Surviving Tragedy by Susan Leigh Furlong

FEARLESS FRIDAY

Please welcome Susan Leigh Furlong to Discover... For Fearless Friday, her post on surviving tragedy shows us there're all kinds of ways to be fearless when dealing with a traumatic event.

All traumatic events, be it sudden onset like a car crash or long-term like overcoming the death of a loved one, will cause the brain to enter one of three modes: Fight, Flight, or Freeze. A survivor has no control over which one the brain falls into or when it will happen.

In Fight mode all the body’s “super powers” are heightened, taking the form of anger, rage, or the physical strength as in fighting off an attacker. In Flight mode the body wants to flee as in physically running away or mentally hiding as in withdrawal from normal activities. Freeze mode renders a person almost unable to function, unable to make decisions, to live in a “fog,” ignoring people and places around them. All of these types of reactions are typical and normal in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

Our brains stay in these modes until it perceives that it has found “safety,” which can happen fairly quickly or can take years. And each person’s survival/recovery takes a different and individual path. (So if anyone tells you to “Just get over it!” get that person out of your recovery!)

Recovery or finding peace for your brain, can take many different avenues. The first is accepting support from friends, family, a therapist, or an established group of people who’ve been through what you have. Sometimes you may have to reject “help” from people and places that aren’t right for you, and it is your decision, not theirs.

          Join in activities that you enjoy or have enjoyed in the past. You may not think it will help, but at least it is a start. Take up art, drawing, singing, participating in a community theater, either on stage or in the background. Join a movement or exercise class. Try aerobics or yoga, maybe swimming or even working out with tapes at home by yourself. Take walks to nowhere in particular, but in a place you feel safe.  Walk with a friend who agrees to not say a word, if that’s what you need. Go to lunch and agree to only talk about the sunshine or the clouds, depending on the weather!  Is meditation your thing? Give it a try.

          Journalling is an excellent way to write down your feelings, your anger, or your fear and then close the cover and leave all those rotten emotions inside. Put a lock on the journal if need be. No one else is to look at it. Put it in a lock box and get a trusted friend to promise to destroy the whole box if anything happens.

Make sure if you choose a therapist, you get one who works for you. If you don’t connect in a way that makes you comfortable, get another counselor, and get another after that if you have to. This is your therapy!

          I will say one thing about medication. Under a doctor’s care and direct supervision, prescribed medication can relieve the hard work your brain and emotions are doing. Do it carefully and never on your own!

          Sometimes it will feel like you can’t work at healing yourself another minute longer. Then don’t! Take a break, walk away, read a book, dig in the garden, whatever you need to rest. Sleep may be difficult during this time and for a long time after, but check up on relaxation techniques before bedtime. Some work, some don’t. As in all the above, find which works for you, but don’t stop trying until you do.

          In case you think I’m talking through my hat, I will tell you that I have experienced severe trauma in my life, a damaging childhood, losing a child, and losing my belief. Each time my first reaction was to flee from the world coupled with raging anger, but I eventually learned to choose another path because living with the trauma never works. I chose one-on-one talk therapy, journalling, and the dramatic arts, performing, singing, and writing. Writing my books comforts me in ways I cannot explain.

You cannot bury the trauma. You have to actively work it away slowly. Choose any method you want. If one doesn’t bring relief after a few weeks, try another. If after a period of time your brain decides to reactivate its fear, flight or freeze, go back to a pattern that worked in the past. Never give up.

You are in charge and you need to choose the path, or several, that are right for you. The issue is that you take an active role in whatever way you pull through.

You will survive! I don’t even know you, but I have faith in you!

(Incidentally, in Forgiven Never Forgotten, my heroine, Joneta, reacts by freezing, going through her life in a fog, while my hero, Rory, fights with everything he’s got. In 1692 none of the above techniques were known or available, but as a writer, I made certain my characters survived together to their own HEA!) 

Book Blurb -        

Rory Campbell, falsely accused of participating in the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe killings, is sentenced to hang as a sacrificial lamb while the real agents of the slaughter escape blame. He risks everything to convince the love of his life, Joneta MacDonald, of the truth. He can never forget how completely she owns his heart.

