The Salty Rose by Beth M. Caruso

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Beth M. Caruso will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

I’ve always loved history, facts, and research, but there are also elements of magical realism in my books. Living in New England, history is all around me in the locations and homes of everyday life prompting curiosity toward the past. Even though I consider myself an intellectual, I am also quite aware and fascinated by the reality that there are some things in life we cannot understand through science or facts alone. This viewpoint allows for magic and spirituality to flow as a subtle undercurrent in my reality-based stories. It’s important to me to provide a space in my novels for not only an authentic historical background, but also for the less tangible and esoteric facets of life.

What research is required?

Writing historical novels requires a plethora of research into old archives and documents. The information provided by those sources is necessary to create an accurate historical timeline and cultural details of the era I am writing about. It was complicated to pull together details for The Salty Rose because I was describing the culture and customs of two distinct colonial empires—the English colonies of New England and the Dutch colony of New Netherland. I also pieced together the personal historical timelines of each character based on the real person they represented. All of these components need to fuse together seamlessly to maintain an accurate historical representation. With all this in mind, I then create fuller character profiles and use literary inventions to complete the story.

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

Marie du Trieux shows that it’s possible to be true to oneself while also having a generous heart. She teaches that peacekeepers should be acknowledged in a much bigger way than those who perpetuate war. Their actions save many from unnecessary suffering.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

Astrological charts for characters. Yes, I’m serious. I know the rough birthdates or baptisms for some of my main characters who were adapted from real people. So why not see if my intuition fits what I find in a chart? It usually is very in line with their character development and enriches what I’ve already come up with based on the actions of the historical figures turned into characters in my novels.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

Plotter. My novels are complex and follow a background of historical and detailed events. I can’t do this kind of writing without a concrete structure to follow. However, that doesn’t mean that characters can’t change course within that structure.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

The spirit of my father Joe Caruso. We were extremely close. He encouraged me and loved hearing my stories as I developed my first novel One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging. Sadly, he was very ill at the time it was published and died just a couple of weeks later. He never got to read it. However, I always feel him near me, continuing to cheer me on. He was a chemist and The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches and A Tapper In New Amsterdam is in large part about alchemy, the beginnings of modern chemistry. I know he would have been fascinated.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

The next novel in progress is very dear to my heart as it involves the legend of a kidnapping on the Sicilian side of my family. Again, it’s a way to be close to my dear dad since his passing and learn more about the culture he came from and what he was passionate about. As I research, I’m also learning Italian and meeting family members from afar who are helping me to understand the cultural significance of the customs in this story. And, my more metaphysical nature urged me to write a ghost story. The outline for it is complete, but the writing has not yet begun.

Do you have a question for our readers?
Would you like to learn more about early colonial history in the form of an enticing novel full of witch trials, mystical alchemists, and a fiercely independent rebel rouser and tavern keeper named Marie du Trieux? Have you ever heard of the Connecticut Witch Trials? Surprisingly, most Americans have not. What topics would you, dear readers, also love to have discussed in future novels?

Thank you so much for this time at It’s Raining Books. I hope you found this information to be interesting.

Marie du Trieux, a tavern keeper with a salty tongue and a heart of gold, struggles as she navigates love and loss, Native wars, and possible banishment by authorities in the unruly trading port of New Amsterdam, an outpost of the Dutch West India Company.

In New England, John Tinker, merchant and assistant to a renowned alchemist and eventual leader of Connecticut Colony, must come to terms with a family tragedy of dark proportions, all the while supporting his mentor’s secret quest to find the Northwest Passage, a desired trading route purported to mystically unite the East with the West.

As the lives of Marie and John become intertwined through friendship and trade, a search for justice of a Dutch woman accused of witchcraft in Hartford puts them on a collision course affecting not only their own destinies but also the fate of colonial America.

Read an Excerpt

“Marie. Enough of this! Go roll out another barrel to tap. We are already out. These ravenous sailors will drink us dry with their unending thirst. And, think about minding your manners with the wealthy man at the window table,” Mr. Couwenhoven scolded me as he glared in the man’s direction.

The tavern was humming with activity, encased in a cloud of smoke and overflowing with not only beer but also boisterous laughter that night.

I’d rebuffed a lecherous traveler again. My mistake was that he was a repeat customer and one who had a little wealth to spread around.

“What shall I do? Let the letch grab me? You ask too much of me,” I retorted. “Certainly, you understand I must protect myself against some of these animals,” I emphasized.

Mr. Van Couwenhoven was a hideous man, only thinking of his coin.

“Listen to me quite well, you little Walloon,” he retorted as his chubby face reddened with anger. “I’m giving you a chance to have a living, but you will end mine if you are not a little more lenient with my good customers! I don’t care if you unleash that sharp tongue of yours with the foolish rogue sailors who are too drunk to remember what you say, but you will not chase away my better clientele. You understand me? Be polite!” he yelled.

I looked at Van Couwenhoven’s son, Pieter, nodding as he raised his eyebrows at me, motioning to the back.

“Yes. For you, I can be ever so lenient,” I said under my breath, staring into Pieter’s bright blue eyes.

My heart raced a little at the chance to meet Pieter in the back. It was hard for me to take my eyes off his handsome cherub-like face, a face that hid the personality of a little rascal.

Mr. Van Couwenhoven ordered me to the storeroom one more time, not wanting to lose business.

“Marie, I said to go get another barrel of beer from the back. Do as I say!” Mr. Van Couwenhoven ordered me.

As mad as he was, he still liked me. It was worse when his wife was around too. The husband was greedy but only resented me if I got in the way of profits. His wife was another story. I knew she’d despise me once she got wind of my budding romance with her son.

About the Author:Award-winning author, Beth M. Caruso, is passionate to discover and convey important and interesting stories of women from earlier times. She recently won the literary prize in Genre Fiction (2020) from IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England) for her most recent novel The Salty Rose: Alchemists, Witches & A Tapper In New Amsterdam (2019). The Salty Rose is Beth’s second historical novel and explores alchemy in early colonial times, an insider’s view of the takeover of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and the Hartford Witch Panic with information she gathered from previous and ongoing research. Beth’s first historical novel is One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America’s First Witch Hanging (2015), a novel that tells the tale of Alice ‘Alse’ Young and the beginnings of the colonial witch trials. She based the story on original research she did by exploring early primary sources such as early Windsor land records, vital statistics, and other documents. She lives in Connecticut with her family. Beth kayaks and gardens to unwind.

Website: http://www.oneofwindsor.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofwindsor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethmcaruso/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Salty-Rose-Alchemists-Witches-Amsterdam/dp/1733373802
BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-salty-rose-beth-m-caruso/1133991342

a Rafflecopter giveaway