Lineage: A Novel

by Michael Paul Hurd

Overview

This book lays the author's family tree against events in history with the presumption that individuals from the author's genealogical participated in the events. The author's family tree includes, inter alia, notables such as Aaron Burr, courtiers in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and accomplices to Charles II's escape from England. It also includes family situations that involved murder, the Great Depression, and every war that Americans have fought in since the French and Indian (Seven Years) War in the mid-18th Century. Because this is the first book in the series, the stories are laid out in thirteen stand-alone vignettes, each of which is the foundation for a full-length novel in the future.

Roughly five years of research went into developing the author's family tree; it was at the end of that research that a decision was made to memorialize some of the intersections with history in novel format. The author took great care to ensure the historical accuracy of the events contained in each chapter, while at the same time inventing the fiction behind the family's involvement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781078785525
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	03/25/2020
Series:	Lineage Series , #1
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Paul Hurd was born in Michigan in 1959. He is the son of Paul S. Hurd and Carolyn J. Hurd (both deceased). Married to his wife, Sandy, since 1980, they have two sons and three grandchildren; however, their eldest son, Adam, passed away from cancer in 2010. Their three grandchildren range in age from 4 to 18 (as of May, 2020).

During his formative years, Michael Hurd lived in Michigan, Virginia, and New Hampshire. He graduated from Hopkinton High School, Contoocook, NH, in 1977.

Hurd is a veteran of the United States Air Force, serving from 1978 until 1992, and was Honorably Discharged as a Technical Sergeant. While on active duty, he earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Maryland/European Division during an assignment to England. After being honorably discharged, he was employed for another 26 years as a civilian employee of the United States Government and retired in 2018 along with his wife. It is during this time that Hurd developed a love for the written word and the deep research that was needed to author first book, "Lineage." For Hurd, that work simply fell together after finding numerous anecdotes about his family history during the research. Work on the "Lineage" series started in late 2018. The storytelling behind the series was inspired in part by Sara Donati's "Wilderness" series and the many works of James Michener.

As soon as Hurd's original work was published, he began working on the second book, "Soldier, Citizen, Settler - Lineage Series, Book Two," based on Chapter Twelve of the first book in the series. The Kindle version of the second book was released on June 24, 2019, which was the ninth anniversary of his eldest son's untimely passing.

Michael Hurd is an avid fisherman, has hiked all 43 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, and is a slow-but-steady road bicyclist. The Hurds currently reside in Maryland, within 10 miles of all three grandchildren. They travel extensively and are huge fans of the Disney Cruise Line.