Joneta MacDonald watches helplessly as her family is murdered by the king’s men, but forgiving Rory for his seeming participation is harder than she imagined. What must she endure besides the clan’s hatred? With the overwhelming odds against them, she clings to her love for a man labelled a traitor.         

EXCERPT –

Robert (Rory’s alias) abandoned all thoughts of good manners and patience as he forced his way through the crowd toward the leather factory at the end of the street. The livery needed new reins and harnesses, and he was determined to get a good price. Most people cursed him when he gave them a shove as he went by, but it didn’t stop him. The horses and carriages were another matter, and he just had to wait until they passed.

He paused outside a dressmaker’s shop to admire several colorful bolts of cloth and three dresses displayed in the window. He wished he had someone to buy for. He was drawn to a dark blue material with yellow specks scattered throughout, thinking it would suit Joneta, but here in Glasgow he knew no one who would use the cloth, and it would stay that way for the rest of his lonely life.

Someone, giving him a sharp jolt to his back, knocked him out of his reverie. His feet tangled, and he only stayed upright by steadying himself against the window of the dress shop, his arms splayed to the sides.

Then he saw it.

Directly across the street, a head of auburn hair moved in the opposite direction. Sunlight sparkled over the blond streaks throughout the braids.

Joneta!

He’d seen flashes of hair like hers before, and it always gave him a shock in the pit of his stomach. Each time, after he realized it wasn’t her, he felt sick, lonely, and cursed to never see her again, never to hold her or say the words that stayed on his heart day and night. Even though he knew each time it couldn’t be her, he always hoped it might be.

He had started toward the leather shop again when the auburn head of hair stepped up into the doorway of the ribbon shop across the road to let other people pass her. She faced toward the street now, and he got a good look at her.

Joneta!

He called her. “Joneta! Joneta!”

She looked the other way, obviously unable to hear him above the din of the passing shoppers.

He pushed himself onto the street just as the noisy wheels of a horse-drawn wagon passed in front of him, blocking his way. He pounded the side of the wagon in frustration. “Joneta!”

When he got a clear view of her again, she stepped out of the doorway and moved down the street away from him.

In a fury, he called to her again as he elbowed people out of the way, not caring if they fell into the muddy street. He screamed, “Joneta!”

Her head turned. She scanned the crowd.

He fought harder against the flow of people.

“Joneta!”

This time she caught her name on the wind. She saw him. Their eyes met. “Rory! Rory!”

She stepped into the mass of people on her side of the street, reaching for him and calling his name over and over. “Rory!” But the crowd moved her away from him. She grabbed the arm of a nearby man, who shook her off, and she stumbled into a woman with several packages under her arm. The packages fell. Joneta helped her pick them up, but by the time she got steady on her feet again, he was gone. She had to get to him. She fought harder, but it was useless. The people were too many, and she lost him. 

Forgiven Never Forgotten will be officially released on 12/20/2023 – Until then it can be pre-ordered.

Buy Links

Books are available on my website - Https://SusanLFurlong.com

UNIVERSAL LINKS

Booklinker - https://mybook.to/pCg1 

Books2Read - https://books2read.com/u/mYDKDp

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199723206-forgiven-never-forgotten?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=3G6EzuBBhL&rank=5

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/search?search=Susan+Leigh+Furlong

Susan Leigh Furlong knew she had a special connection with words since she was a child. When she was 9 years old, she wrote and directed her first play for the neighborhood children.

 Her love for history fuels her resilience against the sneezes and coughs that old books give her as she delves into research for unique historical events to inspire her historical fiction romance novels. Susan captures her readers’ imagination with a highly enthralling style, chronological events, and smoothly flowing narratives that keep one’s eyes glued on her novels from the first page to the last. 

Her first three books published by The Wild Rose Press center on a family living in the Scottish Highlands in the sixteenth century. Her most recent novel takes place during the American Revolution, the same family but across the pond.  A fifth book takes the reader back to Scotland. She also has two non-fiction books filled with over 200 photographs and tales about her home town. 

