Rebel King: Hammer of the Scots, Book One

Robert de Brus, scion of one of the most noble houses in Scotland, is propelled into rebellion by the Hammer of the Scots. Edward Plantagenet, king of England, who uses Scotland's inherently unstable clan system to seize power and claim the disunited country as his own.

Southern West Virginia native Charles Randolph Bruce was born and raised there in the highlands in which his Scottish ancestors settled in the late 1700s. His interest in telling the heroic story of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots 1306 -1329, was sparked by his family's tradition that they descended from the great medieval warrior king. Carolyn Hale Bruce was born in the Roanoke Valley, Virginia, where her 18th century ancestors include those with the Scottish surnames Agnew, Fraser, Thompson, and Davidson, among others. She wrote and had published two pictorial histories of her hometown.Now, having spent the last decade in researching, writing, illustrating, and promoting the Rebel King series of novels, Charles and Carolyn have traveled tens of thousands of miles to attend scores of games in dozens of states from Florida to Maine, Texas to Colorado, to promote their works and talk with other Scots about their hard-fought history. They have appeared on local television and radio shows in diverse markets, and have been written up in many newspapers and magazines. Every year new venues are added to their nearly nationwide wanderings.Presently writing on the fourth book in the epic saga of The Bruce, his ôragtagö army, and their attempts to free and maintain their homeland from enslavement by English king Edward I (a.k.a. ôLongshanksö and ôHammer of the Scotsö) and his son Edward II, the Bruces are also working at furthering their desires to put the novels on the big screen, and to create a documentary for airing on suitable cable television channels in the near future. Ideally, their plans include several feature-length theatrical films based on their books, the last of which would be released on June 24th 2014, the 700th anniversary of the Scots' victory over the far-greater army of Edward II at Bannok Burn.Also in the offing is the fifth planned volume of the series, which will carry the story through the end of Robert's life in 1329.