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Celia Hayes

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first registered 16.09.08

last online 923 days ago

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about me

I earned a degree in English Literature (California State University Northridge, 1976) before
an un-slaked thirst for adventure and foreign travel
led me to enlist in the United States Air Force. I trained as a radio and television broadcast technician, and served for 20 years in places as various as Greece, Spain, Japan, Korea, Greenland and Ogden, Utah, in a wide assortment of duties and pleasures, including midnight alt-rock DJ, TV news anchor, video-production librarian, radio and television writer and producer, production manager, base tour guide, and on one colorful occasion driving a bright orange Volvo sedan across Western Europe from Athens to Zaragoza, Spain, accompanied only by a small and cranky child.

In 2002, I started contributing to a military-oriented weblog, “Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Brief,” now The Daily Brief, writing essays and commentary on matters historical, personal, political, cultural, literary and military under the "nom du blog" of "Sgt. Mom". I am also a founding member of the Independent Authors Guild, and serve as their website manager.

Upon retiring from the military, I kicked around in a number of corporate jobs, as an office administrator and manager, catalog editor, executive secretary and classical music announcer, before deciding that writing full-time was what I really, really wanted to be doing.

favourite books

Rosemary Sutcliffe - Rider on a White Horse
Frances Hunter - To the Ends of the Earth
Robert Lewis Taylor - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
M.M. Kaye - Shadow of the Moon

my websites

http://www.celiahayes.com     http://www.independentauthorsguild.com

HarperCollins is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

my bookshelf

info
Silent Storm
Silent Storm
Ida Lambert
rank  
editors desk winner
Fidelity
Fidelity
Benjamin Dancer
rank  
editors desk winner
none
none
none

my books

To Truckee's Trail

 

To Truckee's Trail
Celia Hayes
rank 5849

To Truckee's Trail

Celia Hayes

1844
Fifty men, women & children
Eleven wagons
2,000 miles of empty wilderness

And nothing to depend upon... except each other


In the year of 1844, a party of fifty men, women and children set out for California. These are their stories; the doctor-diarist and party co-leader, the old mountain-man who guided them, the feisty woman with her brood of children who means to rejoin her husband in California, and the taciturn wagon master … They walked two thousand miles, across trackless plain and desert, fording rivers and climbing mountains. They found a new trail through the wilderness, hoisted their wagons up a sheer cliff, were caught by the winter snows and faced starvation, with nothing to rely on but their own courage and trust in each other ... but all were inexorably drawn to Truckee’s Trail, and the dream of a prosperous life in the fair land, beyond the rocky mountain pass!

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The Quivera Trail

 

The Quivera Trail
Celia Hayes
rank 5849

The Quivera Trail

Celia Hayes

Will a well-born lady who knows only the upper levels of Victorian high society have a happy marriage with a young Texas cattle-rancher?


Isobel Lindsay-Groves is titled, wealthy and well-born ... and has just made a hash of her debut-year of 1875. Plump, awkward and home-loving, she has missed her chance for an advantageous marriage, and her domineering mother is furious.

By chance she meets Dolph Becker, second-generation Texan, come to England with his cattle-baron uncle, to buy stock for their immense holdings on the wild Texas frontier. He is handsome, rich - and miraculously - he asks Isobel to marry him. What kind of life can they build together, knowing so very little of each other, and coming from opposite worlds? Can Isobel develop confidence in herself, enough to meet the challenge of adapting to a new, strangely beautiful but occasionally violent world - a world where much, much more is expected of the wife of a cattle-baron?

Her husband has his own secrets - and his own family tragedies. In all of this, Isobel depends on the loyalty and friendship of her young ladies' maid, Jane - who is facing her own challenges, on the Texas frontier.

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Gone To Texas

 

Gone To Texas
Celia Hayes
rank 5560

Gone To Texas

Celia Hayes

A drama of a woman's life in Texas, before the cattle drives, before the Alamo, before the legends were born.


When she was twelve years old, the witch-woman looked at Margaret Becker's hands, and foretold her future in Texas; two husbands, a large house, many friends, joy, sorrow and love. The witch woman would not say what she saw for Margaret's younger brothers, Rudi and Carl - for Texas was a Mexican colony, and before the Becker children were grown, war would come upon them. During her life, she would observe - and participate in great events. She would meet and pass her own judgment on great men and lesser men as well; a friend, hostess ... and at the end, a survivor and witness.

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incomplete
 
Adelsverein - The Harvesting

 

Adelsverein - The Harvesting
Celia Hayes
rank 5247

Adelsverein - The Harvesting

Celia Hayes

A war ends … And another begins! The Confederacy lies in ruins. Those who survived that war struggle to rebuild homes and lives!


