Wilmont Kreis

On arrival in Mortagne, Francoise is a lost soul in an unfamiliar place, looking for a relative she has never met . She finds help at the local convent where the Mother Superior helps Identify the relative as Nicole Boucher. By coincidence, Nicole's precocious eight-year-old son, Pierre is studying in the next room. This gifted boy brings Francoise to his home, beginning a lifelong relationship where Young Pierre grows into a man becoming one of the most important fathers of Canada. Read More 

Book Thirteen: Percheron Express
During her stay in Mortagne, Françoise aids a prominent citizen, Robert Giffard, assemble a group of five local families to sail to the new world and become the mothers and fathers of Canada. In addition to these ordinary families were Giffard and his family, as well three well-to-do families and a few single men a few of whom had been to Québec before. The ship which brought them had been nicknamed the Percheron Express in honor of the home province of these hardy pioneers. Read More 

Book Thirteen: Young Pierre: One of the joys of writing (and reading) historical fiction is that one is provided with a few or many delicious tidbits of history that are very possibly accurate. The strict history writer is stuck with these facts and these alone. The historical fiction author has the wonderful luxury of filling in the blanks with probabilities, possibilities, and out-right imagination. One of Françoise’s first encounters with Perche is eight year old Pierre. Much of his early story is provided by the author, but as the book evolves, Pierre becomes a pillar of history. More to come.  Read More 

Book Thirteen: Mortagne: Françoise’s cousin graciously takes her into her home. Once she achieves some stability she goes to the local convent where she helps the nuns with their school. From here she will meet a few people who will shape her life: Sister Marie-Claude, who helps her escape from her wretched past, Robert Giffard who will cause her to return to Canada, Pierre Boucher, her cousin’s precocious eight-year-old son who will grow to one of the fathers of Canada, and Noël Langlois who will become the love of her life. Read More 

Book Thirteen: Early Françoise: Françoise Grenier was a fifteen-year-old waif of the streets of Paris when a young man of questionable character convinces her to accompany him on an adventure to the New World. After more than a year of abuse in the wilderness of Canada, he disappears, apparently dead. Françoise is taken in by the few French women, returning to a civilized society. Having nowhere to go when the Kirke Brothers return her and her new French-Canadian friends to France, she winds up at the home of her mother’s cousin in Mortagne in the Perche region of France, and from here will, in fits and starts, build a new life. Read More 

Book Thirteen: Françoise Grenier: Of the people who returned to the new world in 1634, Françoise is certainly the most enigmatic. Unlike the other women: Mathurine Guyon, Nicole Boucher, etc. she has no written early past. For authors of straight history this is a dead end, but for historical fiction, she is a bonanza, a chance to spread one’s authorial wings. There are a number of theories about our heroine. Was she a native? is popular. However, I felt her subsequent life and history, particularly her many children born in a very French-immigrant fashion as opposed to the scant births of typical Indians of the time, made my version of her more realistic (at least in my mind). The remainder of her life is as well chronicled as any in this time and situation, and I have adhered to it as much as I usually do. This includes her mysterious death, for which you, dear reader, have a ways to go. Read More 

Book Thirteen: The Kirke brothers: These five men were French Huguenots who took religious refuge in England. They became privateers, basically pirates sailing under a government’s flag to raid its enemies (think Sir Francis Drake). In 1628 one or two of them did sail into the St. Lawrence River to take Canada, but when they managed to raid French ships on the way in, they returned to England. In 1629 they did return and take Québec from its founder. Samuel Champlain may have never seen it this way, but it allowed him to eventually return to France and build a force capable of taking Canada back, and with the addition of five hardy families from the rural area of Perche, France, make it a viable entity. Read More 

Book Thirteen: 1628: The Father of Canada is despondent. Samuel Champlain has spent most of his adult life trying to forge New France out of the Canadian wilderness—and he is failing. After many years of struggle, he has little infrastructure, few people, and scant support from the Kingdom of France. Little does he know that things are about to get worse. Read More 

So now it's time to begin discussion of Book 13. I know a lot of you have read it and many have had questions. As always I will spend the next several Blogs discussing this work. HANG ON! Here is the trailer.

1634
RETURN TO THE
NEW WORLD

Upper North America, 1628: Françoise Grenier’s life had been a combination of bad circumstances, worse luck and even poorer choices. Orphaned near Paris at the age of twelve, she became a street urchin. At fifteen she fell in with an older man who convinced her to follow him to the new world of Québec where he would marry her. Instead he abused her. Only when he failed to return from trading with the natives and she heard they had killed him, did she find herself liberated.
Taken in by the few women of Québec, she was just recovering when English privateers captured the failing colony, sending its few inhabitants, including Françoise, back to France. One of the ladies gave her a letter to deliver in France which led her to a new life, allowing her to return to help rebuild the colony five years later. It was here she prospered, beginning one of the early prominent families of Canada, helping to forge a great nation from the frozen wilderness.
If you enjoyed Fearful Passage North, The Allards Series, and the author’s ability to bring history to life, you will love this one. Read More 

Book Eight: The Great War: Did WWII end the depression or did the depression cause the war. I don’t know the answer, but a recent trip to Germany and a special tour of WWII Nuremburg, including Hitler’s rallies and the famous trial, was an eye opener even for students of history. Sadly I could not help seeing some of the same geo-political dynamics we seem to be seeing today. At any rate, book eight follows the citizens of Detroit through this terrible period of history ending with the advent of Detroit into its golden age as well as the end of the Allard series. Next week we will take a long journey back in time to very early French Canada and my current release 1634 – RETURN TO THE NEW WORLD. See you then. Read More