New Release | Fireflies at Dusk by Mike Torreano #historicalfiction #histfic #newrelease #wrpbks
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    • Nov 27, 2023
    • 3 min read

New Release | Fireflies at Dusk by Mike Torreano #historicalfiction #histfic #newrelease #wrpbks



Title Fireflies at Dusk

 

Author  Mike Torreano

 

Genre  Historical Fiction

 

Publisher  The Wild Rose Press

 

Book Blurb

 

A young man grows up in a pacifist family in 1850s Ohio. When his new friend is dragged away from his Quaker meeting house by slavers, no one moves to stop them. Furious and disillusioned, Jonathan turns his back on everything he’s known as he leaves for college.

 

When the Civil War breaks out, he joins the Union Army, making his rupture with everyone who ever loved him complete. Now, the violence of war strips away his all-too-abundant pride and self-righteousness. Worse, he leads men who would just as soon see him dead.

 

Will he be able, or even try to regain his self-respect, his family, faith, and childhood sweetheart in the searing cauldron of war—or has he drifted too far away? 

 

Excerpt

 

Jonathan did indeed remember Barbra. He carried a picture of her in his head from when they were about twelve. She was walking toward him outside school, carrying some books. Her dark reddish hair trailed over a light blue top. No more pigtails. The scene was still as vivid today as if it had just happened. As she turned from the punch bowl toward him now, his heart raced.

 

Mrs. Carson called them over to the picnic table where she and Jonathan’s mother were settled in. “Barbra Elizabeth, why don’t you and Jonathan come sit with us?”

 

When dusk crept across the landscape, fireflies appeared as if from nowhere. They filled the air around their table. They were common this time of year but to Jonathan they seemed to be putting on a show just for them. His little brother, Peter, spun in the middle of the field, reaching for them. When one got caught in his curly hair, he looked like he had a blinking lantern perched on his head. His mother called Peter over to the table and made him stand extra still. She worked through his curls, laying them aside so the firefly could find its way out.

 

Peter stared at it in Belinda’s hands. “Momma, it’s not lighting up anymore!”

 

“It won’t, Peter, as long as I’m holding it. Fireflies only light when they’re free.” Belinda thrust her hand upward.

 

The firefly blinked away into the faint evening light. Jonathan couldn’t take his eyes from Barbra’s face as she followed the firefly, her head tilted slightly. A moment he would never forget.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come join the launch party for Fireflies at Dusk on November 30, at 13990 Gleneagle Drive, Colorado Springs, from 1-4 pm!

 


Author Biography

 

Mike Torreano is an award-winning author with a military background and a particular interest in American history and the Old West.

 

His debut western mystery, The Reckoning, set in South Park, Colorado in 1868, was released in 2016 by The Wild Rose Press. The sequel, The Renewal, also in South Park, 1872, was released in 2018, with a third western mystery, A Score To Settle, set in New Mexico Territory in 1870 released October 2020. White Sands Gold is his latest western mystery, also set in New Mexico Territory, 1890 and released by Wild Rose in September 2022. He has a coming-of-age historical novel releasing November 2023, Fireflies At Dusk, set during the Civil War era. His short story, The Trade, a tale of the Yukon Gold Rush, was his first published work in 2014.

 

Mike’s written for magazines and newspapers for many years. An experienced editor, he’s taught English and Journalism at both the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

 

He’s a member of the Historical Novel Society, Pikes Peak Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Western Writers of America and several other writing groups. Recently, he appeared on LA Talk Radio’s Rendezvous With A Writer, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ podcast.

 

His novels have received the Firebird Book Award for western fiction, American Writing Award finalist for mystery/suspense, a gold award for fiction from Literary Titan and a finalist award from the New Mexico Book Co-Op.

 

He brings his readers back in time with him as he recreates life in mid-to-late nineteenth century America. He and his wife, Anne, live in Colorado Springs.

 

Social Media Links

 

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