Ardent Spirit: Based on the True Story of Magdelaine La Framboise

by J K Royce

Overview

Magdelaine Marcotte La Framboise was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1984. Two centuries after her birth, she was recognized for her achievements in business. She is a role model, an inspiration and a woman who earned a rightful place in history.

Born Magdelaine Marcotte in 1780, she was the daughter of a French fur trader and granddaughter of powerful Odawa Chief Kewanoquat. Haunted first by the murders of her father and husband, and then the untimely deaths of her daughter and infant grandson, the illiterate widow defied the social customs and expectations of the era. With unflinching courage and an ardent spirit, she charted her own bold course through the male dominated Great Lakes fur trade.

Alone and caught between two cultures, her Catholic God claimed her soul, but she never forgot her Native American roots. She gained status and respect as the wealthy businesswoman known as Madame La Framboise: an educator, matriarch, and leading citizen of Mackinac Island.

On her deathbed God had one final surprise for her.

In the novel, Ardent Spirit, J. K. Royce creates a story that is not only believable, but as accurate as possible with the information available. The author has painted historical truth against a realistic fictional backdrop. Appendices make it possible for the reader to determine what is historically supported.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780998800400
Publisher:	Lenkk Press
Publication date:	04/15/2017
Pages:	470
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

J. K. Royce was born and raised in the small town of Sandusky in Michigan's Thumb. After retiring as a Michigan First Assistant Attorney General, she turned to her love of writing and authored two travel books: Traveling Michigan's Thumb and Traveling Michigan's Sunset Coast, both published by Thunder Bay Press. The Sunset Coast guide included stories about the famous and infamous with Lake Michigan ties. As she researched her travel guide, Ms. Royce asked those with whom she came in contact about people they found interesting, and who had lived along their beautiful coast. She often heard the names Carl Sandburg and Ernest Hemmingway. But another name was also repeatedly mentioned: Magdelaine La Framboise. Fascinated by the stories she heard, Ms. Royce began researching Madame La Framboise. It took several years to finish Ardent Spirit. While struggling with how to make the novel as factually correct as possible with the limited information available, Ms. Royce took a two year hiatus to write a crime thriller, PILZ. After the publication of PILZ, she returned her efforts to Ardent Spirit, which she had by then decided to write as a fictionalized biography. For her next project, she plans to write a second legal thriller picking up where PILZ left off in the life of protagonist, Casey Lawrence. Ms. Royce has authored several short stories that have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and the California Writers Club Literary Review. She and her husband Bob live in Dublin, California, but make many trips to Michigan, where a part of her heart remains.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. Sacred Space

2. Magdelaine La Framboise: Looking Back

3. Destiny

4. An Uneasy Choice

5. False Witness

6. Josette

7. Wintering in the Country

8. A Daughter’s Death

9. Father Gabriel Richard

10. The Ugly Trade

11. Lucy and the Story of the White Indian

12. The Anishinaabek

13. Rix Robinson Takes Over Magdelaine’s Trade

14. Sugar Camp

15. Beaumont, Heartbreak, and Tanner Returns

16. The Winds of Change

17. Ferry Opens a School and Betsy Marries

18. Religious Discord and Betsy Returns

19. Death of George Schindler

20. Word from a Son

21. Dreams

22. The Storyteller

23. Reconciliation

24. Crooked Tree

25. Wild Strawberries

26. Wampeme

27. History and Treachery

28. Death of Love

29. Mazzuchelli, Mosquitoes, and de Tocqueville

30. Gathering Storm

31. Saying Goodbye

32. Mackinac Heartbreak

33. Preparing to Go Home

34. Startling Revelation

Postscripts

Glossary

Visualizing Magdelaine

Selected Bibliography and Further Reading

Genealogy Charts

Background Notes