Released on = December 28, 2006, 7:12 pm

Press Release Author = C. Kay Larson

Industry = Education

Press Release Summary = Announcement of the release of Larson\'s new work of fiction,
South Under a Prairie Sky: The Journal of Nell Churchill, U.S. Army Nurse & Scout
(Xlibris Corp., Jan. 2007), set largely in Illinois and Tennessee.

Press Release Body = Contact: C. Kay Larson
E/m: cklarson@cloud9.net
Ph: 917-441-0394




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 28, 2007



To the Editor:

Civil War author, C. Kay Larson, has announced the
release her latest book: South Under a Prairie Sky: The Journal of Nell Churchill,
U.S. Army Nurse & Scout, a work of fiction. Published by Xlibris Corp., a division
of Random House, it will be available for sale from Xlibris
(www.xlibris.com/1-888-795-4274) during the first week of January 2007.
Nell Churchill, the heroine of the book, is from Monmouth, Illinois. In real life,
Nell was Larson's great-great grandmother's niece who was born in Biggsville,
Illinois, ca. 1896. In this work she is moved back in time to the Civil War era and
transformed into a composite fictional character. Monmouth was taken as Nell's
hometown as Larson's aunt's family, the Winebrights, resided there until the 1990s.
George A. Winebright enlisted in the 83rd Illinois Infantry Regiment as a young
German immigrant.
As an independent scholar and a Civil War buff since childhood, for the last twenty
years, Larson has been researching and writing on women's military history. Her
previous publications have included articles on the women Civil War soldiers and
Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894,
on Lincoln's political/legal advisor. Her Civil War website is titled: "Springing
to the Call."
The idea for Nell's journal resulted from the posting of the website. Larson
realized that if she made a composite character of the women described, she would
have a very good storyline for a fictional work. Thus our heroine, Nell, begins her
journal entries in 1856, as unrest breaks out in Kansas over the slavery issue. Her
relatives flee the state and seek refuge at the Churchill farm home, finally
settling in Monmouth.
Teenaged Nell grows up a farm girl and attends Knox College in Galesburg. She
becomes involved in the political questions of the day and follows the 1858 senate
and the 1860 presidential campaigns in which Abraham Lincoln is a candidate. Her
family also aids in the running of underground railroad stations for fugitive
slaves. Family tradition has it that the Winebright farm was part of the network of
stations in the area. Nell's brother and cousins attend Monmouth College. Uncle
Sylvester Churchill is the town doctor. He is taken after Larson's ancestor who was
a doctor in nearby Kirkwood in the 1870s.
Shortly after the Civil War breaks out in 1861, Nell's brother and cousin enlist,
as later do their brothers-in-law. Nell and Sylvester join medical teams in
Tennessee after the battle of Shiloh. In the fall of 1862, Nell is enrolled as an
army scout by Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commander, Army of the Cumberland. Later
Nell finds romance, falling in love with a dashing Swedish-American cavalry
officer.
Although a fictional account, virtually every incident in the book is fact-based.
Featured town, county, college, and political events have been taken from local
documents, histories, and newspapers. Nurse memoirs were culled for facts and
poignant stories. Scout accounts are largely based on the exploits of Pauline
Cushman, U.S. scout for the Army of the Cumberland, and Pinkerton Detective Hattie
Lawton, as well as accounts of female scouts noted in the official war records.
Larson affords a wide view of the Midwest, also incorporating scenes from her home
state of Wisconsin, as well as Chicago and St. Louis. All sources are referenced in
the Underbook that adds facts and commentary. The facts of the military deaths of
two Larson relatives, David Salter and John Shook, are featured in the work. Wyatt
Earp and John Wayne's ancestors, all of whom lived in Monmouth, add color.

