Here's a little historical horror story, right in time for Hallowe'en. This is based on the macabre belief in the power of a Hand of Glory and, while the story is fictitious, the events leading there were all true. My Mother’s Eyes to See, My Father’s Hand to Guide 1596 106 Egiptians (gypsies) were condemned to death in York. Only 9 were executed, the others able to prove their English birth. The magistrate forced the children of the condemned to watch. Cornella’s eyes welled with tears as she struggled against the hand on her shoulder. Far from being alone, scores of people stood before her, but every one of them was a stranger. She was standing on a high wall, the last in a line of youngsters. These children she did know. They were her fellow gypsy children. A second hand rested on her other shoulder, pinning her firmly in place. The people below her were gathered as though at a fair. They talked excitedly, eagerly awaiting the spectacle. Cornella felt the grip o
Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am to once again be teaming up with The Coffee Pot Book Club , this time to share an excerpt from Dirk Strasser 's fantastic new book Conquist ! First of all, let's meet the book... Capitán Cristóbal de Varga’s drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of conquistadors into a New World that refuses to be conquered. He is a man torn by life-long obsessions and knows this is his last campaign. What he doesn’t know is that his Incan allies led by the princess Sarpay have their own furtive plans to make sure he never finds the golden city of Vilcabamba. He also doesn’t know that Héctor Valiente, the freed African slave he appointed as his lieutenant, has found a portal that will lead them all into a world that will challenge his deepest beliefs. And what he can’t possibly know is that this world will trap him in a war between two eternal enemies, leading him to question everything he has devoted his life to - his command, his In