You’ll Truly Be Awed by “Angels at Sunset” by Tom Mach

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Tom

I’ve observed people in bookstores trying to decide on a book to purchase. First, they look at the table of books that are on special. Then they go to the racks to find the genre pertaining to their interest.  Following that, they search the book covers to find an author with whom they’re familiar. But they also glance at the covers of unknown authors. If the front cover strikes them, they turn to the back to get an idea of what the book is about. At that point they make a decision.

So let’s assume you’re in a bookstore and maybe you see my title: Angels at Sunset. The front cover is striking–showing a woman carrying a “Votes for Women” sign and staring at a Kansas sunset. You turn to the back cover and you see some great reviews.

Of course, if you’re an eBook reader and have a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or other reading device, you would have to actually type in the words “Angels at Sunset by Tom Mach” to find my book. But nonetheless, here’s why you really ought to read it–

1. Tom Mach’s Angels at Sunset is an entertaining way to read true history, not only about the suffragist movement from the 1870s through 1920, but an eyewitness account of the tragic Chicago Fire and the assassination of President McKinley.

2. Tom Mach’s Angels at Sunset is not only a historical novel; it’s also a mystery because–with the story beginning in 1920–Jessica receives an anonymous threatening letter and wonders who wants to murder her and her family–and why.

3. Tom Mach’s Angels at Sunset is also a novel of compassion and forgiveness–and yes, there is supposedly an “angel” involved in the plot.

4. Tom Mach’s Angels at Sunset received high praise from reviewers. For instance, a senior reviewer for the Midwest Book Review said my book is “an exceptional read, great story and history, all wrapped up in one.”

5. Tom Mach took it upon himself to get Kansas to recognize 2012 as the 100th anniversary of the passage of Kansas suffrage. As a result, the Kansas legislature passed, on April 25, 2012, a resolution commemorating the “Kansas Angels at Sunset Centennial”. (Wow! How often does a book’s title get mentioned in an official government proclamation?) 

Incidentally, if you’d like to see the actual wording of the Kansas Angels at Sunset Centennial, as approved by the Kansas legislature, please send me an email by clicking on the “Contact Me” button and I will forward that to you right away.

Angels at Sunset is available both as a paperback and as an eBook.  To order it from Amazon as a paperback, click HERE    To order it from Amazon as an eBook, click HERE  Or if you wish to receive a copy autographed by the author himself, send a check or money order for $17 to the following address: Hill Song Press,  PO Box 486,  Lawrence, KS  66044

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Angels at Sunset is like the movie “Titanic”–bringing to life the gripping story of despised but determined heroines

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Tom

ANGELS AT SUNSET is now also an Ebook for $2.99.  

COMMEN TS?  Please write to author Tom Mach to tell him anything that’s on your mind. It doesn’t just have to be about his books. Maybe you have other questions. Simply click on this word–Comments–and the site will redirect you.  Thanks.

 In Angels at Sunset, Mach vividly describes the humiliation and trials women had to endure to have the right to a voice concerning their future. Weaving the history of women’s suffrage into an emotional, factually-accurate story, author Tom Mach makes us aware of the great privilege of voting.  Coline Jenkins, a direct descendant of that famous suffragist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton—who wrote the foreword to Angels at Sunset—says we should never forget that future generations will stand on our shoulders. Mach contends that if today’s woman was fully attuned to the sufferings these heroines endured just to get the vote, she would more likely rush to the ballot box instead of conjuring up an excuse for not voting. 

Look at these two photos. The top one is a photo of  Tom Mach standing before the Kansas House of Representatives. The one to the right shows author Tom Mach meeting with Kansas Governor Brownback, who enthusiastically had this photo taken of the author and his latest work, Angels at Sunset.  These two photos were taken as a result of Tom Mach’s original suggestion of a resolution to the Kansas legislature to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of women’s suffrange in Kansas.

