Mary Hardcastle
The Bookplate is happily continuing their popular Authors & Oysters event series at The Retriever Bar in 2023. Author Edward Ball was featured in the most recent Authors & Oysters event on April 19th. Next up on Wednesday, April 26th at 6pm, all are invited to The Retriever to welcome local author Mary Hardcastle as she discusses her new novel, “Deja Vu”.
“Cory is living out her 20’s in Chicago, haunted by the past. Her anxious mind leads her into a dangerous encounter that sends her back through time to a period she is clueless about – post Revolution and pre-Civil War America. Her determination to return to the 21st Century lands her on a flatboat traveling down the Mississippi River with a rugged young man she barely knows. She hopes to find ancestors in New Orleans and doesn’t realize she is heading for disaster. Despite breathtaking landscapes and the excitement of meeting several historical figures including a young Abe Lincoln, her contemporary views clash with 19th Century ambitions and she experiences first hand the violent and faulty foundation her country is laying. When she discovers that love can erase time and heal tragedy, she is faced with an impossible choice—to stay in a turbulent era when she knows the outcome or return to an America in chaos..”
Mary Hardcastle belongs to a Midwest family of writers, and after a brief stint as an actor in NY and LA, she moved to Baltimore and began writing. She was called to set this novel in her home state of Illinois, land of the Miami, Winnebago, Fox and Sauk, Kickapoo, and Pottawatomie. the Prairie State, Chicago Jazz, and “Land of Lincoln.” She has been recognized through blogs, radio features, and as writer/producer of two indie feature films, but considers her municipal parks job connecting children with nature as the most important for the compassion it builds and wonder it fosters in the next generation.
“Ms. Hardcastle masterfully crafts a story that is equal parts time-travel fantasy, love story, and history lesson… The story is told with heart and awareness, and the particulars of life in the 1830s are rendered with skill… A trip down the Mississippi on a flatboat hasn’t been told with such rich detail since the writings of Mark Twain. Trust me you’ve never been anywhere like this before.” -Vincent Meis
For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. The next Authors & Oysters event is scheduled for 5/3 with local author, Henry Corrigan. All events are held in the back room of The Retriever, located at 337 ½ High Street in Chestertown, Maryland.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.