Researching the Island of Roanoke

When I was on vacation last month, one of the places we went to see was Roanoke Island, North Carolina. That was where my relatives Sir John Arundell and Sir Richard Grenville went in 1585-1856 in an effort to find the ideal place to set up the first permanent English settlement and colony in the North America.

I wanted to go there for research for the book I am writing, THE STORYKEEPER OF ROANOKE (THE FAMILY TREEZ OF THE USA SERIES, BOOK #1.) 

I had no idea how emotional it would be for me. It is very different to see the first place that started the United States of America as a relative of two who were there. (And Sir Walter Raleigh, who was the mastermind in charge of this expedition, was a relative as well, by the way.) It moved me to see and experience. It helped me with the passion I have for this book.

My book cover is a picture of the earthworks at present day Fort Raleigh. It's where there was a fort back in 1587-1590.

Here are more pictures:

 
Photo from inside the earthworks:

(Photo Credits: Stacy Duplease Oct. 2012 at Fort Raleigh).

Stacy Duplease
Thriller Historical Fiction Writer

The Storykeeper of Roanoke: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book #1

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com

NaNoWriMo: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/familytreezetc

Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Download Book 1

I decided to download the latest version of:

ROANOKE 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1

I am too excited not to share it with you. 

Total Word Count: 7006 of 210000.

I will download the latest again on Friday at the latest.

Enjoy and Blessings,

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer

The Family Treez of the USA Series

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com

Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction

The Writing of Roanoke 1584-1590 (News and Info)

Status of Roanoke 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1: 

Writing. (Not planning, plotting, editing, or final publishing.)

Word Count: 6665 of 210,000 words (I started writing this book on 17 September 2012, Monday.)

Word Count Goal for 19 Sep. 2012: 5000 words

So, I am ahead with my writing. So far. (Whew.)

The Writing of This Book

There is something magical about going to a time different than our own. I do not care if it is time-traveling to the past or future. It is a different era and that brings a touch of imagination. Writing ROANOKE 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1 is magical as well. But, it is also mind-boggling.

When I think that I am writing about actual family, it is pretty difficult to fully grasp. It makes the history take on a deeper meaning.

Then, to think of my patriotism and love of the United states of America, then add this lens of family history, and I am even more patriotic. I was patriotic before I learned about my family. Quite, actually. But, add the family dimension and it has grown a million-fold. 

I cannot look at anything in this country without feeling even more passionate than previously.

Writing this book has kindled even more of a passion for this great nation.

It has also added to a passion of history. I still cannot believe how little of a passion I had for history prior to moving here to Virginia. History was always my weakest subjects in school. My father sure tried to make me informed, though. He was successful in that endeavor. I learned far more about history from him than I did in all my 20 years of schooling combined. But, it was here in Virginia, in July 2011 that kindled my passion for U.S. history. To walk where America was founded, here in this part of Virginia, is humbling. Mind-boggling. Remarkable. Touching. Meaningful. To know that just up the street, so to speak, was where Cornwallis had Gates surrender to George Washington in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War... To think that, sure, there were smaller battles after that for the next couple of years, but it was at Yorktown that we turned the tide of the war, is amazing. And, I had a family member who was a Colonel who was there at the surrender--at Surrender Field... It blows me away.

Therefore, knowing about my family history makes me more passionate about, well, all of it--and surely writing about it.

I have always loved to play the "Imagine Game," where I imagine what it was like to be these historical figures, doing what they did, at the time they did, and what they experienced, thought, and felt. Writing this book on Roanoke is no different. Except, it is personal as well as part of my patriotic act.

I want to write my family's story to help all of us learn about the true history of the United States of America, without even realizing it. That is my goal for this series. 

Can you imagine? I am sure trying. Hence, I write. 

Can You Imagine?

