CASKET GIRLS

Nuns, hookers, pirates and smugglers in French Colonial New Orleans…

Hello dear friends!

as you know, I have been working on my first novel for a few years (when my dayjob permitted). I am now done and after a year with an agent who couldn’t get me an old fashioned book deal and meeting many published authors - two of them famous - I decided to follow their advice and self-publish. Yes, even the two very successful ones recommended it. “The old way of doing this is dead. And publishing companies do nothing to promote a first-time novelist” , was the gist of what they told me.

After a lot of research I have now found a wonderful self-publishing company with a good marketing plan. But it’s expensive and I just don’t have 10K lying around. I hope you can find it in your heart (and your wallet:-) to support a first-time novelist who is fiercely passionate about this book, this story and the opportunity to get it out into the world.

Here is the storyline of CASKET GIRLS:

A scandalous Parisian aristocrat. An enslaved girl with voodoo skills. A French widow with a dark secret. A free woman of color from Cuba. A criminal with an agenda. A shy country girl from rural France. And twelve Ursuline nuns. Together they cross the ocean in a six-month voyage to La Nouvelle Orleàns, France’s outpost in their colony at America’s South shores. The year is 1727.

An Acadian girl with unusual skills, prostitutes, a traitorous Natchez tribal woman, pirates, smugglers, high ranking military men and a merchant with a big heart round out the novel’s main characters.

While they are on the hunt for suitable husbands, all these women regardless of skin color and social class are being educated by the Ursulines at the first girls’ school in New Orleans. They are safe inside the convent’s walls, but outside of them the city is a dangerous place. Their fates are intertwined as they face – and commit – crimes, fend off attackers, endure court trials and survive a hurricane. One of them marries well yet carries on an affair with a pirate. Some find true love; others cannot escape the tragedy of their dark past.

Please help me reach my goal!

Every little bit helps.

And rest assured, you’ll all be invited to one hell of a party for the book launch!

with deep gratitude,

Elisabeth