Anna Lee Waldo
Anna Lee Waldo wrote the
best-selling historical novel, SACAJAWEA.
Her interest in the subject began as a child when she collected spear
points on the shores of Whitefish Lake in Montana and listened to stories of Blackfeet
and Crow grandmothers.
It
took her ten years to write about the first woman to go with a military
contingent, with a baby in a cradleboard, half way across the North American
continent. Anna Lee is now writing a
sequence of books that began in Wales in the twelfth century. These books are
based on the elusive history of the son of Prince Owain
Gwynedd, named Madoc, who
came to America in 1170. The new book, which is coming out in July 2011, is
about Madoc taking women from Wales to his colony in Llan Newydd, in unproved
land. Below is a short synopsis of this
new book.
Watch
the Face of the Sky
Publisher: Zova Books, Inc., July 2011
Chief Shipmaster Madoc and two hundred men take ten single-sail Viking built
ships to an unproved land in 1170 A.D.
They build a farming community, named Llan Newydd, atop a high bluff overlooking the sea and a nearby
river. They miss their women and
children. Madoc
and another shipmaster take two ships back home, to Wales, to recruit women for
their colony. Madoc
and an orphaned girl, Ciara, are attracted to one another. After several weeks, Madoc
had twenty women and children, two men, farm animals, gear and barrels of food
and water closely packed on each of seven ships. Six of the ships sail away from Lundy Island,
across the Western Sea. Imagine how the women, confined in a small ship for
nearly eight weeks, deal with no privacy, storms, jealousy, rage, superstition,
dehydration starvation and death in order to reach their dreams of safety and
freedom from the beheading and torturous treatment of England’s King Henry II.
For
food, water and rest they beach on Butterfly Island (Guadeloupe). The island’s chief, Yax,
tries to make Madoc a sacrificial gift to the god
inside an active volcano. Afterwards
they sail through a storm and land on a boot-like peninsula (Yucatan), which
they know is not the landmark, called Dog’s Tail (Florida), which they look
for. Yax, a
stowaway, is now in the land of his youth.
He and Madoc become a team to play ball in the
City-at-the-Mouth-of-the-Well (Chichen Itza) against
the present leader and a salt-maker.
Meanwhile, many of the ship people suffer from coughing sickness
(whooping cough). Ciara and
twelve-year-old Bran leave camp to search for Madoc. Bran helps Madoc and
Yax win the ballgame, Ciara is thrown into the Sacred
Well and Madoc visits a Maya Skywatcher
and learns astronomy plus a prophecy of End Time. Bran used a crystal skull to tell the City’s
people the name of their new leader.
Does Madoc get the women, children and men
safely to Llan Newydd? Will he and Ciara ever be a couple?
SACAJAWEA: Historical novel, Avon Books,
subsidiary of Harper Collins,
paperback and e-book format, 1408 pgs, found in most bookstores, also on Amazon.com and Barnes
and Noble.com.
PRAIRIE : Historical novel, Berkley, Jove Books, paperback, 1120 pgs. Out-of-print, but available as a
back-in-print book from iUniverse.Com
and used books from some bookstores, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com
Copyright @ 2001 by
Anna Lee Waldo. All rights reserved, Printed in the United States of
America. No part of this book site may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information
e-mail author@annaleewaldo.com
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