The Revolutionist by Robert M. Tucker
Publication Date: December 3, 2017
Wise Words Publishing
Hardcover, Paperback & eBook; 600 Pages
Genre: Historical/Action Adventure
Two different families escape from the political tyranny of their respective homelands, the Josephsons from Sweden and Matias and Kurt Bauman, brothers from Germany and Austria Hungary, with the aid of a Viennese opera diva, Sophie Augusta Rose, and Jean Guenoc, a former Jesuit priest, family friend and protector and partisan of the French underground.
Their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s. Ingrid and Olaf Josephson settle on a small wheat farm in North Central Minnesota to raise their children, Newt and Julie.
Among the Jewish entrepreneurs forced to leave Germany and Austria-Hungary, Matias and Kurt Bauman re-establish their transportation company in Chicago, Illinois.
In search of a secret list of insurgent social democrats, the bounty hunter assassin, Luther Baggot, tracks his victims to the American heartland. Following the murder of their mother and father, Newt, Julie, and their friends, Aaron and Beth Peet, hide from the killer in a Northern Minnesota logging camp. Believing the children have taken possession of the list, Luther tracks them down.
Fleeing to a central Minnesota town, the four young people come across a remote business location of Bauman Enterprises and meet Matias Bauman, who had been a friend and former political collaborator with Newt’s and Julie’s parents. He takes them all to Chicago where a different world opens up to them as they are thrust into the turmoil and violence of an urban society and economy careening into the new century.
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Excerpt 2
As the temperature dropped, within a week, Julie noticed the river transformed to stillness sealed over with sheet ice. She knew it wasn’t thick enough to walk on, because she could see surging air bubbles through the gray frozen structure. Once the ice was sufficiently a few feet thick, the teamsters could drive their horses and sleighs up and down the river as a road. The caulks on the horses’ shoes would prevent them from slipping and losing their footing.
Two weeks later, Jack Moulton, the foreman, ordered test holes to be cut along two miles near the shore and at the center of the river. He granted his approval and the teams and crews cadged and skidded more logs from the woods and made more trips given the quick access from the main camp. The harvest grew so rapidly that additional log dumps were established at spaced intervals along steep areas of the bank where the logs could be skidded downhill into the river after the spring thaw.
Using her smaller ax and shovel, Julie continued to clear side brush and work with Charlie Brandt’s gang. There was less road work to be done, since a tank crew would go out the night before and plough the snow aside on the trails. Then they would fill a sealed wooden tank from barrels of water taken through a hole blasted in the river ice. The tank was mounted on a sleigh and dispensed water as it was pulled by a team of horses. The water instantly froze to create a roadway of slick ice over which the sleigh runners could pass with ease.
Julie’s task was to fill small holes gouged out by the sleigh runners after they passed. Five or six of the chickadees were shoveling snow and giping or fixing holes as fast as they appeared. Once grooves were established by repeated passing along the road, the sleighs would stay in the tracks.
Charlie told her that after two or three big freezes, the ice was solid enough to hold the weight of a team and a sleigh filled with logs. Because they could use the frozen river as a road, Jack Moulton ordered the crews to increase the size and height of the loads by adding logs that towered two and three times above the teams.
Julie was standing on top of one of the banks at a log dump that overlooked where an iced side road connected to the new track. She saw Aaron drive his team off the trail out onto the ice and head down the center of the frozen river channel. Then she heard the heart-rending crack before the ice began to break.
Aaron instantly tried to guide the team away from the area and back toward the bank, but it was too late. The ice separated in massive chunks and the load sank into the frigid water, the weight pulling the horses down. They thrashed and neighed, their eyes rolling in terror at the weight and the freezing current pulling them under.
Aaron leaped from the top of the descending log pile which managed to momentarily stay afloat. He staggered and crawled across the surface of the ice in an attempt to reach the animals. He slipped into the water with them and frantically pulled at the fastenings of their harness to free them, but they were going under too fast and the loaded sleigh was closing over them from behind. Aaron would be crushed and forced downward with the animals unless he escaped from the widening hole.
Helmut Haas and Bill Shelly came shouting and running along the bank. They scrambled out onto the ice, dropped to their stomachs and crawled as close as they could to the jagged edge of the opening, and extended their canthooks to within Aaron’s reach. He managed to grasp one and Bill pulled back and dragged him to where he could reach over the edge of the hole where Helmut dragged him out by his arms.
Aaron gasped and cried in anguish as he watched his beloved team disappear in a churning froth of bubbles, smothered by the tonnage of logs pressing them down to their death.
Julie ran along the bank and crossed the river upstream to meet Aaron and his rescuers on the opposite side. Aaron shook in spasms from his near drowning. Ice formed on his clothing and his skin took on a blue pallor. He was unable to move.
“Got to get him to a fire and out of these clothes,” said Bill.
Being the larger of the two men, Helmut hefted Aaron over his shoulder and, with Bill supporting him, struggled up the bank to higher ground.