* * * *
The book will be available for sale through Xlibris (www.xlibris.com;
1-888-795-4274) and within 60 days, Amazon.com. Because this is a print-on-demand
work, no review copies are available, although the final galley can be made
available as a PDF file, e-mailed. Larson can be available for a telephone
interview.
Below is Larson's biography. Attached are readers' comments and an excerpt from the
book. Larson may e-mailed at this address or called at 917-441-0394 in New York
City.
____________________________________________________________________

Author bio

C. Kay Larson, an independent scholar and Midwest native, has been a Civil War buff
since childhood. In 2004, she published Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and
Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894, also with Xlibris. Carroll was a
political/legal advisor to Pres. Abraham Lincoln and Gov. Thomas H. Hicks, playing a
critical role in keeping Maryland loyal during the secession crisis of 1861, as well
as in the planning of the Tennessee River military campaign of 1862. Larson has
published articles on women's nontraditional roles in the Civil War (MINERVA:
Quarterly Report on Women and the Military, Spring 1990/Summer 1992); and is the
editor of "Springing to the Call: A Documentary View of Women in the American Civil
War," (www.nymas.org.civilwarwomen.html) that resides on the webpage of the NY
Military Affairs Symposium on the board of which Larson serves. In 1995, Minerva
Press published her first book, 'Til I Come Marching Home: A Brief History of
American Women in World War II, the only military history of women in the war.
Larson also specializes generally in the Civil War and World War II and political
and maritime history.
In South Under a Prairie Sky, Larson's wide knowledge of Midwest culture and the
Civil War blends with family and local history to create this fictional account of
a young Illinois woman gone to war. Larson is familiar with Warren and Henderson
Counties in Illinois, the initial locale of the book, for her mother's families
farmed there. Larson also folds in Nebraska lore from her father's Swedish-American
family history.
Larson holds a B.A. degree, cum laude, in political science from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and an M.B.A. from Baruch College (CUNY). Recently she has been
active in foreign policy circles. Some of the material in this work is
autobiographical.

-- more--


SEE WHAT READERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT:

SOUTH UNDER A PRAIRIE SKY
South Under a Prairie Sky is a captivating blend of fiction and historical fact.
Sixteen-year-old Nell Churchill begins her adventures in 1856 in Illinois and from
there is propelled through many true life events as a farm girl, college student,
and Civil War nurse and scout for the Union army. Readers will feel as if they are
traveling right beside Nell in an intricate storyline that takes her from her
hometown of Monmouth to Tennessee to Mississippi and Washington, D. C. This
inspiring, informative read is a book for all the young at heart.
- Mary Salter McAllister, genealogist, Salter family

Nell Churchill's delightful journal has everything a reader wants: a ripping good
story, rich wartime settings, romance, adventure, and action. Yet this page-turner
also features strong, determined, compassionate family members, nurses, and soldiers
who struggle to survive the "morass of death" the Civil War became. Larson
integrates language, thought, facts, customs, and geographic descriptions so well,
the novel almost seems like a true memoir.
- Marisa Dolkart, Class of '02,
Ithaca College

South Under a Prairie Sky is a cracker jack tale of the Civil War that gives a real
flavor of the times-from the politics of the slavery debates, to the ambitious
boosterism of the Northwest, to the romance of the Old South. Nell becomes a female
Forrest Gump, present at many of the most famous events of the era. Yet Kay Larson
also provides poignant stories of small town life in turbulent times, the earnest
patriotism of Northern soldiers and officers, the quests of runaway slaves and
freedmen, fractured Southern loyalties, Union soldier dogs and horses, as well as
personal triumph and tragedy. And besides all that, the Underbook informs what is
fact and what is fiction and more. This book\'s novel format may force writers of
historical fiction to plot new courses.
- Rudy Jacobson, Ph.D., grandson of Peter Alfred Jacobson (featured
in book)





EXCERPT
SOUTH UNDER A PRAIRIE SKY
The Journal of Nell Churchill, U. S. Army Nurse & Scout


from Headquarters, Army of the Cumberland, Tennessee, 1862

October 30 - This morning as I was ending my first hospital rounds, an orderly
entered the ward, telling me to report to headquarters, that is, General Rosecrans

Web Site = http://www.xlibris.com/bookstore

Contact Details = C. Kay Larson
48 West 87th St.
New York, NY 10024
Ph: 917-441-0394
E/m: cklarson@cloud9.net