Regardless of whether or not you are happy about today’s inauguration and another four years under Donald Trump’s reign (sic), you must admit the extreme irony of his inauguration landing on the anniversary and holiday dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King believed in equality and justice for all, and advocated tirelessly for those who do not have equal access to education, employment, voting, property and the myriad of rights and privileges most middle to upper middle class white people enjoy.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is promising that in the first days of his term, he intends to disenfranchise and deport people who came to our country seeking those very things. Who thought the promise written on the plaque of the Statue of Liberty meant something. Who believed America valued “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

My debut novel, Hatfield 1677, has done very well: with sales exceeding 500 since its release May 21 2024; glowing editorial reviews from Kirkus, Feathered Quill, Brew, American Writing Awards; 4 and 5-star ratings and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads; and most meaningful, personal responses from my readers telling me how much they loved my book, and asking would I please write another soon?

I’ve been trying, and I hoped to use my work in progress as an explanation for why I haven’t posted a blog on this website since October. In all honesty, my work in progress isn’t coming together as quickly as I’d hoped.

In hopes of extending the story of Hatfield 1677 to the descendents of Benjamin and Martha Waite, I’m creating a historical novel set during the Revolutionary War. I have been researching, outlining, and writing various chapters since October. The story of Hatfield 1677, as one reviewer said, is “on its thinnest outer layers, a simple love story.” And that is what made it, at least initially, manageable for me as an author and attractive to readers.

What I’m undertaking now is an epic. Because of what I view as the dire threats of Project 2025, and the coinciding 250th anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence, I have imbued my simple sequel with the onus of a magnum opus. A treatise on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I’m becoming an expert on minutemen, militias and regiments; the Loyal Nine and The Sons of Liberty; battles from Bunker Hill to Trenton.

Yet I know what my readers want, what I want, is the human side of the story. The people. The emotions. The motivations. So I’m setting aside my research, for the moment, so I can regroup and restart my novel with what ultimately matters. The men and women who had a vision for a country conceived in liberty, and how each of them played a part. The story of individuals who believed in a common good. Who had a dream.

Especially, today, January 20, 2025.