When Albany dresses in a federal uniform to deliver a map to General Grant, she does not expect to see a Confederate soldier fall under his horse during the Battle of the Wilderness. Albany rescues Paxton who has been temporarily blinded by the cannon fire that killed his horse. Regaining his sight, Paxton is stunned to learn his companion is the enemy and a woman. As the couple travels the ground, meeting slaves, ne’er-do-wells, and children, they seek safe havens during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Amid the chaos of battle, they fall in love.
About the author
Nikki Lynne Stoddard Schofield, born during World War II, became seriously interested in the Civil War when she attended her first meeting of the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table and heard Alan Nolan, author of The Iron Brigade, present the program. She has remained an active member of that club of scholars ever since. Serving in various offices, Nikki has been president four times. She organized and led the annual week-long bus tour for several years.
Stoddard Schofield began writing Civil War romances shortly before her retirement as law librarian at Bingham Greenbaum Doll, a large law firm in downtown Indianapolis where she worked for 37 years. Her motivation for writing her first novel was reading a bad romance novel and thinking: “I can do better.” Nikki set several criteria for her novel. Most important, the heroine and hero must be kind to each other and always together. Two common plot twists in romance novels which Nikki dislikes are the heroine and hero disliking each other at the beginning and having extensive separations. She resolved to avoid these devices in her story-telling.
Being a born-again Christian, Ms. Schofield always brings Christianity into her stories. She writes about people during the Civil War such as you might meet in any era, struggling to resolve the problems they confront.
At Speedway Baptist Church, Nikki serves as a deacon, adult Sunday school teacher, business meeting moderator, and assistant treasurer. She is active in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, affiliated with her church.
As a tour guide at Crown Hill Cemetery since 1993, she has developed Civil War tours including “Treason in Indianapolis” based on her third book, Treason Afoot. Many of the characters in that novel are buried at Crown Hill. Other tours she has created are “Drama and Disaster” and “Tombstones and Trees.” One day a week, Nikki works as the staff genealogist at Crown Hill, the third largest private cemetery in the country.
Stoddard-Schofield is a docent at the Indiana Medical History Museum on the grounds of the former Central State Hospital for the mentally ill. For many years, she volunteered in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Division of the Indiana State Library, creating finding aids for the collection.
Nikki portrays several Civil War women for various events and meetings. Annually at Crown Hill, she tells Mary Logan’s story of General John Logan establishing Memorial Day and portrays the second wife of Frederick Douglass for Spirit of Freedom honoring the black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War. Her most recent portrayal is Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield.
A member of the Buster Keaton International Fan Club, she attends the annual convention in Muskegon, Michigan, during the first week-end of October, which is close to the silent screen comedian’s birthday.
Her other interests are reading, gardening, stamp collecting, old movies (especially film noir), and genealogy.
Nikki is the mother of two sons, Rob and Gaven, six grandchildren (Bridget, Stephanie, Nicholas, Abigail, Gabrielle, and Lily), and five great-grandchildren (Gee, Bella, Elias, Sebastian, and Aria). Born in Michigan, she has lived most of her life in Indianapolis.
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