I’m at Carolyn Poling Schriber’s launch party which begins early today and continues through Friday. I will be a featured guest this afternoon and evening. You’ll find my post on the front page during those hours. I’ll be standing by for questions and comments submitted via e-mail.

See Carolyn’s site for the complete list of workshops and interviews over the three-day event. For those of us who are writers, it’s an interesting approach to a virtual launch party, one that could compliment or replace the virtual tour (aka blog book tour). I hope you’ll drop by to check out Carolyn’s approach and the interesting articles and interviews she has scheduled.

So what’s this all about? Carolyn is launching her Civil War novel, Beyond All Price:

“Nellie Chase joined the 100th Pennsylvania Regiment, known as “The Roundheads,” to escape an abusive husband—a gambler, a liar, a forger, a drunkard, and a thief. Too young and inexperienced to qualify as a nurse, she remained an unpaid volunteer. She later served at the Battle of Fredericksburg, worked as a ward nurse at Mercer Hospital in Philadelphia, and then became the head matron in charge of the 600-bed Hospital #3 in occupied Nashville. Her kindness and gentle touch encouraged her patients to call her ‘The Florence Nightingale of the West.’ The zealous regimental chaplain of the Roundheads, however, remained suspicious of her background and motives. His efforts to drive her out of the regiment by mocking her and spreading rumors of illicit behavior pursued her throughout the war and beyond.

“Others who worked with her knew that Nellie was always willing to sacrifice her life for a good cause. It was a trait that made her courageous but sometimes foolhardy. She suffered injuries in the course of her duties, fell victim to the same diseases that plagued the soldiers, and lingered perilously close to death on more than one occasion. Nellie sought one challenge after another, never satisfied that she had given enough of herself to atone for a murky past. She could not rest until she faced one final struggle with an enemy even more dangerous than war.”

Hope to see you at the party. And don’t forget, my guest blogger tomorrow will be Marian Allen, author of Eel’s Reverence.