Dear Reader,
We’re different, you and I. Maybe you remember the first time a grown-up told you that magic was just pretend. I do. When they said it, something didn’t sit well in me. How could grown-ups, people who admittedly didn’t even have an answer to all of a child’s many probing questions about the world, have any credibility to say magic was only pretend?
When I was an adolescent, I set out on a crusade to find where dragons came from. Yes, they told me dragons were only make-believe. But if that were true, why did they seem to pop up everywhere from every part of the world with only minor variations in their description?
As I got older, I learned the truth about magic is more disappointing than it being make-believe. No. The truth of magic is that it’s right under our noses, and we choose to ignore it. But if you listen closely, at times, you can hear it sing.
It sang for me as I read the diaries of a French aero captain detailing his commission in 1916. He led a group of American volunteer combat pilots called the Lafayette Escadrille. The United States had yet to enter the WWI, but for some reason, magical or otherwise, this group of young men left all behind to risk their lives flying in airplanes and fight in a war for a country not their own. Airplanes had only been invented about ten years prior, but Germany, England, and France were already busy strapping machine guns to their wings.
What do you call something like that? Courage? Insanity? Several of these pilots abandoned an Ivy League education. Some came from much humbler backgrounds. All of them were drawn to the call of adventure–a call with a scientifically immeasurable characteristics that yield tangible, world-changing consequences.
The Lafayette Escadrille’s celebrity contributed in great part to turning the tide of US public opinion about WWI, leading to its eventual alliance with the Triple Entente.
The hearts and souls of pilots like those men are what power the magic system in my novel series, The Shards of Lafayette. The story follows a young man, Marcus Dewar, who wants more than anything to be like his heroes from the Lafayette Escadrille, but despite being at war for years, can’t bring himself to take the life of another human being. His best friend, Jane Turner, is an aviation mechanic known for her unorthodox (pronounced magical) aircraft repairs. And despite her better judgment, she still believes she can protect her loved ones from the effects of the conflict.
The story celebrates the people and hearts that made history, and allows readers an opportunity to dive into a magic that hinges on what makes human nature so very powerful, in a time when it was almost lost.
If you pick up a copy, I hope that you’ll fall in love with the courage and contradictions of the people that populated one of history’s most enigmatic and important eras. I know I did.
Love,
Kenneth A. Baldwin
Before he started writing novels, Kenny paid his way through law school by writing, performing, and teaching humor. You can still catch him on stage or in corners of the Internet that feature sketch and improv comedy. Now, he lives nestled under the Wasatch Mountains with his wonderful wife, sons, and Golden Retriever.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ www.kennethabaldwin.com
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Facebook ➜ www.facebook.com/kennethabaldwin
Goodreads ➜ www.goodreads.com/kennethabaldwin
When Marcus Dewar is tasked with investigating the aerial bombardments, it’s not because of his aviation record. To make a name for himself, he will have to escort his best friend, a woman named Jane Turner known for her witchlike repairs on damaged aircraft, through some of the war’s most dangerous battle zones.
But when they learn the rogue pilots seek out arcane devices filled with magic powerful enough to alter the war, it will take more than some hedgewitch tactics and smart flying to return with their lives.
And in a conflict that values human life so little, that’s the least they have to lose.
The Shards of Lafayette: Drops of Glass Book 1 is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Drops-Glass-Magic-Shards-Lafayette-ebook/dp/B0C42B144X .
