Welcome

This is my site for reader information about my books. My novels are historical fiction set in the 18th Century in England, Scotland, and North America.

I was raised in Western Pennsylvania near the Chestnut Ridge.  I reside in Southern Maryland, near the Potomac River.   I have been an ardent student of Colonial history since childhood.  I grew up in an area steeped in the French and Indian War, just miles from Fort Ligonier, Forbes Road, Bushy Run, Hanna's Town, Fort Necessity, and Fort Duquesne.  This series of novels reflect that time period as my characters mature into adulthood starting out in Scotland against the backdrop of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46.

I have been a student of Colonial American History and an avid reader my entire life; among my favorite authors are Sir Walter Scott, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brian, John Keegan, and James Fenimore Cooper.  

I graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT.  I served as an Engineering Officer in the Coast Guard on several cutters.  After the Coast Guard, I worked for the Navy as an electronic and software engineer, until my retirement from Federal Service at the Washington Navy Yard.  I have a US Patent, and have authored many technical papers on military electronic design, software engineering, and information systems architecture.

I am interested in hearing from you.  What do you like or don't like about my stories, I want to hear from you, shoot me an email or follow my blog or Facebook page.

• Kevin John Grote Blog
• Amazon Kevin John Grote Author Page
• @KevinJohnGrote - Twitter
• Check out my boards on Pinterest.
• Email:  kgrote@live.com

29 May 2013

Trailer for Juniata on Youtube.  Photos by Beth Wulff, Darrel Lang, Tom Grote, Lou Tommelleo, Chad Rank, and Jeremy Moore.  I will be selling and signing all of my novels at the Arts Fest in La Plata on June 8th.
 
1 May 2013 

Juniata is released!
Juniata is a two-part novel.
Loyalhanna, the second book in the series will complete the tale.

The sky is on fire. All along the frontier, the flames are spreading eastward, settlement by settlement, born on a western wind and fanned by men clad in doeskin and daubed with greasepaint. The blazing settlements and farmsteads become a crimson reflection of the tumult transpiring along the disputed colonial back country. The future of North America is up for grabs. Two intrepid scouts, called by most of their fellow colonists, rangers, have been stalking a murderous Shawnee war party heading west, deeper in the wilderness for several days. They track the raiders over the Huntingdon Ridge and to George’s Road, the only link between New Forge and Juniata. One of the scouts, a Susquehannock, stays on their trail, while the other Ranger, a former Jacobite, moves silently to the remote village of New Forge. In Europe, alliances and betrayals are the order of the day. After their success in the War of Austrian Succession, France is pushing against the English claims in the New World. But here the rules are different; the rugged terrain is hostile to the movements of large armies. So the tactics of the locals are adopted by the French military in Montreal. Small bands strike quickly, and then with captives and loot in hand, the raiders melt away into the mountains, as suddenly as they appear. The French are using their cat’s paws of the native tribes and Canadian colonists to strike the first blows of the coming conflict. In the cities of the Eastern Seaboard, the wall of the Appalachians is looked as the end of the frontier. The lands beyond are looked upon as a private hunting preserve for the last two hundred years by the Six Nations. It is wilderness, devoid of human habitation, that is until newcomers, seeing its immense potential, begin to stake their claims. The waning influence of the Iroquois tempts wealth seekers from all directions to fill the power vacuum. As well as the colonial governments, France and England are looking to expand their New World domains. The tribes of the western slopes, Shawnee, Ojibwa, Delaware, Miami, Huron, Seneca, as well as explorers, trappers, and settlers, Virginian and Pennsylvanian, begin looking over the mountain fastness to the rich country beyond; each of them intent on marking their claim. The great rivers, Allegheny and Monongahela, flow westward from the north and south. They meet to form a great navigable river that will open the interior lands to the Mississippi River. The mighty Ohio, the gateway to the interior of North America. Its riches are worth fighting for. And dying.



14 March 2013


The Cavalier/Jacobite Series traces five generations of the Fawkes family beginning with Geoffrey Fawkes in the English Civil War in Stalker, continuing with Spenser and Jack Fawkes participating in the Glorious Restoration in the late 1690's, and continue with Robert and Jamie Fawkes during the time of the final attempt by the Jacobites led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1745-46.

The Highwaymen series takes place in Kent, Sussex, and London in 1746-47.  Follow Sheriff Nicodemus Skellington as he stalks the robbers of the Dover Coach.  The hunters become the hunted.

The Rangers will be the next series.  This follows our characters to the New World in the late 1740's.  They meet with Benjamin Franklin and George Croghan and soon depart to the frontier.

The Seekers, which will begin with Juniata, and will lead up to the French and Indian War with Braddock's Campaign against Fort Duquense, the Raid on Kittanning Town, and the final assault the Three Rivers by General Forbes.  I anticipate the first novels in this culmination of the Fawkes' saga coming out in 2014.

Cover Artwork courtesy of Gwen Buchanan.  

• Check out her site for jewelry and other finely crafted items.  
• Nice link from Gwen Buchanan.  Take a look.

Check out my Pinterest boards, I pin a load of my research topics and other things I am interested in.  

While I am working on the novels, I will be adding other information to this site, in particular maps, as I construct them, to aid in the following of the novel's character's adventures.