That’s the working title of my new novel, which used to be called Loyal Unto Death.
I am running into all kinds of headaches writing the part about the American Revolution. My main character is a Loyalist, thus on the losing side. But he’s a real person and he was really at the Battle of King’s Mountain, which was a horrendous loss for the Loyalists. All combattants were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
I found a great book called The Loyalist at Kings Mountain, which names all of the men who took part, but it doesn’t tell me who died in the battle. My ancestor Michael Eisan (Ison) was there. I know that he didn’t die or I wouldn’t be here. But the more information I find, the more difficult it is to write a novel because the less I feel I can fictionalize.
For instance, there were several Blakely brothers at the Battle of Kings Mountain. They were in the same militia as Michael Eisan. One of them settled in Nova Scotia after the revolution, as did my ancestor. In fact, Eisan married a woman named Anne or Nancy Blakely. Perhaps she was a sister or a widow of one of the Blakelys. When it comes to women, there is almost no way of finding out such information, in which case speculation (hence, fiction) is the only way to go.
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