Saturday, March 9, 2013

The 142nd Anniversary of the Paris Commune

I’m observing the 142nd anniversary of the Paris Commune by offering my novel, BEN CONNOLLY in the PARIS COMMUNE, as a free download from Kindle from March 18, 2013 to March 22, 2013. My protagonist, Ben Connolly, arrives in Paris in the early hours of March 18, 1871, the day the French Central Government sent troops to seize the cannon collected on the heights of Montmarte by Paris National Guard. That maneuver sparked a bloody rebellion during which the Paris working class seized control of the city for almost two months. BEN CONNOLLY in the PARIS COMMUNE is drawn from the real-life exploits of New York Herald foreign correspondent Januarius A. MacGahan. MacGahan emerged during the Commune as a super reporter who combined talent with luck in his first major assignment for the Herald. I chose to write a fictionalized version of MacGahan since another author had beaten me to the writing of his biography. The novel includes many of the personalities who were involved in the Commune including General Jaroslaw Dombrowski, Louise Michel, Raoul Rigault, Archbishop Georges Darboy, General Gaston Marquis de Gallifet, and Paul Verlaine.

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST is available as an e-book on Smashwords, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble; as a paperback on Amazon.