Available for pre-order on Amazon, “The Storyteller’s Bracelet” is a new historical romance from Smoky Trudeau Zeidel (“On the Choptank Shores,” “The Cabin”) with a June 22, 2012 release date from Vanilla Heart Publishing. Smoky will stop by Malcolm’s Round Table to discuss her book later this month. Meanwhile, you can learn more about Smoky in her interview with Shelly Bryant here.

Publisher’s Description: It is the late 1800s, and the U.S. Government has mandated native tribes send their youth to Indian schools where they are stripped of their native heritage by the people they think of as The Others. Otter and Sun Song are deeply in love, but when they are sent East to school, Otter, renamed Gideon, tries to adapt, where Sun Song does not, enduring brutal attacks from the school headmaster because of her refusal to so much as speak. Gideon, thinking Sun Song has spurned him, turns for comfort to Wendy Thatcher, the daughter of a wealthy school patron, beginning a forbidden affair of the heart.

But the Spirits have different plans for Gideon and Sun Song. They speak to Gideon through his magical storyteller’s bracelet, showing him both his past and his future. You are both child and mother of The Original People, Sun Song is told. When it is right, you will be safe once more. Will Gideon become Otter once again and return to Sun Song and his tribal roots, or attempt to remain with Wendy, with whom he can have no future?

Comment: Smoky and I share the same publisher, so in my view, it would be improper for me to review The Storyteller’s Bracelet. Yet, as I read an advance copy to prepare for our upcoming discussion, I couldn’t help but notice the great care Smoky has taken with her approach to the culture, beliefs and thoughts of her dual protagonists Otter and Sun Song. Since the title character in my novel Sarabande has an Indian heritage, I wrestled with the problem of accurately telling a story from an Indian’s point of view.  Smoky’s words ring true. What an absolutely wonderful book. This should be grabbed up as a classic.

—Malcolm