Check Out: Misfits and Heroes by Kathleen Rollins Guest Post

Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa by Kathleen Flanagan Rollins

A thief offers a woman a chance at a new life by cutting her bonds, beginning a journey that will take both of them downriver and out to the coast of West Africa. The time is 12,000 BC, and war is breaking out between the villages on the coast. Frantic to escape, the two travelers join others fleeing the chaos of battle. They think they'll be safe if they head down the coast by boat, but the sea sweeps them out into a new, very different world and a destiny they couldn't have imagined.

More about the book from Kathleen:
Thirteen people wind up making the trip across the ocean in two boats. Off the coast of what are today the Cape Verde Islands, they're caught in a hurricane that sweeps them west to the Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to the elements, they sometimes battle each other, especially as old wrongs surface.

The book includes many stories told by the characters as entertainment during the journey, as well as sand-drawings, knot designs, and a stone maze that go with the stories. A game of trenchball, something like volleyball and football combined, plays an important role in the middle of the story.

The story is based on a decade of research I've done on ancient peoples and early explorers. My blog, Misfits and Heroes, started off as a way to provide background information for the readers of the novel, but it has since morphed into a consideration of all things ancient and their echoes in the present.


Where to Buy Misfits and Heroes:
The book is available online from Amazon and Barnes and Noble and from a handful of independent bookstores in Michigan, including Pages Bookstore in Flint, and Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord and Petoskey. The list price is 20.00, but it's available for less than half of that through resellers.


A Little about Kathleen:
I spent over thirty years teaching composition and literature at a community college as well as doing freelance writing. Once I retired, I had the luxury of time to devote to my favorite subject. In addition to traditional research, I've spent time in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and South Africa, as well as Europe.

Misfits and Heroes: West from Africa is designed to be the first novel in a trilogy about early explorers in the Western Hemisphere. The second, which I'm editing right now, deals with a group heading east from what is now Indonesia and islands of the South Pacific. At the end of the second book, the two groups meet in what is now the Isthmus of Techuantepec in southern Mexico. I hope to have it ready to publish by the end of the year.

All of this has been a tremendous amound of work, some of it wildly frustrating, but mostly quite fine.

Kathleen's Top Ten Books:
Some of these are easy choices, others not so much. I love many different kinds of books!

• The Plague - Albert Camus (best serious read, best Existentialist view)

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (best British humor, especially the first and last books of the series)

• The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (best fantasy world)

• One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck, an almost perfect short novel

• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (flawed and fabulous)

• Endurance - the story of Shackleton's failed expedition to Antarctica

• Into the Wild - John Krakauer

• Marvel comics, especially Silver Surfer : )

A few wonderful movies: The Lord of the Rings series, the Harry Potter series, Out of Africa, Romeo+Juliet, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Princess Bride, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Master and Commander, A Beautiful Mind, A League of Their Own, and on and on - I don't watch television, but I love movies!

Thank you so much to the wonderful author for sharing with us! I must add, I too LOVE The Lord of the Rings!!