Jocelyn’s first fiction book, Wedded to War, released this month. Read it to follow Charlotte Waverly as she leaves a comfortable life to become a Civil War nurse. Thanks to Jocelyn for her guest post today with 5 fun facts you probably didn’t know about her!

1. I’m secretly adventurous. When I was in college, a few of my friends and I dubbed ourselves the Adventure Club in jest, because our idea of a fun Friday night was going to a coffee shop or to Barnes & Noble to play Scrabble. Ironically, after we graduated, we really did each have our own amazing adventures. The “Ultimate Adventure” was when one friend came to live with me in Homer, Alaska, for a summer while my husband was at sea with the Coast Guard. We ended up deciding to move while she was with us, and while Rob was at a conference in Florida, she helped me drive our pick-up trip five thousand miles from Homer, Alaska, to Iowa, with a pug puppy and no cell phone. We camped in the back of the pick-up truck for 17 days and stopped at seven national parks or monuments along the way. If you’ve ever driven on the Al-Can (Alaska-Canadian highway) you know this was quite the adventure. Highlights of the trip included seeing killer whales while on a ferry to Victoria Island, NOT seeing the bears in a campground in the Yukon, spending the night on a ferry loading dock, and going to a rodeo near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Continue reading / Leave a comment…

Last Tuesday, Jocelyn gave us a post on the Civil War and the fourth of July. A few days before that, her book, Wedded to War, released as our July River North Fiction title. Today, to celebrate her new release, we are giving away 5 copies of her book here on our blog! (That’s 5 terrific things, right?) 

But first, here are five other terrific things you might not know about the Civil War:

1. Companies within regiments were given letters to identify them, beginning with “A”. When assigning letters, they skipped over “J” because it looked too much like an “S” or an “I”. (Source: Bits of Blue and Gray)

2. The Union used hot air balloons to spot enemy soldiers. These balloons were in use for almost two years throughout the Civil War. (Source: CNN.com)

3. General Grant was once asked what his favorite war tune was. He is supposed to have responded,  ”I only know two songs. One is Yankee Doodle Dandy. The other isn’t.” (Source: CivilWarStudies.org) (To see more Civil War songs and poems, read Jocelyn’s post from June!)

4. The Civil War armies were not all male. Unlike the heroine of Jocelyn’s novel, Charlotte Waverly, who becomes a nurse for the Union, some women got involved in the army by pretending to be men and enlisting. Many of these women kept up their alternate identities long after the war was over, because of the independence it provided. (Source: CNN.com)

5. Continue reading / Leave a comment…