When she is not researching and creating her stories, she writes, directs, and performs with a music and drama group.

Social Media Links

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Website – https://www.SusanLFurlong.com 

Email – SusanLeighFurlongwriter@gmail.com

Jealous Villains and the Good Guys by Susan Leigh Furlong

WICKED WEDNESDAY 

Enjoy my guest's great take on finding the perfect villain for Discover... Wicked Wednesday. Thanks for this, Susan Leigh Furlong!

Nothing is more wicked than a villain who has it out for the hero. Storms and hungry animals are all vile, but there’s nothing like a good villain. Sort of like a car wreck. You know it’s appalling, but you can’t look away!

Villains come in all shapes and sizes, and so many stories cry out for a bad guy (or gal) to cause trouble because if everything were easy for the hero, the book would double as a sleep aid. There are many ways to go about finding your wicked villain. Here are mine.

I needed to create a worthy bad guy, one who if he were the hero, and not so nasty, could be admired. It took a lot of thought and tweaks, but I finally found Simon Duffy for my Revolutionary War novel, DESPERATE HOPE.

Colonel Simon Duffy is part of the British occupation force in New York City in 1778. His mission is to test the loyalty of the locals and expose any of George Washington’s spies, which include my hero, Gavin Cullane, and my heroine, Tansy Carter.

My first question was how did Duffy become the way he is? What is his backstory? Duffy is on the wrong side of good and evil for many reasons, but feeling sorry for him is out of the question. He’s still the bad guy.

Gavin’s first meeting with Simon Duffy on the prison ship exposes the truth about Duffy’s background. 

The captain introduced Gavin to a skinny forty-year-old officer with a sharp nose and buck teeth named Simon Duffy who would be his handler on shore. Colonel Duffy stood next to the ship captain’s desk with arms akimbo and his nose in the air and bragged about being highly educated. However, Gavin, who’d been raised as a servant among the truly high-born, recognized the signs of his low beginnings by the frequent rubbing of his sweaty hands down his sleeves.

“What do you know about spying?” Duffy asked him in a scratchy, raw voice.

“I can learn,” said Gavin.

“I am certain you can, but we British have been doing it for a thousand years, so you cannot outsmart us.” Duffy sniffed. 

When we learn why Duffy chose Gavin to be a double agent for the British, we know there’s nothing but trouble ahead for our hero.

 “You made a good choice with this one,” said Duffy to the captain a few days later. “He is clever enough to be useful, but not so clever as to avoid the trap we will set for him. At the right time, this Gavin Cullane will deliver to us something that will change the course of this war in our favor, after which we will hang him. If, on the other hand, he does nothing of value for us, we will still hang him.” Duffy gave a throaty laugh. 

Later, at a fancy party held by Loyalist sympathizers, Duffy confronts our hero. Duffy seems to be offering advice, but in reality he’s bragging, something he can’t resist doing. 

Instead of taking his next shot, Duffy tossed his cue on the billiard table and moved over to a small wooden table where the men sat to play chess or cribbage. “Enough billiards. Sit down. Have a whiskey?” He pointed to the decanter and the drink glasses. “I’ve already had a drink or two, but who’s counting?”

“No, thank you,” said Gavin.

Duffy downed the whiskey left in his glass in one gulp.

Gavin concentrated on relaxing his shoulders and his face as he took a seat across from Duffy, trying to appear unconcerned while facing the man who could send him back to the prison ship or hang him.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Duffy leaned back in his chair. “Duncan tells me you were a servant in this house.”

Gavin nodded.

“You’ve moved up in the world from lowly servant to invited guest, but you still don’t feel like you belong here, do you? Remember, it’s all an act, a game. Did I tell you where I came from? A hovel next to the river, but I decided I wanted out and up, and here I am. It’s all an act. Nobody can tell where you were born if you watch, learn, and play the game, and I’ve learned it well.”

He flicked his hand as if to dismiss all the wealth and class of the Duncan house. 

Duffy’s low character deepens when we learn how Duffy uses people as stepping stones to his goals, fatal stepping stones. When my heroine, Tansy Carter, visits Colonel Duffy, trying to falsely convince him she can send a spy message that will lead to the defeat of the colonists, his arrogant demeanor makes her skin crawl, but she must be careful. He is dangerous. 

