l.h. hjalmarson

Six-year-old Liza has little understanding of her status as a slave. Naturally eager to please, she has lived in the grand plantation house of Norbury Estate and been treated as the doll of the planter’s daughter for as long as she can remember. As 1862 rolls along, however, and tensions surrounding slavery come to a head outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, Liza finds herself transformed into a symbol in a brave campaign to prove that the significance of skin colour runs little deeper than a coat of paint.

150 years ago the history of America changed forever. Live 1863 through the stories of some of our finest writers – the passion, the romance, the tragedy, and the triumph.

Carrie Fancett Pagels. Kathleen Maher. Joy Ross Davis. Sarah Price. Karen Anna Vogel. Patrick E. Craig. Willard Carpenter. Big Daddy Abel. Murray Pura. David Stearman. And many more.

The plantations. The Underground Railroad. Chancellorsville. Vicksburg. Gettysburg. Little Round Top. Chickamauga. Chattanooga. Missionary Ridge. The soldiers in the field. The families at home. The nurses in the hospitals. The speeches at Richmond and Washington. The prayers in churches North and South. It’s all here in one of the most dramatic series ever produced. A new story by a different author released every two weeks between April and November. Join us for one of the most exciting events in American inspirational publishing – Helping Hands Press presents CRY OF FREEDOM!

L. H. Hjalmarson is a Canadian Icelandic woman with a background in acting for live theatre. Currently she is working on a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at UBC in Kelowna, British Columbia, and her major is Interdisciplinary Performance. Through this program she is furthering her skills in the fields of devised theatre, creative writing, and illustration. Lauren’s writing credits include journalism, marketing work, and articles for magazines. This is her first published piece of fiction, and her first foray into mixing history with imagination. She looks forward to producing further work, and hopes to write particularly for young audiences.