“Build a fire!” he shouted to the gathering bystanders. “Build it now!”
Julie followed closely and gathered up cut branches wherever she could find them in the snow to contribute to the life-saving fire. She saw a logger swing his ax to bring down a small pine and chop out the punk for kindling.
Helmut and Bill peeled off Aaron’s boots and clothes and wrapped him in their own mackinaws as the makings of the fire came together and the sticks and small logs converted to flames. Helmut rubbed and massaged Aaron’s limbs to restore his circulation. His teeth chattered uncontrollably as he struggled to breathe.
Other loggers built up the snapping crackling blaze until Helmut and Bill were holding him in a crouch before a roaring bonfire. Until she tasted salt tears at the corners of her lips, Julie didn’t realize she was crying.
Once the crews returned to camp that evening, Jack Moulton announced that the frozen river would no longer be used as a route to haul logs.
About the Author
Rob is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and received his graduate degree in communications from the University of California, Los Angeles.Rob worked as a business and management consultant to advertising, corporate communications, and media production companies as well as many others. Now retired, he resides with his wife in Southern California where he devotes much of his time to writing.
He is a recipient of the Samuel Goldwyn and Donald Davis Literary Awards. An affinity for family and the astute observation of generational interaction pervade his novels.
His works are literary and genre upmarket fiction that address the nature and importance of personal integrity.
For more information, please visit Robert Tucker's website. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
Interview with Robert Tucker:
Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reins of the story?
The characters are integral to the story. The lives of the characters tend to influence the direction of the plot rather than my imposing the plot on them. I place the characters into planned situations, conflicts, and events and see and experience their world from their eyes. This approach enhances the verisimilitude or authenticity of the characters and their world for me as a writer (walking in their shoes) and ultimately for the reader. Recreating the lives of the characters becomes the foundation of their story that expands to myriad others in the context of historical events at the turn of the twentieth century.
Convince us why you feel your book is a must read.
The Revolutionist offers an unusual entertaining, dynamic story populated with colorfully drawn characters, dramatic tension, a sense of immediacy, and a cinematic visual style.
The historical chronology and events capture a reader’s attention for many reasons, among them being a plot that entertains, educates, and informs. In writing this novel, I was drawn into the societies and cultures of a particular period that inspire the creation of characters who bring that era to life.
The Revolutionist will take a reader into the exploration of new territory outside of his or her life.
Personal integrity is a powerful recurring theme.
I think the issues and conflicts in this story are manifested in different societies and cultures every day. Throughout the world and locally all around us, people are struggling against tyranny and injustice to have good meaningful lives in ways that matter to them. I believe readers will identify with the lives of the characters and what happens to them.
Have you written any other books that are not published?
Tell-Tale Publishing and its affiliate, Wise Words Publishing will be bringing out a sequel to The Revolutionist entitled The Saga of Burton Blake. In addition, two more literary novels are under contract for publication, Sidewalk and A Seed of Grain. Two additional feminist literary novels have been submitted, Eye of The Sparrow and The Discontent of Mary Wenger. I’m currently writing a companion novel to The Discontent of Mary Wenger entitled Paper Dolls.
On the urban fantasy side, four novels of the Black Spiral series are contracted for publication. The Funnies, an allegorical fantasy satire is also contracted for publication
Pen or type writer or computer?
I compile copious hand-written notes during research and as inspiration occurs at odd moments day or night. I write the manuscript on the computer and value its flexibility in composition and in making editorial changes.
Anything you would like to say to your readers and fans?
As the grandson of immigrants who fled persecution in Germany and Austria-Hungary and came to America during the early 1900’s, the early history of our country and the rise of the middle-class have always held a fascination for me. The dramatic depiction of fictional characters placed in actual events sharply and realistically bring alive the harsh times and adversity of the multitude of people who sought freedom and a better way of life and demonstrate that only a little over one-hundred years have passed to bring us to where we are as a society today.
I am very interested in hearing from you about your personal reading experience with The Revolutionist and would be happy to respond to your comments and questions.
Blog Tour Schedule
Feature at Teaser Addicts Book Blog
Monday, March 5
Excerpt at What is That Book About
Wednesday, March 7
Feature at WS Momma Readers Nook
Sunday, March 11
Interview & Excerpt at T's Stuff
Thursday, March 15
Feature at A Bookaholic Swede
Monday, March 19
Guest Post at Passages to the Past
Friday, March 23
Interview at Dianne Ascroft's Blog
Monday, March 26
Review & Excerpt at Locks, Hooks and Books
Tuesday, March 27
Feature at A Literary Vacation
Wednesday, March 28
Interview at Donna's Book Blog
Thursday, March 29
Wrap Up at Passages to the Past
Giveaway
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away two eBooks of The Revolutionist! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below.Giveaway Rules
– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on March 8th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.
The Revolutionist