Duffy’s tongue peeked out of his mouth as he licked his lower lip. “Cullane has so little to offer a woman such as yourself. I could do so much more for you, give you a position in society and its accompanying wealth. Sadly, I find myself without a wife, and I do so enjoy having a woman at my side.”

He didn’t mention what Tansy already knew from the gossip that raged through a population with little else to take their minds off the war. Duffy’s first wife had given him the prestige to secure a commission in the army and then disappeared without a trace while his second wife had left him with a fortune and then was found floating in the river. All investigations led to naught. 

Villains need to be clever and competent, a match for the hero. Otherwise, the suspense is lost, and there goes the reason to keep reading.

Gavin and Tansy, disguised as a bumbling farmer and his wife, board a ferry to escape out of British held New York City to the Continental held territory in New Jersey. Duffy boards the same ferry. 

Simon Duffy held his back stiff and resisted the urge to turn around and glare at the farmer and his wife seated in the back of the ferry. He recognized the pair as Gavin Cullane and Tansy Carter, despite their ridiculous disguises, which he had to admit might have fooled him, but he knew her from her voice. He would never forget that voice. Her almost musical lilt and pitch from the few minutes in his office haunted him, especially at night.

That day her tremulous fingers had given her away as terrified, despite the control she tried to present as she stood in front of him. Still, she held herself aloof, valiantly trying to appear confident, and her false attitude of arrogance aroused him. He loved a woman who challenged him, a woman he needed to conquer and force to submit to his will. Tansy Carter was such a woman, and he wanted to see her writhing beneath him, begging him to stop.

Gavin Cullane, on the other hand, had the cause of colonial freedom, and it made him weak. Duffy’s ambition had nothing to do with any cause except to get himself on a pinnacle above everyone else. He curled his lip, thinking about how far he’d come from his wretched beginnings, but he had so much farther to go. If he could become king, he would, but since that wasn’t possible, he’d settle for being a four-star general, the highest rank in the British army, and nothing less.

The two disguised bumpkins in the back of the ferry would make that happen for him. He licked his lips thinking about the glory he’d get from the capture of the two Continental spies who had made it possible for him to misguide Washington about the saltpeter supply. He was so close he could almost taste it! 

Duffy relentlessly chases and harasses Gavin and Tansy. He imprisons Tansy’s teenage nephew, beats information out of a local preacher, burns down the house of a patriot family, and eventually captures Gavin and Tansy. His plans for both of them are heinous until Duffy meets his own unfortunate end, as all good villains must, at the hands of the hero, making it hard to feel anything but victory for his defeat. 

Simon Duffy, his gut torn by the knife, moved from one British encampment to another over the next six months. Along the way, a sympathetic country doctor treated his wound, but could do no better than to leave him with a jagged stitched-together stomach, unable to eat a proper meal, and in constant pain.

Duffy eventually found British troops east of Philadelphia near Monmouth County, New Jersey, as the soldiers marched in retreat after their defeat by Continental troops at the Monmouth Creek battle.

Demanding to be taken to British General Clinton, Duffy prepared himself to receive accolades for escaping from dangerous patriot spies, only to find chains being locked around his wrists and himself under arrest for his role in the saltpeter fiasco. He marched the rest of the way toward the coast where he was imprisoned until the end of the war when any record of him disappeared. 

There are a lot of characteristics of a great villain, and each is unique to the narrative, but my favorite necessary trait is that he is jealous of the hero. Deep in his subconscious, he wishes he could be the hero and the fact that he is not is his strongest motive to do wrong. 

The best bad guy can bring out the best in the hero!

BOOK LINKS

books2read.com/u/meK1xz

Also available at www.SusanLFurlong.com

Susan Leigh Furlong always wanted to be a teacher. She always made up stories as a child. Her first officially published work was an article written for a children’s magazine entitled “The Dumbest Kid in School.” Historical Romance is Susan's favorite type of book. A bookstore is her favorite place in the whole world.