The Harvesting brings the saga of the Becker and Richter families in the Texas Hill Country to a triumphant conclusion in this final volume of the Adelsverein Trilogy. The war is over and the soldiers return home, to take up the old lifes … if they can. The end of the Civil War has left the South broken and defeated. Too many young men are dead, too many families destroyed, homes left wrecked and desolate. And yet there is hope in the ashes, for Hansi Richter and his daughter Anna, for the widowed Magda Becker, her son Dolph and his cousin Peter Vining—all who have the strength, the heart and the courage to begin building their lives again … and to dare to venture the first steps on a new path - A path of silver and gold, a bold new adventure into the wilderness, but the malice of an old enemy still haunts Dolph Becker, and the constant terror of raids by Comanche Indians may yet destroy Hansi Richter’s family, and the sanity of his wife.

Adelsverein: The Harvesting – It’s the story of a family, building a life, a future … and building America..

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Adelsverein - The Sowing

 

Adelsverein - The Sowing
Celia Hayes
rank 5849

Adelsverein - The Sowing

Celia Hayes

The storms of war came upon them; abolitionists and loyal to the Union!
Could they survive in the dark heart of the Confederacy?


Adelsverein: The Sowing is Volume 2 of the Adelsverein Trilogy, following the fortunes of 19th century German settlers who came to Texas seeking land and political freedom. “Vati” Steinmetz and his children have prospered since they arrived in America. His oldest daughter Magda has married Carl Becker, born him children and helped him build a happy life as a rancher in the beautiful valley of the Guadalupe River. Vati’s son-in-law Hansi Richter has become a successful farmer and his son Johann has returned from Germany after years of studying to become a doctor. Ideals, friendship and cruel circumstance collide as the Civil War comes to the Hill Country. Carl Becker and Hansi Richter face mortal danger from the “hanging band”, a pro-Confederate lynch mob seeking to permanently silence the voices of Union sympathizers. Vati’s beautiful adopted daughter Rosalie is in love with a man who intends to serve in the Confederate Army! Meanwhile Johann and his twin brother Friedrich are drawn to serve in the war— but on opposite sides!
Adelsverein: The Sowing— Continues the epic story of how one family of German immigrants became American, through the wrenching tragedy of the Civil War!

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Adelsverein - The Gathering

 

Adelsverein - The Gathering
Celia Hayes
rank 5849

Adelsverein - The Gathering

Celia Hayes

The Adelsverein settlers came to the far Texas frontier. They brought their hopes and their children … and a will to survive!


Adelsverein: The Gathering is Volume 1 of the Adelsverein Trilogy, a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier. They have come from Germany to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the “Mainzer Adelsverein” - the society of noblemen of Mainz, who seek to fill a settlement in Texas with German farmers and craftsmen. Among them is a family who will survive and endure, making their mark in Texas, their new land. Christian “Vati” Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, has brought his many sons and daughters: Magda - passionate and courageous, courted by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her sister Liesel wants nothing more than to be a good wife to her husband Hansi, a stolid and practical farmer called by circumstances to be something greater. Their brothers Friedrich and Johann, who have always been close—in the Civil War, one will wear Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun … but never forget that they are brothers. Adelsverein: the Gathering—It’s about love and loss, joy and grief… and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American.

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wordworker wrote 359 days ago

I’d like to introduce you to a young man who lived long ago in Greece....

cynthiababy wrote 359 days ago

My name is Cynthia Donatus,I am interested in your profile at www.a....

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Hello, My apologies for the unsolicited nature of this message, bu....

seeingyoualone wrote 491 days ago

Would you care to show your appreciation for the backing from this ac....

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Hi...how are you doing?

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my comments

latest

I wrote 1038 days ago

Hi, Katherine - glad you enjoyed it - and yes, actually Jane and Isobel are both trapped within their lives in England - Texas offers an escape, of sorts, although Isobel is the one who grabs at the chance initially. Jane just comes along for the ride, at first - and then she finds a life of her o... view book

I wrote 1041 days ago

Thanks, Andrew - actually, this is just the set-up, establishing Isobel and Jane's milieu in Victorian high-society; when they get to Texas it will go all Riders of the Purple Sage: cowboys and cattle, vigilantes and range wars. No, I don't think you missed a class ... but I am trying to teach ... view book

I wrote 1044 days ago

What a fascinating premise, and very exciting set-up, but I agree with some of the other comments - show, not just tell. What did the place/space/room look like, smell like, how did characters react? Shelved Celia Hayes Adelsverein Trilogy/Gone to Texas view book

I wrote 1044 days ago

I grew up on the fringes of the desert - and oh, yes - I love how you have written about it, and how isolated but connected that someone living out there can feel. Backed Celia Hayes Adelsverein Trilogy view book

I wrote 1045 days ago

Hi, Missy - and thank you! If this book doesn't make it to the top of the Authonomy pile, eventually it will be available, sometime next spring. There is a teensy local press interested, because of the Alamo angle. Margaret started as a walk-on character in the Adelsverein Trilogy - but she was such... view book

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