Giveaway and Author Interview
Book Details:
Book Title: Two Rivers: De Trouble I Be See by Bob Rogers
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 333 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: BookLocker
Release date: June 19, 2023
Content Rating: R. My book is rated R because of foul language, rape, infanticide, and homicide.
What’s Being Said:
“[Two Rivers is] a fast-paced tale of enslaved people in a land on the brink of war…a novel about the iniquities of slavery in pre-Civil War South Carolina.” – Kirkus Reviews
“For me, the standout feature of the work is its ensemble cast and the passion and emotional intelligence that [Bob] Rogers displays in crafting so many different, realistic, and fully fleshed-out viewpoints…Two Rivers is intricately penned with much to experience, be intrigued by, and learn from.” – K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
Book Description:
Rich with history, the geriatric romance in Two Rivers entertains and educates. Without fear of causing “discomfort” to some, Two Rivers takes us deep into the lives of two peoples—Africans and Europeans—in 1854 near Charleston, South Carolina.
In Two Rivers, the parallel courtships of enslaved widow Ella wooing 84-year-old widower Posey and Tiffany Plantation manager James’ pursuit of Jacqueline, daughter of a bank president, reveals the side-by-side lifestyles of enslavers and the enslaved.
Attorney James’ dream was to join the elite planter-banker class by any means necessary. Rebuffed by Congressman William Aiken’s daughter, James turned to Jacqueline. Meanwhile, Angolan Ella was determined to marry Posey, whose ancestry was Igbo.
Though enemies from the day James arrived, both Posey and James respected Senator John C. Calhoun—but for vastly different reasons. For James, Calhoun represented the “rule-maker class” he wanted to join. Posey welcomed Calhoun’s prediction of war between white people.
By 1854, the Tiffany family had enslaved over 300 Africans for more than a century on the 1,100-acre slave labor camp that they called the Tiffany Plantation. The Tiffanys were the largest rice producer in South Carolina’s Colleton District. While the toil of enslaved Africans earned untold riches for the Tiffanys, the Africans endured violence inflicted to force increased rice production and profits followed by the indignity of the bodies of loved ones being stolen from their graves and delivered to a medical school.Rich with history and a cast of unforgettable characters, Two Rivers is a sweeping saga of two peoples—European immigrants and African abductees. Together, they experience courtships, infanticide, homicide, rape, rebellions, revenge, sabotage, storms, high-stakes gambling, grave-robbing, counterfeiting, slave mortgage-backed securities, and more.
“De troubles Posey be sees” in Two Rivers reminds one of Southern Gothic storytelling.
Get Bob’s Signature
Bob’s eBookshop
Amazon
Amazon CA ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon AU
B&N ~ BAM ~BookLocker
add to goodreads
Also Enjoy Bob Rogers’ Earlier Novel:
Book Title: First Dark: A Buffalo Soldier’s Story by Bob Rogers
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +), 516 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: BookLocker
Release date: September 19, 2015
What’s Being Said:
“An ambitious and lush tale set during the Civil War and Reconstruction.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The Gripping saga of Isaac Rice is a hero’s journey. [Don’t] be surprised if First Dark ends up as a popular movie. It’s also a darn good read.”– Baltimore Post-Examiner
“First Dark is a powerful story of the underbelly of American history that has been carefully researched and written. Characters are well-developed and believable, and the dialogue and description throughout the book are brilliant.” — Reader’s Favorite
First Dark is a coming-of-age story, an epic adventure, and a compelling examination of the primary feelings that drive human nature – hate, hope, desire, love, loss, grief, revenge, and forgiveness – as seen by Apache, black, Mexican, and white young adults during and shortly after America’s Uncivil War.
The San Francisco Review described Bob Rogers as a rising author who takes readers back to life and times in the early years of the Civil War, blending a brilliant mix of historic persons with his fictional characters. Celebrating the sesquicentennial year of the famed Buffalo Soldiers, Bob Rogers delivers his most ambitious work yet–a novel that spans their first generation–from Charleston and Vicksburg to Appomattox and desert Apache battlefields.
First came dark days that beset Isaac Rice’s epic journey–America’s wars to settle the “Negro and Indian problems.”
First Dark: A Buffalo Soldier’s Story–Sesquicentennial Edition (with a foreword by General (Ret) Lloyd “Fig” Newton) is an historically correct action novel that follows Isaac Rice, the Tenth Cavalry, and the women who love him. His nineteenth century saga begins in Charleston and contributes to the story of how twenty-first century America came to be. Telling Isaac’s story, Rogers surrounds a host of diverse fictional characters with an impressive nonfiction cast, including historic political, military, religious figures, and entrepreneurs of that era.