A senior reviewer for Midwest Book Review said that “Angels at Sunset is somewhat like the Titanic—the movie was to the real Titanic what this novel is to the real struggles faced by women in that day.”  While there is a thread of fictional suspense woven through the book, the basic story of women’s suffrage from 1865 through 1920 is told in an emotional and compassionate way, and yet in reliably accurate detail.

An easy way to purchase a copy of Angels at Sunset ($16.95) is to simply call 1-800-BOOKLOG.  To get an author-signed copy, however, you can submit payment (including $2.05 for postage) to:  HILL SONG PRESS, PO Box 486, Lawrence,  KS  66044

 

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ANGELS at SUNSET –”accurate history disguised as a novel”

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Tom

 

 

 

What do the following events have in common?

  • the Great Chicago Fire of 1871
  • the women’s suffrage movement assassination during 1865-1920
  • the assassination of President McKinley in 1901

Answer: These events are covered in an extremely well-researched historical novel, Angels at Sunset about a woman who relives these episodes as she reads a biography about herself in 1920. Little does she know she is being followed by a revengeful man who is intent on killing her and her family. Who is he, why is he following her, and why does he want her dead?  (The answers lie in this book, which you will find hard to put down.)

ONLY  $16.95    CALL 1-800-BOOK-LOG to order

The novel begins in 1920 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Jessica Radford listens to the very first radio broadcast on KDKA, which broadcasts the presidential election returns.  Because of the passage of the 19th Amendment, this is the first time she has ever voted. Many years earlier, she advocated against slavery and pushed for equal rights of the freed slaves.  Later, she joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and other suffragists–not only for the right to vote but for other rights women ought to have, such as the right to speak in public, the right to have a profession, the right to have  property and the right to her own children if she got divorced, as well as many, many other rights denied to them simply because they were women. It was a hard-fought struggle and Jessica relives it as she reads her a biography that her daughter had written about her.  AND–all the while, unknown to her, a man is planning to kill her. How will it end?

If you’d like to receive a sample chapter of this book absolutely free, simply send your request to: Free Sample Chapter, Hill Song Press, PO Box 486, Lawrence, KS  66044  This sample describes the first woman to run for President of the U.S.–in 1872.

OR–Click on www.TomMach.tumblr.com

OR–If you want to read the story of myself and about my book, click on http://www.seniormonthly.net/Senior-March2012.pdf

Best-selling mystery author Nancy Pickard said that “Tom Mach brings the accuracy of a historian and the insight of a novelist to his dramatic and entertating story.” The Midwest Book Review says that “Angels at Sunset is an excellent pick for community historical fiction collections.”

To get an author-signed copy of ANGELS AT SUNSET send $16.95 plus $3.05 postage to: Hill Song Press, POB 486, Lawrence, KS  66044.  For a non-signed copy you can either buy through Amazon.com or order it by calling 1-800-BOOK-LOG.

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Why You Really Ought To Know About Jessica Radford

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Tom

Down deep inside everyone’s soul is a need for love, but that need can be fulfilled if we give that love away freely to someone else. That’s why I want to tell you about Jessica Radford.

Jessica is a 19-year-old woman who comes home to Kansas after spending a year at Carlotta College. She’s attractive but her head is filled with dreams that appear unrealistic in view of the fact that her parents are poor and that her uncle (who provided money for her education) was killed at Shiloh. Oh, did I tell you that this takes place in Lawrence, Kansas in 1862?  Well, how would you feel if I told you that she has an adopted 16-year-old black sister named Nellie who insists that she sees her guardian angel named Sissy? And how would you feel if I told you that both of her parents are burned alive that evening by border ruffians? I think you might say that Nellie is disillusioned (no one else sees Nellie’s guardian angel) and if your parents were killed like that you’d want revenge. Right? That’s exactly where Jessica found herself.

But the question is–How do we go from that horrible situation to a place of forgiveness for the murderer who got away?  Well, in my history-inspired novel Sissy! and in the following two books on Jessica called All Parts Together and Angels at Sunset, she struggles with the issue of forgiveness. I can relate to that because a member of my own family refused to forgive her brother for something he did many years ago. Forgiveness is tough but forgiveness is a decision and not a feeling.

