About
Baltimore author Clark Thomas Riley has written and published non-fiction since the 1970s in support of careers at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the United States Navy, Graduate Studies at The University of Chicago, biomedical research, and information technology. He began writing fiction in 1994 and has five novels finished to the first draft level or beyond. Mary and Margaret: Whence comes Freedom, is his fourth novel after What If They Lied (just a little)?, Dots — Cancer Sleuthing on the 21st Century Frontier, and Patchwork, A Pioneer’s Story. Following this work will be a spy novel, the continuation of the pioneer romance — Patchwork, Tales from the Voyage — and a commentary on building the 21st-century hobby greenhouse.
Featured Work
Mary and Margaret - Whence Comes Freedom
Margaret Dashwood is the youngest of three sisters in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Margaret is precocious, prone to wanderlust. Alas, Jane Austen was not able to apprise us of Margaret’s future. Mary Bennet, the middle of five sisters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, possesses an inquiring mind and a devotion to justice. We have only hints from Jane Austen as to Mary’s future. So what is to become of two young, bright, and strong-willed women in the ostensibly male dominated first half of the nineteenth century? It turns out they neither demurred nor withered, but plied their minds and hearts to the abolition of slavery and to their own freedoms and achievements. They are writers, entrepreneurs, and even for a time, one pirate captain! And they are not alone, but revel in their sisterhoods with Charlotte Collins, Jane Moseby, Geneviéve Johnson, and Georgiana Brougham. Never underestimate the power of strong women with secrets.