Subsequent volumes follow Isaac’s descendants, ordinary nineteenth and twentieth century working people, into and out of calamities–recessions, panics, droughts, world wars, a depression, natural disasters, and the division of people by race, class, and caste. The view through their eyes serves to enhance twenty-first century readers’ understanding of “how things got this way” in America.
Isaac Rice, a teenager on a South Carolina rice plantation, traveling alone, follows a treacherous waterborne route filled with incredible hardships and danger to escape from slavery. Too young to be a soldier, the Union Army hires him to shovel coal on a gunboat. Thus begins Isaac’s westward journey, in which he encounters storms, stampeding buffalo, and the hate of zealous patriots whose causes are antithetical to the nation he is sworn to defend. Undaunted, he pursues respect and dignity on an odyssey from the middle of the Civil War in South Carolina’s Low Country and the Mississippi Heartland, to the Indian Wars on the Great Plains and deserts of Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico.
Isaac’s is an epic tale of young North Americans coming of age amid the violence of the U.S. Civil War, Indian Wars, Reconstruction, and spillover bloodshed from a Mexican Revolution. Telling Isaac’s story required extensive research of 19th and 20th century books, official documents, and letters, plus multiple visits to relevant geographic locations over a period of twenty years.
A memorable set of characters revolve around Isaac–a Confederate guerilla, a black female activist in a Mississippi Constitutional Convention, a Mescalero Apache warrior, a white Union cavalry sergeant, and a Mexican nurse–who raise their voices and bare their souls as the world they seek constantly changes, bringing tragedy to their lives and danger for Isaac.
Debbie: Have you made any of your books into audiobooks? If so, what are the challenges in producing an audio book?
Bob: Yes. I have made The Laced Chameleon and My Blue Yonder into audiobooks. My current audiobook project is Hitting Life’s Curveballs. Because of my background with computers and the expert advice an audio industry professional gave me, the challenges were minimal. My toughest challenge was finding an English-speaking actress who could do a French accent. That required many auditions of ladies from three countries. After a time, I found the actress I sought in Portland, Oregon. I do all the sound engineering. I do not narrate books with a female protagonist. However, I narrate books with male protagonists.
Debbie: What is the significance of the title?
Bob: My protagonist is an old man living on a large rice farm on the banks of a river. In one scene, he re-told a story he had heard as a young boy. He recounted for his audience of young men the tale of a rebellion of enslaved fellows that began near another river. The rebellion ended by his river, hence the title Two Rivers.
Debbie: So, you set your story on a rice farm near Charleston, South Carolina. Why did you choose that as the setting for your book?
Bob: The rebellion I mentioned was the largest rebellion until that time. It happened in 1739. Today, the rebellion is relatively well known in Charleston. But it is mostly unheard of beyond the Low Country of South Carolina. Because it started near the Stono River, it was called the Stono Rebellion. That determined the location where my characters would live, and the story told.
Debbie: What were the key challenges you faced when writing this book?
Bob: I encountered challenges made by differing accounts of the Stono Rebellion. They apparently suppressed major details of the rebellion to avoid causing panic among the local whites in 1739 and 1740. Lack of contemporaneous documentation from various factions was another challenge.
Debbie: What’s your favorite spot to visit in your country? And what makes it so special to you?
Bob: The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC is where I go to reflect and look to the future. Now that I live on the Yucatan Pennisula, Progreso Beach and the sea is where I sit for contemplation and rejuvenation.
Debbie: Share something your readers wouldn’t know about you.
Bob: During the weeks of Army Airborne School, five jumps were required prior to certification and award of the coveted wings of a paratrooper. On my first jump, I paid strict attention to all they taught me. It was great! I thought, “This is easy.” It was easy until my 2nd jump, when my mind strayed to all I could see on the horizon that sunny day hanging beneath a parachute at 1,500 feet above the ground. My sightseeing led to my crash landing! Everything hurt—except my hair! Lesson learned! You can bet jumps 3, 4, and 5 were perfect!
Oh, my! What a lesson to be learned. At least you could make jumps 3,4, and 5!
Thank you so very much for your service. I don’t think it’s possible to thank our people, who have sacrificed for our country, enough. And thank you for taking the time to share your books with us, as well as answering these questions. It’s always wonderful to get to know authors a little better. ~ Debbie
connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads ~ bookbub – youtube
Two Rivers: De Trouble I Be See by Bob Rogers Book Tour Giveaway
Dear Debbie,
Thank you for the time you invested in spotlighting my book and interviewing me. I want you to know that I am very grateful.
Bob
My pleasure, Bob. Thanks for your kind remarks.