It might help you to know a little more about Jessica Radford. I tell my readers that she’s a 21st century woman living in the 19th century. Jessica believes there should be no distinction between men and women as far as all rights were concerned. To see for yourself why Jessica was so different than other women of her time, read the opening to Sissy!

        “Thank you, but I’m not helpless,” nineteen-year-old Jessica Radford said when the stagecoach driver offered her his hand after she opened her door.

         The man narrowed his eyes in surprise as he dropped his hand. “Sorry, ma’am, I was only askin.’”

         Jessica hope she didn’t sound rude, but men shouldn’t assume all ladies were helpless. After all, she used to plow Pa’s field and chop wood at home, didn’t she?

Jessica asserts her independence again—as well as her abolitionist feelings toward slavery  in All Parts Together when, the day after her town of Lawrence was destroyed by invaders, she walks through the rubble with Tinker a former black slave….

     “You were right to feel outrage, Tinker,” she says. “Why yesterday some of these rebels heard an infant cry, and they ran into a cornfield, shooting a man dead—with the man’s infant still in his arms. These pigs don’t deserve compassion.”

     “Except, Miz Jessica, the Good Book say dat we should—”

     “I don’t care what the Good Book says.” She stopped, spun around, and glared at him. “Tinker, this is foolish. Walk next to me. I don’t have any dreaded disease that you have to walk behind me the whole time.”

     “I jest don’t feel comfortable walkin’ next to a nice, respectable white lady. But I’ll come up if yah say so, Miz Jessica.”

      “I do say so, Tinker.”

Later, in Angels at Sunset, Jessica again asserts her free spirit and her “I don’t care what you think” attitude when she meets a suffragist named Alice Paul and Ms. Paul’s planning committee, which includes Lucy Burns and Crystal Eastman. Lucy speaks first….

 “Mr. Wilson will be a challenge. When he was president of Princeton University, he discouraged negroes from applying for admission. He will likely do the same with women in denying us a hearing concerning our right to vote.”

“Exactly,” says Crystal. “That’s why we plan to humiliate him.”

Jessica opens were mouth in surprise. “How?”

Alice leans forward in her chair and dissects Jessica with piercing eyes. “Any suggestions?”

Jessica is taken aback by Paul’s unexpected rudeness, but she meets her eyes with an angry stare of her own. “Alice, we need to find a way to slap some sense into his stubborn head.”

Alice Paul finally betrays a hint of a smile. “Ah, Jessica, I see you are a woman of courage as well.”

“I am also a woman of rage,” Jessica adds.

Yes, at times, Jessica is a woman of rage, but she is a woman who tries hard to ignore the little girl within her who is  weeping in pain for the need to be understood. (Isn’t that what compassion is all about anyway—the need to understand others?)  In Sissy, her heart is broken when her parents are killed. In All Parts Together, her heart is broken when her much-admired President Lincoln is assassinated, and in Angels at Sunset, her heart is broken when she finds she was wrong to condemn a wonderful man who married her daughter.

Incidentally, Angels at Sunset is being released in February 2012 as a printed book, but if you want to get a significant discount on this book by pre-ordering it now please press the “Contact Me” button on this page and I will provide you with more information.

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Examples of compassion (or lack thereof) in books from other authors

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Tom

    

I have asked other authors to share with me examples of compassion or lack of compassion from ther books.  Here are four that I have received….

