Historical Fiction

Book Three of the Trilogy: Ghost Words and Puppet Plays

Each volume in the trilogy is a series of interlocking sketches or stories intended to give a view of a period in human history. It is a trilogy about human nature and thought.

The Uncertainty Principle has twenty-seven scenes set in the 17th and 20th centuries. By the 17th century the certainty which went with the authority of rulers, religious dogma and the science of Aristotle and Galen had begun to erode. The so-called Modern Period became a battleground between those who would live with new or tentative answers and those who demanded the certainty of the past.

This third volume begins in 1606 as an ice storm approaches London, and ends in 1990 as a winter storm moves across the center of the USA. The characters include the famous and the obscure. Among the former are Rembrandt, Bashô, Spinoza, the Queen of France and the Empress of China. Among the latter are an aging Nazi, an American PFC, an Iowa farm wife and a child preparing for a play.

This novel is based on the real life of a Southern lady, Aldeen the Queen. Raised in a wealthy family with a Civil War/Slaveholding history, she was crushed when her teenage lover was banished by her father. The Queen recovered and became independent and the manager of the family businesses. A series of deaths and the quandary of being jilted as a teenager impacted Aldeen but she matured and was married and widowed by four husbands. Inheriting significant wealth from each husband, Aldeen became a successful business woman.

Her banished lover accumulated a trust fund and bequeathed it to the Queen at his death.

Despite her brusk, terse personality, and outspoken bigotry, Aldeen the Queen was a generous humanitarian.

Each volume in the trilogy is a series of interlocking sketches or stories intended to give a view of a period in human history. It is a trilogy about human nature and thought. Triumph of the Skies has eighteen scenes set in those complex centuries known as the Middle Ages when much of humanity lived under the revealed authority of the skies. It begins with the state closing of the Platonic Academy in Athens (529) and ends with the final version of Chartres Cathedral (1235). Among the many historical figures are: the Byzantine princess Anna Comnena; Caliph Harun al Rashid; Du Fu, China’s greatest poet; and the adversaries Peter Abelard and St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

Each volume in the trilogy is a series of interlocking sketches or stories intended to give a view of a period in human history. It is a trilogy about human nature and thought. First we see the ancient world where the seeds of philosophy, science and religion are sown. Every Mother’s Son has sixteen scenes from the Greco-Roman world. It opens with letters from an Ephesian clergyman in the service of the Mother Goddess (500 B.C.) and closes with a letter from a cantankerous Christian clergyman who has just survived the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.) where amid the hostilities Mary was declared “Mother of God.” Among the historical figures are: Alexander the Great, Mo Ti, Lucretius, Saint Paul, Nero and Marcus Aurelius.

In 1941, after discovering tuberculosis, Liese, is taken to a sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland by her aunt. The book traces Liese’s incarceration in the sanatorium where she meets various characters, including her Greek-Jewish friend, Antigone. Upon Nazi orders in 1942 the sanatorium expels all the Jewish patients including Liese and Antigone under the pretext to have their papers checked. However, once they arrive at a small train station in Italy, they are surrounded by German SS troops with whips and vicious dogs. An old family friend from Vienna rescues Liese by pushing her under a train. He finds shelter for Liese in an Italian village church where she encounters a dangerous sexton. She is quickly transported to a forest underground bunker where she meets a number of compelling characters and remains there until liberation by a friendly U.S. Army.

The book FROM DESPAIR TO FORTUNE - THE HALL DYNASTY was intended to be a historical novel that traces the Hall and Swango families from the mid-1800’s until the end of World War II.

Although the main characters are fictional, the author has used the true names of notable individuals from that time period. Also, the events occurring in this time frame are factual.

The setting is the barren and wind-swept plains of northwest South Dakota and northern Wyoming. The hardships encountered by these early pioneers who took advantage of the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 is documented in detail.

With cattle as their main source of income, the harsh winters would mean that all of the ranches needed to thin their herds and ship most of the cattle to eastern markets in the fall.

In addition to the isolation and weather found in this part of the country, these early settlers had to deal with desperadoes and Indians.

It took the United States Cavalry to bring peace to this region of the country. Often, law abiding citizens who deputized sheriffs found that one or two lawmen could not control their towns.

The author brings to light far-sighted businessmen who believed in their endeavors to bring civilization to the West.

Among the many such men was Seth Bullock, the sheriff who controlled the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, after the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok. Mr. Bullock was also primarily responsible for establishing the town of Belle Fourche.

Translated from the Yiddish: Herschele by Jacob Dineson

Herschele, a story of piety and young love, was written in Yiddish by Jacob Dineson (b. 1856-d.1919) and published in Warsaw, Poland in 1928. Herschele, an orphan, is enrolled in a Yeshiva. As it was in that era, boys would be given a day each week at someone’s home to take meals. His Wednesdays were at the home of a wealthy widow. The story takes on the depth of meaning when the teenage boy falls in love with the widow’s daughter, but he doesn’t understand the strange feelings that have possessed him: “Has evil passion grasped me by the shoulder? Or has a magician cast an evil spell upon me?” he asks.

In November, 1934, Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC (Ret) appeared before the House Un-American Activities subcommittee in New York City. He testified that he had been approached by representatives of a group of influential businessmen to lead a junta and take control of the national’s capital, removing President Roosevelt from office.

Though taken seriously by the Congressmen, for the most part, the national press hounded and ridiculed the general.

Transcripts remaining are so fragmented that little is left. This novel, by adding several fictitious characters and events, suggests ways the information the committee obviously had could have been obtained.

The particulars of General Butler’s military and civilian careers contained in this work are accurate.

Henry Schmidt has done it again.... He has written for the people who look to find their friends or themselves in each and every story he comes up with.... One reader said she was certain that it was her mate who he wrote about in one of his stories. Another fan said it was his fault that the story was so true to his misbehavior. Still another older gentleman said he apologized to his wife for being in the story she had read about misinterpretations of love.... Henry has written stories that have made men ask their wives to pull over while driving so that they can retell the story in THEIR words.

Where these stories come from is anyone’s guess, but you can be sure that there is at least one that is very similar to what you have experienced during your youthful dream filled days and nights. Every man and at least most women will admit that the stories ring true in certain ways that they are reluctant to remember. If that is the case with you... then read with a smile on your face and answer questions at a later date.... Enjoy what the author has provided for discussion with your loved ones sometime in the near future... Hurry because Henry has more stories coming soon and you my friend might just be the focus of his next book....

Henry Schmidt has many a story yet to put to print. He is writing for everyone to enjoy, even though some folks have asked that their names not be used.... He is getting more ideas from the people he crosses paths with in his everyday life in Las Vegas, Nevada. If you are looking to be part of some personal exposure... then play it straight so that excuses in the future are easier to explain....

This story is about a man’s life... It tells of his loves during the period of 1922, his birth... till his death in 2008. There are the women and all the other people, plus the aircraft that he crossed paths with during his exciting life. Times of peace and times of war...

Heartbreak and happiness abound with his adopted son writing the whole story... Mik Henry loses his parents to violence as a young boy. He matures rapidly and soon grows to be a young man with a strong will and a loving heart... He is a fighting man thru war in the Pacific Theater.

He finds love only to lose it over and over again until he reunites with the women who have deeply affected his life by staying in his heart. There are times of sadness and joy across the distances forced upon them.

This story has two endings... both of which have affected our hero in different ways. Find out how he lives out his life to the fullest by reading Mik Henry’s Journey - The Crossing of Parallel Paths.

This story could be true. The names and places in some cases are perhaps real... The times were authentic, and the Second World War was in fact a major piece of history, a small part of which takes place within the story.