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Beguiling Dreams
by Fred Stemme
Category: Historical Fiction
Description: The year is 1915 and a car going by is unique. The setting is a town in northeastern Indiana with brick streets and a town square featuring a two story limestone courthouse. The inhabitants, like anywhere else, have aspirations that shape their lives. Young Hank Braddock, among other things, dreams of becoming a full-fledged reporter. His girlfriend Becky dreams of climbing the town's social ladder. She sees Hank, as does the rest of the town, as an up-and-comer. Mr. Smith, Hank's boss at the town's newspaper, dreams of taking a long vacation out West. And Mr. Conner, owner of the cannery outside of town, dreams of creating and maintaining a large power base. A flood, a train derailment and eventually a strike effect the course of everyone's dreams, sending them along new pathways. No one will ever be the same again...
eBook Publisher: Amber Quill Press, 2004
eBookwise Release Date: June 2005
 
Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [313 KB]
Words: 73492
Reading time: 209-293 min.
"History comes alive! Mr. Stemme has reproduced the flavor of small-town life in Calvin, Indiana, just after the turn of the century until World War I loomed on the horizon. The characters step off the pages to feel and think and react as if they were real. The background is one where you can almost hear the horses clattering over the cobbles and feel the summer heat beneath the tight collars on men's shirts. The description brings the town alive...I recommend this book as an interesting, well-written story by a very talented author who I hope will soon follow with another."--Anne K. Edwards, eBook Reviews Weekly
They sat close together and Hank slid the card along the cradle to get its three dimensional view. It was of the Eiffel Tower. He studied all the minuscule detail and the people in the scene. He placed himself in the picture, trying to get a feel of Paris all around him. "Are you through?" Becky asked. "Oh, sure." Becky glanced quickly at the picture and handed the stereoscope back to him. He put in another picture. It was of Notre Dame. He gazed at the cathedral's mammoth size. "Huh, makes our little church seem puny, doesn't it?" "Yes, but I'd lots rather go to it," she said, glancing at the picture and handing it back. Picture after picture, Hank eyed the scenes of Paris--outdoor cafes, bridges with ornate statuary and the inside of large train stations. The last one showed the Arc de Triomphe. He sighed, handing it to Becky. "Jeez, those are something. You can almost feel like you're right there."
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