Copies of “One Candle’s Light” now available from author only

In anticipation of the 400th celebration, we have 400 print copies available of One Candle’s Lightthe Thanksgiving story you never knew.*

*Update (November 2018): Early this year, the publisher (Oak Tara) released all rights back to author Fay Alexander, and allowed one last print order to be made of the corrected version published by Oak Tara Publishers (2009).

There are no longer Kindle versions nor new print copies from the original publisher available on Amazon. We are looking into updating our links and signing up to sell our copies on Amazon soon…

If you are interested in buying a copy of One Candle’s Light, please click on the Contact Fay tab on this website with your query.

Here is Fay’s Author page on Amazon.com

2020: 400th Anniversary of Mayflower Landing

Breaking news: In 2020, the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims will be 400 years old!

Big preparations to celebrate are underway on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean!

Check out these links and make your plans!

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants (USA)

The Mayflower 400 group  (UK)

In anticipation of the 400th celebration, we have 400 print copies available of One Candle’s Lightthe Thanksgiving story you never knew.*

Continue reading “2020: 400th Anniversary of Mayflower Landing” »

2015: Two Pilgrim Programs Air Thanksgiving Week

A deeper look into the real Pilgrim story.

We are delighted that two new features attempt to portray the real human experience of the Mayflower Pilgrims rather than the simple iconic view, just as Fay’s historical novel One Candle’s Light set out to do: tell the Thanksgiving Story You Never Knew.

1) A new drama Saints & Strangers, produced by the National Geographic Channel, features actors from Britain, Ireland, and the US who re-enact the Pilgrims’ journey to the New World and interactions with the Native Americans.

The two-night event premieres Sunday, Nov. 22, and Monday, Nov. 23, at 9/8CT on National Geographic Channel (from The Channel Magazine).

2) A documentary The Pilgrims by Ric Burns will air on PBS Nov. 24th (Tues) and again on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26, 8 pm).

Finally, the LA Times has a nice review of both features just out today:Saints & Strangers’ and ‘Pilgrims’ make clear Thanksgiving’s thorny origins.

 

What “Freedom from Want” Hath Wrought!*

The Pilgrims’ story reminds us of the tremendous obstacles they overcame to leave the relative comfort of Leyden, Holland and settle a congenial community in the wilderness of the New World.  Today we Americans live in the freedom that the colonists hoped to find in this new world. We can hardly imagine the hardships they suffered.

Yet some of us will gorge, watch football or shop on Thanksgiving Day. Others, like the Pilgrims, will reflect and thank God for the freedom they pursued and pioneered on Cape Cod in 1620.  

 

*Freedom from Want is both a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt during a speech in 1941 and a well-known painting depicting a family Thanksgiving dinner by Norman Rockwell, published in 1943.

Thanksgiving 2013: the Mayflower Compact & Self-government

As we approach another Thanksgiving holiday we can celebrate once again the harvest festival as did those English colonists known today as Pilgrims. They gave thanks to God for their colony’s survival even though they lost half their community during the harsh winter of 1621.

These colonists settled Plimoth Plantation not as a trading post but as a permanent community for families. While still aboard the Mayflower they signed a binding compact unique in history because the signers agreed to submit to the authority of the community rather than a monarch.

How significant is this event in American history?  It set a precedent for the form of self-government the Constitutional Congress would confirm one hundred fifty years later in the basic document of our American government.

So take note, Americans. We do not observe Thanksgiving because our first colonists ate turkey and pumpkin pie at harvest time.  We celebrate the Pilgrims for their vision of a community governed by themselves, not an absent king across the sea.  This belief in self-government still underlies our concept of proper order for the community.  And despite the changes suggested by radical new ideas, this concept is inherent in our character. To compromise this basic belief would just be…un-American!