The story I am writing about Roanoke is about what happened before, during, and after the voyages to Roanoke. It's about the colony that was not lost and the colony that was. I am trying, and will try, to delve far more than any other book, about what it was like to be those who planned for the establishment of the first permanent English colony in North America--and what they went through with the great expectations before going to Roanoke, then finding out about the troubles of the colony, and not being able to get to the colony for three years. Then, when they got there, they discovered the colony was lost. There was no trace of them. Then, because of a storm, having to leave before you can do more of a search... Can you imagine? 

That is what this book is about.

It is the story of three men who dreamed of Roanoke, their families, and the temporarily lost dream. It's about how they got out of bed, and continuing with life, in the morning knowing about the lost colony. 

Can you imagine? I am sure trying. Hence, I write. 

And, what a story it is to tell!

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer

The Family Treez of the USA Series

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com

Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction

Banner for Roanoke 1584-1590: The Family Treez of the USA Series, Book 1

Here is another banner:

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Fiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction   

My vision was too much

CONFESSIONS OF A EAGER AND CRAZY WRITERI have learned that I tend to get overly eager when I am excited to learn new things about my family treez.

 

How many people can say they have been here since 1607? And be able to trace it? And, what about multiple family members?

 

Am I bragging? No. Not at all. Every family, mine included, has made their fair share of mistakes. It's how we learn from them that I celebrate. We have lessons we can learn secondhand so we do not need to be doomed to repeat those historical lessons. Never mind how excited it makes me about this great nation--thanks to my family. And, I was already excited to be an American. What a way to learn the history of our country--than through the historical fiction of a real American family?

 

It's how we have been here since 1607 in Jamestown, and even through the Mayflower, that gets me excited. Never mind how I have at least 100 family members who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Never mind all the other wars in which America has fought.

 

It's this excitement that gets me into trouble. A lot of it. Heaps. Loads.

 

I wanted to write a series on: Jamestown, Plymouth, the American Revolutionary War,  the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II, never mind the stories of the several dozens of my family members who were beheaded or executed at the Tower of London. I wanted to write a book of each, then repeat to the second book of each series.

 

I realized that I made a mountain of not just a mole hill, but a 16'er. We do not have any sixteener mountains on earth, and that was what I started to create for myself. (Not good.)  If I would do the research required to do so, it would take me forever and that would mean less writing. That just is not acceptable. I think I have a responsibility as an author to write as much as possible for you, so you do not have to wait too long between books.

 

I also realized the best books for me to write are the phonebook-sized books. Again, it's to give you, the reader, the most bang for your reading delight and pleasure. After all, why do I write? To tell a tale? Who do I tell the tale to? YOU! Hence, you are very important to me.

 

Therefore, here is my new commitment.

 

I am stopping the book I have started to write. That will be part of the new Book 2 of this series.

 

THE FAMILY TREEZ OF THE USA SERIES starts in 1584. So, I am going to start there and write my books from 1584 to the present or so. They will be in order. It will be my lifetime commitment to you. I am in my late-thirties and hope to write about three books of 600 pages each per year--until I am too old to type.

 

Book 1 is now: ROANOKE: 1584-1590.

Book 2 will be: JAMESTOWN: 1607-????.

 

The series will focus on the saga of my family and their lives: marriages, war, faith, children, heartbreak, disaster, and living this thing called life.

 

I am starting to write this new book today and will write 2500 words per day, 5 days a week, and including vacation, I will have it finished around 29th of January 2013. I have to stick with this now. Period. After all, I am going to a writer's conference in February, the Writing for the Soul Conference in Colorado Springs, and MUST have this book to present. I will also have to edit as I go so I can have it ready.

 

The good news is you will be given a lot more to read for free! I will publish a new FREE copy every week, starting this Friday.

 

I have family who went to Roanoke and planned the venture, so I wanted to share their tale... And will answer a lot of what-if questions in a story. I hope you enjoy.

 

Again, the old book 1 will now become part of the new Book 2.

 

Welcome to ROANOKE: 1584-1590.
 
(Image credit: Microsoft Clipart Online.)

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Romance Fiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction   

Plan for the Family Treez of the USA Series

I have been working on planning for more of the books in this series.

