Run, Cissy, Run
By Betty J. Vaughn
Fortuitously situated, New Bern, North Carolina, in the eighteen forties is a thriving port blessed with good climate and natural beauty. Fortunes are to be made by those with the acumen to seize the advantages of location and the vision to foresee the opportunities a looming civil war will bring.
Run Cissy Run – Graham LaRoque has both the skill and foresight to build a shipping empire, but success in his personal life is more elusive. Frustrated by a lustful but contemptuous relationship with his wife Monique, his vivacious daughter is his greatest blessing.
Born to privilege in a loveless home, Cissy LaRoque struggles with the pain of her mother’s rejection. Not even her father’s devotion can scotch the longing for her mother’s love. When Monique abandons her husband and child to return to her dissolute Parisian lover, Graham and Cissy forge a new life without her carping presence.
Following the outbreak of war in 1861, Cissy is thrust into a world where balls and frivolity are replaced by the perils of enemy occupation. Longing for a chance to find purpose for her life, the outbreak of war provides Cissy the opportunity to venture beyond the strictures that bind women to hearth and home if she but dares to grasp it.
Writers Biline:
Writer Name : Betty J. Vaughn
Writer Bio : A native of Kinston, Betty J. Vaughn, grew up with an interest in the history of the area. She is a former teacher of art at Enloe Magnet High School in Raleigh, launched a career as an author on retirement following 32 years of teaching. She was the 2013 winner of the award for historical fiction from the North Carolina Society of Historians for her latest book Run, Cissy, Run. Previously her books Muddy Waters (Whitman Publishers) and Turbulent Waters (Total Recall Press) won the awards for 2011 and 2012 respectively. This latest book is dedicated to her uncle Dr. Lonnie H. Blizzard of Kinston. In honoring her books, in a unanimous decision, the judges commented: “It is gratifying to find an astute historian whose skills far exceed that realm; someone who can take facts and weave them together with fiction and end up with a story that actually 'could have happened.' [It is] a wonderful story full of emotion, unexpected twists and turns, close calls and tragic moments. Mrs. Vaughn can consider herself a seasoned novelist. Her work simply isn’t just a flurry of words, dry, and boring. She is a master of literary technique as she weaves together her tapestry of words." A prize winning visual artist as well, Mrs. Vaughn designed the magnet art program at Enloe where her students consistently won top honors. As a result of a three year Federal Grant to the Wake County School System, she led Enloe Enterprises in operating an art gallery at Crabtree Valley Mall, a summer arts camp, and an Emmy award winning television production company. As a result of the Enterprises Enloe was selected as one of the ten best art schools in the nation by Business Week Magazine.
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