Barbara Boatright wrote a memoir entitled Impaled on the Horns of the Devil. She describes a scene where she undergoes an abusive marriage to a man named Floyd. He has just told her he felt sorry for a prostitute who struggled to raise her little girl by herself. So he kept her company at her house for two weeks. Floyd tells Barbara: “Don’t you have any compassion for people who are down and out?” And Barbara answers: “Don’t talk to me about ‘compassion’! What about your wife [meaning herself]? Did you already forget that you’re married?” With arrogance he said he saw nothing wrong with sleeping with another woman and didn’t know why I was so hurt. He said that what he really wanted was an open marriage anyway. This is a good example of the extreme indifference some people have about the feelings of others. Barbara’s blog is http://barbaraboatright.authorsxpress.com 

The stories in Sandy Humphrey’s book Hot Issues, Cool Choices: Facing Bullies, Peer Pressure, Popularity, and Put-Downs are all based on actual bullying experiences students shared with me during my school visits, and my book is dedicated to a 12-year-old Minnesota boy who took his own life as a result of being bullied. This is an excerpt from my Author’s Note:

 “The Golden Rule is an old rule, but it’s still a good rule to live by. My hope in writing this book is that it will help you to become a kinder, more compassionate human being and that you will treat others the way you want them to treat you. 

 Did you know that there are kids out there who don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning because they know what going to school means for them? It can mean being teased and taunted by other kids. It can mean being excluded and rejected by other kids. It can mean being afraid that you’re going to be physically assaulted and possibly hurt.And, unfortunately, sometimes it can even mean that you just can’t hang in there any longer, so you give up and take your own life.” Sandy’s website is: http://www.kidscandoit.com

Catherine Green, the author of Love Hurts, wonders whether her characters feel compassion for each other. Her  heroine, Jessica Stone, believes herself to be an independent and compassionate woman. She does not show prejudice, she lives a good honest, hard working life, and she is friendly to everyone that she interacts with. But when she discovers that the man she loves is a vampire, and his brother is a werewolf, her morals go out of the window. In her confusion she experiences adultery, pain, heartbreak and terror.

Following her tumultuous experience after the revelations of the people she loves, Jessica is thrown into turmoil about her own feelings. Her friends and lover have betrayed her in the worst possible way. Will Jessica show compassion and remain faithful to her vampire Jack Mason? Or will she share herself with his werewolf brother Danny? [Tom Mach's observation: Oftentimes compassion is a decision, not a feeling.] Catherine’s website is: http://www.catherine-green.co.uk

In his short story collection, 200 Shorts, Salvatore Buttacia describes some characters who make the leap from self absorption to concern for others in the space of under 1,000 words. In his story “Georgie”, neighborhood boys poke fun at Georgie who has a cleft palate. They ostracize him from street games of stickball and laugh when he speaks. Then one late-autumn afternoon Georgie went skating on thin ice and drowned. Everyone turned out for the 14-year-old’s wake, even the 14-year-old Anthony Lanzetti who narrates the story and learns a lesson in compassion that he will take with him for a lifetime.

        We stood up, made the sign of the cross, turned to
        Mrs. Hogan, and my father said, “I’m Frank Lanzetti, 
        Anthony’s father. My boy was good friends with your
        son. We’re gonna miss him.”

In “The Emperor’s Iron Rule,” we meet Sister Versalis, whom her fourth-graders call, behind her back, “Emperor.” Like the Ancient Roman despots, she doles out punishment by iron ruler at every opportunity.  When Elizabeth Brillo raises her hand and tells Sister somebody stole her green pencil sharpener, the nun asks the thief to confess by raising his hand. No one does, which results in Sr. Versalis’ walking up and down the rows smashing her iron ruler down on the knuckles of every outstretched hand. Finally, Elizabeth is ecstatic. She’s found her eraser. It had fallen out of her pencil case.

        Sister smiled. Why? Did that suddenly make everything
        all right? The class had been knuckle-wrapped for no
        reason and the Emperor was smiling, all the while tapping
        her iron ruler down on the bent arm of her black habit. 
        Was she going to ask Brillo to extend her non-writing hand
        now so the rest of us could feel some consolation? 
        “Take out your writing paper, boys and girls. And your
        pencils too.”

Salvatore Buttacia’s blog is http://salbuttaci.blogspot.com

By the way, please let me know if you’d like me to email you a free copy of AN INNOCENT MURDERED if you are willing to give me a review on it when you’re finished. Just click on the “Contact Me” button near the top of my site to let me know.

 

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