 

I have a great deal family here in America since 1585. Future stories will talk about this. However, I realize that I have had several members in the American Revolutionary War and in the Civil War. Never mind all of the other wars. I also can trace my family line back to the Plantagenet and Tudor bloodlines in England and France. I come from a line of several famous and infamous Kings and Queens. But, it is the fact that I have had over 23 members of my family beheaded or executed in England that I find most interesting. (How is that for a claim?!?)  

 

Each of these periods of time begs the questions: Why America? Why now? What was life like? How did their faith shape them as people and as Americans? (Or, add England for the other family members.)

 

Therefore, here is my plan for the enxt couple of years. I will write a book from each of these times frames in the following order:

~ Jamestown

~ American Revolutionary War

~ Civil War

~ England (Tower Series)

 

Hopefully, I will write 2 books from each segment each year. This is my goal. (We shall see.)

 

In other words, if you do not prefer the period of time a book is set in, wait for the enxt, and it will change. But, read all of them, and get a glimpse of an American family with English roots.

(Image Credit: Microsoft Images Online.)
 

Stacy Duplease
Historical Fiction Writer of:

Inspirational American Historical Ancestry Romance Fiction

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez USA

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezusa.blogspot.com and http://familytreezusa.tumblr.com

Email: familytreezusa@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction   

Would you believe?

A year ago, my husband and I moved to Virginia. We live in the Hampton/Newport News area. We are within a half hour's drive to Jamestown, Yorktown, or Williamsburg (aka the Historical Triangle).

Would you believe that up until a year ago, history was fascinating to me, but I was terrible with my knowledge of it? In fact, history was my weakest subject in school. For instance, I thought the first permanent English settlement was at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Now I know the error of my education. Jamestown is the correct answer, if you wanted to know.

Then again, I come from an era, in my schools at least, we studied the explorers every year. And I mean every year. We never made it to the 20th Century, so I could not see how the events of the past were linked with what happened today--and the implications from the past to today are gigantic and mighty. But, school never taught me this. My father did, however. (Thank God for him. Everything I know about history is because of him.)

I also did not read history books because I found them boring. Would you believe?

Sure, I got into historical fiction. But, that could hardly be counted as history, could it? (Hah! I see the error in my thinking now.)

I fell in the love with the history of Virginia, needless to say. Wow, that changed the moment we got to Virginia and the historical sites were able to win my love and passion, like a lover, in seconds. It was love at first sight.

I will visit Virginia for the rest of my life before I visit Washington D. C. The politicians might tell you the importance of the city. Sure, there are monuments and museums which are critical to the history and recognition of our great nation. I will not dispute that. Instead, I will visit D.C. Every 10 or 15 years. Virginia, however, I see visiting every 5. (We do not know if my husband's work will keep us here another year or two. But, we realize we have to plan for it only be one more just in case.) Virginia is where the United States of America was really founded.

Now, here is the best part. Would you believe that I had NO idea about my family tree, genealogy, or lineage until about two months ago? This knowledge has only added to my love affair with this part of the country and in Virginia.

So, how is all of that for a confession?

(Photo by Stacy Duplease.)

Stacy Duplease
Geneaologist and Historical Fiction Writer

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez Etc

Family Treez Blog and Website: http://familytreezetc.blogspot.com

Email: familytreezetc@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction   

Starting in Jamestown

The book, AMERICAN ROOTS 1585-1607 takes place mainly in Jamestown, Virginia. But, it starts in Roanoke, the Lost Colony of Virginia and the first attempt of making a permanent English settlement in America, the New World.

Jamestown is the first permanent English Settlement in the United States of America. It dates prior to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Hence, Jamestown is the birthplace of the U.S.
(Photo by Stacy Duplease and Remembering Your Present, LLC.)
--

Stacy Duplease
Geneaologist and Historical Fiction Writer

dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Family Treez

Email: familytreezetc@gmail.com
Bookstore: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hisfiction