White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of
Roanoke
By Paul Clayton
Product Description:
From Publishers
Weekly: This above-average historical hews closely to the record of Sir
Walter Raleigh's second doomed attempt to plant the British flag in Virginia,
but embroiders the who, what, when with enough fanciful embellishment to create
a riveting story. The focus is 17-year-old "wench" Maggie Hagger,
whose passage on Raleigh's ship was paid by colony Governor Sir John White so
she can serve his pregnant daughter. The ship's stormy passage to the New World
-- during which widower White falls for Maggie, who is meanwhile evading
unwanted advances from a scalawag -- establishes the many well-wrought
characters, some noble (particularly real-life Native Manteo), others evil. The
depiction of the colony's physical and moral disintegration between 1587 and
1590 -- as drunken, cannibalistic soldiers mutiny and brutalize the settlers
they were meant to protect, and as colonists confront disease, starvation and
madness -- evokes a harrowing sense of human fallibility. Readers with more
than a nodding familiarity with American colonial history will experience a …
déjà vu, but others less hip to what happened in late-16th century times will
find this saga, which starts slowly but soon reaches page-turner velocity, to
be both a dandy diversion and an entertaining education.
Q: What will e-readers like about your book? I think e-readers will like hook of the story
- abandonment, the struggle for survival, and the realistic way the characters
interact to bring it all to a fascinating conclusion. Like Publishers Weekly
said, the book is a page-turner.
E-readers’ thumbs will be busy.
Q: Why did you go Indie? Commercial publishers made me do it. I’d already published four books
commercially, with Putnam/Berkley and also St. Martin’s Press. But things move so slowly in publishing, and
houses are, I believe, too focused on what’s hot at the moment to see the
potential in much of what they receive. And
the advent of Kindle and other e-reading devices made it much more possible for
writers to go out on their own and get their work out in front of readers.
Q: Who are your favorite writers in your genre? Ken Follett is a big favorite, as is James
Michener, James Clavell and Edward Rutherfurd.
Links to web site or blog or Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/White-Seed-Untold-Roanoke-ebook/dp/B002SN9GF2/
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