Digital download. PDF available upon purchase.
 
King of Hearts is a story that traces the actual Terrill family through 60 generations, over 700 years, as it learns the consequences of wealth, power, and prestige, only to have it all collapse around them. The Prairies Book Review describes King of Hearts as “ambitious, extensively researched, and deeply engrossing.”
 
Using a blend of magic realism, lyrical prose, and imagery, King of Hearts weaves a complex tapestry of a family’s history from 65 BCE through the present. William (Will) Terrill, a retired Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, moves to a condo in an assisted living center after his wife’s death and becomes friends with fellow resident Reverend Mike Thomas.
 
As the two men become close friends, Will decides to share a secret he’s kept hidden all his life, unaware that his connection with Mike is more than their newly formed friendship. Will’s reflective, thoughtful nature makes him shine without drawing attention from other characters, including the sensible and grounded Mike, with whom he shares a beautiful bond of friendship – and the history of the several generations of the Terrills, whose intriguing stories slowly unfold alongside Will’s.
 
“Linde’s narration elevates an already-intriguing story to a complex examination of how people live and die generation after generation and how their actions shape the lives of those born after them. A story founded on history, which also boasts grand events and ideas. Exhilarating.” (The Prairies  Book Review)
 
Author Notes/Why You Should Read King of Hearts
 
“If you’ve ever worn a watch, you’re familiar with the small knob located on the side of the case called the ‘crown,’ which typically allows you to adjust time by pulling it out and turning it in either direction to amend the concepts of ‘when’ and ‘now.’ While we can arbitrarily ‘adjust’ time, we really can’t go back or forward as time is a linear progression from past to present to future. Events can only happen in one direction. 
 
In King of Hearts, I had the honor of going back in time as guided by my Aunt Hazel, who was a genealogist long before computers made it easy. Through her research, Aunt Hazel put so many pieces of our ancestral puzzle into place. She provided the roadmap needed to go back to 65 BC, that is, 64 generations and counting. While writing this book, I learned about who my ancestors were, how they lived, and why they died. What they accomplished and what they squandered. The things I couldn’t decipher were my ancestor's emotions. Were they happy? Were they in love? Did sorrow fill their souls? Did sadness rear its ugly head? And how perilous was life, with death literally just one heartbeat away every minute of every hour of every day? 
 
To make King of Hearts relevant, I placed it in 1990—a year that marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The events of 1990 have had far-reaching consequences on the political, economic, technological, and social landscapes of the world we live in today. In 365 days, we saw the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We celebrated East and West Germany officially reunifying, were startled by the Gulf War, amazed at the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope providing unprecedented images of the universe. We were yet unaware of the consequences of the rise of the World Wide Web that created the foundation for the Internet and the communication revolution as we know it today. Just as profound, 1990 saw the launch of the Human Genome Project or the mapping of DNA to understand our genetic makeup and its implications for health, disease, and evolution.
 
To tie everything together, King of Hearts includes a little ‘magic’ in terms of time travel from a place called ‘The Forest,’ where the voyage isn’t to a specific time or location, but to an ancestor who teaches Will Terrill, the main character, what it was like to be alive back then. In so doing, the most important thing Will learned was the meaning of consequence—the relationship between cause and effect. An action today affects everything that follows.
 
The other primary character in King of Hearts is a retired minister named Reverend Mike. Why a minister? Because religion strongly influenced the social dynamics in Medieval Europe and therefore impacted the formative development of European and subsequently American government, society, and culture.
 
If you enjoy history, I sincerely believe you’ll appreciate King of Hearts. As for me, I believe we can’t determine where we’re going unless we comprehend where we’ve been. To go back over 2,000 years has given me a perspective not only on my family, but on life itself, by providing a different assessment on the consequence of one’s actions to which I now ponder the following:
 
Who am I?
What do I know?
When will I stop?
Where will I go?
 
What am I?
When can I say?
Where is tomorrow?
Who is today?
 
When am I?
Where will I feel?
Who do I love?
What is real?
 
Where am I?
From whom do I yearn?
What makes me happy?
When will I learn?
 
The past is the present, 
The present, the past.
Today is yesterday, tomorrow,
 and I must make it last.”