Village Drummer Fiction

Richard Alan Schwartz

Cover for The Emigrant depicts the female protagonist, Myra McCormick who leaves Ireland due to the Great Irish Potato Famine, emigrates to United States by ship.

Cover for The Pioneer depicts Myra and David Kaplan travels across the united states by boat, train, and wagontrain to Portland, where they try to establish a business.

Cover for The Surgeon depicts female protagonist, Dr. Abbey Kaplan, who is a surgeon who is stationed at the Virginia Field Hospital, 1862, during the civil war.

Cover for The Advocate depicts Dr. Abbey Kaplan's move to Boston, and then Chicago, after the end of the Civil War. She fights to work in a hospital, for social justice, and to end abuses in mental institutions and factories.

Cover for The Wanderers depicts female protagonist, Rachel Katzenbogen's life in Eastern Europe and her desire to leave her insular, strict Jewish upbringing. Emigrates to Texas, America where she struggles to fit into a very different way of life without losing her identity.

Cover for The Reporter depicts Dr. Abbey Kaplan's daughter, Shayna, as a female war correspondent assigned to the Russo-Japanese war in Manchuria, and in Russia pre-R

Cover for The Soldier depicts a couple saying goodbye as male is deployed to Viet Nam. Post war, Brian and others deal with PTSD. He and his wife work at helping traumatized soldiers.

The story continues with more books to come in American Journeys

FREE NOVELLA

Late 1800s Chicago: Eighteen-year-old Irina Brenner hates her mind-numbingly boring work as a hand sewing worker in a sweatshop. Her mathematical mind and skilled hands allow her to begin working on the first factory-installed sewing machine, increasing her pay six-fold. This vastly increases her contribution to her poverty-stricken family’s finances, but draws the jealous hatred of the hand-sewers and the fury of her family who accuse Irina of stealing a job from a family man. The depression of 1893 results in the factory shutting down without notice. The workers were left without jobs, banks close, and everyone’s savings were lost.

Will Irina’s keen mind and skilled hands help her survive? Or will the worst depression in US history destroy her and her family?

To find out READ Irina and the Sweatshop now.

This novella is a free gift for signing up to receive Richard Alan Schwartz’s Village Drummer Fiction Newsletter.