have been quite hardy and long suffering.
What are some of the thoughts old cemeteries and gravestone inscriptions invoke for you?
What are some of the thoughts old cemeteries and gravestone inscriptions invoke for you?
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GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, Aug 19th
to be entered in a draw for a copy of
Ruth Axtell's new Historical Romance, Her Good Name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, Aug 19th
to be entered in a draw for a copy of
Ruth Axtell's new Historical Romance, Her Good Name.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Her Good Name
Moody River North, Aug 2012
1890 - Maine
In the 1890 thriving coastal town of Holliston, Maine, the leading lumber baron's son, Warren Brentwood, III, returns from his years away at college and traveling to take up his position as heir apparent to his father's business empire.
Esperanza Estrada is the daughter of a Portuguese
immigrant fisherman who has grown up surrounded by a brood of brothers and sisters and a careworn mother. Unable to pretend she is anything but "one of those Estradas," Espy has no chance with Warren, no matter how striking she is. When she overhears of a position to clean house at a local professor's home on Elm Street, she jumps at the opportunity, hoping to be able to run into Warren Brentwood now and again as well as to imbibe the cultural and intellectual atmosphere of the Stocktons.
When rumors about Espy and this respected, married gentleman of the community begin to circulate, the entire church congregation and then the community pronounce judgment on her behavior. The man Espy is in love with, Warren, believes the lie and his loss of faith in her causes Espy to give up without a fight. She leaves her family and hometown for the nearest city with little money and no acquaintances and is forced to spend the night on the street. A man who heads a mission for the homeless finds Espy and offers her shelter. Espy finds the true love of God while working at the mission. Will she be able to forgive the townspeople and return home?
Sample Excerpt
In the 1890 thriving coastal town of Holliston, Maine, the leading lumber baron's son, Warren Brentwood, III, returns from his years away at college and traveling to take up his position as heir apparent to his father's business empire.
Esperanza Estrada is the daughter of a Portuguese
immigrant fisherman who has grown up surrounded by a brood of brothers and sisters and a careworn mother. Unable to pretend she is anything but "one of those Estradas," Espy has no chance with Warren, no matter how striking she is. When she overhears of a position to clean house at a local professor's home on Elm Street, she jumps at the opportunity, hoping to be able to run into Warren Brentwood now and again as well as to imbibe the cultural and intellectual atmosphere of the Stocktons.
When rumors about Espy and this respected, married gentleman of the community begin to circulate, the entire church congregation and then the community pronounce judgment on her behavior. The man Espy is in love with, Warren, believes the lie and his loss of faith in her causes Espy to give up without a fight. She leaves her family and hometown for the nearest city with little money and no acquaintances and is forced to spend the night on the street. A man who heads a mission for the homeless finds Espy and offers her shelter. Espy finds the true love of God while working at the mission. Will she be able to forgive the townspeople and return home?
Sample Excerpt
More about Ruth:
It was a long road to publishing, a journey as much spiritual as dependent on learning the craft of writing. Ruth studied comparative literature at Smith College with a concentration in French and English literature, and spent her junior year in Paris. After college, she spent a year in the Canary Islands as an au pair. Shortly after coming back to the U.S., she committed her life to Christ. Fourteen years later, she committed her writing to Him. Since then she has lived in the Netherlands and on the coast of Maine.
She was a Golden Heart finalist in 1994. Her second published book, Wild Rose, was a Booklist “Top Ten Christian Fiction” selection in 2005. Her books have been translated into Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech and Afrikaans. She is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), RWA (Romance Writers of America) and its local Maine chapter.
Her Good Name, a historical romance set on the 1890s Maine coast, from River North/Moody Publishers will be her first book under Ruth Axtell. In March 2013, Moonlight Masquerade, a regency romance set in London, will be out with Baker/Revell Books.
It was a long road to publishing, a journey as much spiritual as dependent on learning the craft of writing. Ruth studied comparative literature at Smith College with a concentration in French and English literature, and spent her junior year in Paris. After college, she spent a year in the Canary Islands as an au pair. Shortly after coming back to the U.S., she committed her life to Christ. Fourteen years later, she committed her writing to Him. Since then she has lived in the Netherlands and on the coast of Maine.
She was a Golden Heart finalist in 1994. Her second published book, Wild Rose, was a Booklist “Top Ten Christian Fiction” selection in 2005. Her books have been translated into Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech and Afrikaans. She is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers), RWA (Romance Writers of America) and its local Maine chapter.
Her Good Name, a historical romance set on the 1890s Maine coast, from River North/Moody Publishers will be her first book under Ruth Axtell. In March 2013, Moonlight Masquerade, a regency romance set in London, will be out with Baker/Revell Books.
