Blue Skies [Seasons of Change book 3]

1896

Rebecca Jenkin is a nurse working at The General Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, where she comes into contact with Daniel Evans, an arrogant young doctor. Daniel is someone she prefers to avoid, though with time, his ice-cold exterior begins to thaw as he shows interest in Rebecca, thus begins a courtship between the pair.

At home, things aren’t easy for Rebecca. Her father is the chief inspector at the Merthyr Branch of the Glamorgan Constabulary. Her Mother, Kathleen, a former songbird of the big stage, is now middle-aged and forced to take a back seat in life to care for her family. It’s become evident her parents' marriage is on rocky ground, as her father’s temper and frequent disappearances, affect a previously happy home.

Rebecca is about to have the biggest shock of her life when she discovers something about her father, something so disturbing, it threatens to tear the family apart. Then not long afterwards, there’s yet another shock in store, which will cause double the trouble.

Rebecca faces the dilemma of leaving the town she loves to settle in a quiet farming community in West Wales, somewhere she’d never thought she’d see herself living in a million years. And the person responsible for this move is someone she thought she’d never fall in love with.

There’s just one problem, he’s a married man...

Will she be able to resist him? Or will her strong feelings for an unavailable man, cause her to ride the waves of temptation?

Available here! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Skies-Seasons-Change-Book-ebook/dp/B01BQLXMAQ

Wednesday's Excerpt:Blue Skies [Seasons of Change book # 3]

Wednesday's Excerpt: Blue Skies [Seasons of Change book # 3]

Read excerpt here:

http://askdavid.com/preview/13022

This is the third book in the Seasons of Change series of Novels and like the other two novels: Black Diamonds and White Roses, it's set primarily in Merthyr Tydfil but part of the book is also set in Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardigan, which is where my grandfather's Evans family originated from.

Rebecca Jenkin is a young nurse who works at the Merthyr General Hospital, where she meets the arrogant Doctor Daniel. They don't hit it off at first but gradually she grows to like him and he asks to take her for an evening out at The Temperance Hall.

Life at home becomes difficult when a secret is discovered about Rebecca's father that shakes the family to their very core.

After changing wards, Rebecca comes into contact with Doctor Mansell Owen, an older married man whose wife has a severe mental illness bordering on hysteria, following the birth of their last child. Mansell asks Rebecca if she will accompany his wife to Llanbadarn Fawr so she can stay with her aunt and uncle at their farm, so she will get complete rest and fresh air.

However, after being spurned by Daniel, Rebecca begins to fall for the kindly doctor at the same time someone in Cardigan falls for her. What will she do?

Do Psychopaths wait thirty years?

Do psychopaths wait thirty years to commit another or other murders?

In my book, 'Murder by Midnight', the trail had gone cold until a new spate of murders occur in the same valley town...

'The Cinderella Murders'

When an elderly man turns up at her police station, D.S. Ruth Carter, does not immediately recognise him. However, when she does, she is immediately transported back in time to 1980 when her best friend Jenny was murdered.

Now though there’s a killer on the loose who calls himself, ‘Prince Charming’, his modus operandi is to leave just one shoe on his victims. The murderer’s style is similar to the person who killed Jenny back in the eighties, but is this the same man?

Whilst the killer plays a ‘Cat and Mouse’ game with the detectives, Ruth’s personal life begins to unravel. What has her partner Pete been up to while she’s been at work? He’s been staying out over night and making excuses for his absences. Can she trust him? Particularly as he went missing the night of one of the murders.

Who is the killer is he a stranger or is he someone that she thought she knew so well?

Available from Amazon Kindle:
UK readers here: http://tinyurl.com/pbt3qsf
US readers here: http://tinyurl.com/nghpcpj

Black Diamonds [Historical Romance] now on Kindle!

My historical romance, 'Black Diamonds' has now been published on Amazon Kindle!

Available for UK readers here: http://tinyurl.com/q93wxpv 

US readers here: http://http://tinyurl.com/o29j96p 

A tale of passion and compassion and most of all, one woman's brave heart. 

Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 1865. When Lily Jenkin begins her first day working for the Morgans at their corner shop in the little village of Abercanaid, she has no idea of the calamity that lies ahead of that fateful day. It is a day of tragedy at the Gethin Coal Pit that brings her into contact with the new handsome, chapel minister, Evan Davies, for the first time. 

Although a dark cloud of death passes over the village, Lily and Evan draw close to one another as they help the villagers deal with the tragedy, forming a bond which could lead to love. However, there is a gossiping old crone in the village who will do her best to cause trouble for the pair by hook or by crook. 

Lily has the opportunity to escape the valley of the shadow of death to make a new home for herself in Great Salt Lake, America. Will she take the chance to go to ‘Zion’, following her Mormon relatives, and more importantly, will Evan, a Welsh Baptist minister, go with her?

Using the Skeletons from My Family History to Plot a Novel [Part Two]

William Harman

William Harman, one of my ancestors,  led an interesting life becoming one of the first pioneer Mormons in Merthyr Tydfil, my home town.

Dan Jones

He emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States in 1871 where he took a second wife, Jane Davies, who was also a native of Merthyr Tydfil.  He had emigrated to the crucible of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

[Mormon Church].  Preachers like Dan Jones who made many converts in Merthyr often encouraged people to move to Utah.  The Church was keen to utilise the mining skills of the Welsh Brethren in Salt Lake City.

Jane Davies and children

As this was William's second marriage, I wondered what had become of his first wife?  Who was she and where was she?

By searching at the Mormon Church web site, which is excellent, by the way.  I was able to locate an ancestral file of the Harman family.

https://familysearch.org/

It was recorded that William had indeed married twice:

1.  Ann Jones from Cardigan Wales.  The marriage took place in
Merthyr Tydfil on September, 9th 1843.

2.  Jane Davies.  The marriage took place in Salt Lake City Utah on
21st of October, 1876.

So William had married 2 women, 33  years apart. He was 23 years old when he married Ann Jones and 56 when he married Jane.

Was his second marriage as I had suspected a bigamist marriage?  It looks as if he remarried without divorcing his first wife. This was confirmed by Eira Smith a relative from the same Lewis Harman line as myself.

I found this web site which says he came to Utah without his first wife when she refused to join the LDS church.  There's a photograph of him here too:

http://fqo.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/william-harman.html

William's wife, Jane [Note, she is named here as 'Martha Jane']:

http://fqo.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/martha-jane-davies-1843-1909.html

On 31st July, 1879, eight years after emigrating, William and Jane had a daughter called Gwendolyn.  See here:

http://fqo.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/gwendolyn-harman.html

The couple went on to have two other children besides Gwendolyn, Richard and Mary Annie.

Richard Harman

William Harman died of pneumonia on December the 31st 1900 aged 80
in Salt Lake City, Utah.  He had come a long way from his native
South Wales, and took, what I think was a brave decision to leave the town of his birth and his family behind.  He put his faith before finance as he could have been very wealthy indeed if he had taken his rich uncle’s request to be his sole heir if he’d given up the Mormon faith but his faith was far more important to him.

Before I started to research my family tree, I had no  idea there
were any Mormon connections, despite there being a church in our
town.  Eira Smith, who is sadly now deceased, told me that a lot of our family are still living
in Salt Lake City and Staten Island, New York.

One thing I have discovered about the Harman family is that they were a hardy bunch.  Many of them lived well into their 80's.  My great grandmother, Mary Harman was 87 years old when she died in 1978.

Useful Links:

1.  How Green Was My Valley? -- The Welsh: Surnames and
Migrations

http://www.genealogymagazine.com/welsh.html

2.  IMPERIAL ZION: THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF ZION
Peoples of Utah
By Frederick S. Buchanan

http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_peoples_of_utah/imperialzion.html

3.  The Contribution of Wales to the United States of America

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/USA.html

** Note, the surname Harman is written as Harmon on certain links.  I believe the correct family spelling of the name was Harman.