Although both these signings occurred last month, I want to
cover them because they were excellent events.

Quail Ridge Books has been in business since 1984 and is
Raleigh’s most well-known independent bookstore. Owner Nancy Olson and the
staff are some of the friendliest, most helpful booksellers I’ve met. Even
before they knew I was an author :-), I received a warm greeting whenever I
came in the store and a "May I help you find anything today?" I was
honored and delighted to read and present there Tuesday evening 9 January.

My family and I dressed in our eighteenth-century clothing
and answered a number of questions from the audience about reenacting and life
during Revolutionary America. Carl demonstrated fixing the bayonet to his
musket, to the "oohs" and "aahs" of the audience. One woman
commented, "Look at how long it is!" This helped attendees understand
why the bayonet, not the musket ball, was a principal weapon of the war. (Early
on, before George Washington’s army developed discipline and professionalism,
Continentals often ran in terror as soon as the British fixed bayonets. Imagine
a line of a hundred redcoats advancing toward you, sixteen or so inches of
pointed steel fixed to the end of their muskets and leveled at your midsection.
Not an auspicious sign.) Thanks to Quail Ridge Books for providing me with the
signing opportunity, and special thanks to Carol Moyer for the lovely
introduction.

The third book of my series, Camp Follower, culminates in
the Battle of Cowpens. On 17 January 1781, an army of Continentals and rebel
militia commanded by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeated British Legion
provincials and their loyalist allies beneath Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton.
Morgan’s army didn’t just defeat Tarleton’s army; Morgan decimated it. Although
most of Tarleton’s cavalry escaped, almost all infantrymen from the British
Legion and allied units were killed, injured, or captured in battle. Those
soldiers were irreplaceable, and the battle deprived Charles Lord Cornwallis of
much might from his crack unit in the South.

Carl and I daytripped the event Saturday 13 January while my
sons were off winter camping with their Boy Scout troop. However, there wasn’t
much winter to be found in the southeast that weekend. Cowpens weather usually
means snow on the ground or bitter cold, but everyone sweated for the event. We
arrived in time to catch up with a battlefield tour guided by ranger John Robertson, who creates the maps for my novels. Then I dressed
in my eighteenth-century clothing and set up my signing table inside the
visitors’ center, in the august company of authors Dr. Bobby Moss, Dr.
Christine Swager, and Sheila Ingle.

No battle reenactment occurs on site at Cowpens National Battlefield, but visitors
always enjoy plenty of living history, military drills, demonstrations, and
presentations. On Saturday, chapters of the D.A.R. and S.A.R. conducted their
annual wreath-laying ceremony. Visitors were also treated to Dave Sherrill’s
portrayal of Benjamin Franklin and got to watch mounted members of the Third
Continental Light Dragoons saber a head of cabbage — at human height — off a
post during a cavalry charge. (Coleslaw, anyone?)

Mid-afternoon, Sheila Ingle,
Chris Swager, and I presented a panel on the American Revolution in the South
as seen through the eyes of its female participants. From left to right in the
picture, moderator John Robertson and panelists Suzanne Adair, Chris Swager,
and Sheila Ingle.

A huge Huzzah! and thank-you to Virginia Fowler, chief ranger at
Cowpens, and all her staff for hosting another successful event and allowing me
the opportunity to be part of it.

Next up: a workshop on researching historical fiction for
the Lowcountry chapter of the Romance Writers of America in Summerville, SC,
Saturday 17 February 2007.