Battle Kiss — O'Neil De Noux

In anticipation of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the bicentennial of The Battle of New Orleans in 2015, New Orleans writer O'Neil De Noux spent two years researching and writing an epic historical novel set during that titanic struggle. BATTLE KISS is an intense, accurate depiction of the battle, of life in New Orleans in the days and nights preceding and following the monumental event. It is a saga of love and war, of battlefield heroes, of young men and young women in love â€" a tale of spies and privateers, ladies and rogues, patriots and traitors, sudden passion and sudden violence as the battle unfolds in stages until the cataclysm of January 8, 1815, when a rag-tag army of Creoles, free-men of color, pirates, American backwoodsmen, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Attakapas braves, fortified by a limited number of U.S. army regulars and marines and led by a general whose only experience was fighting insurgent Creeks, stands between New Orleans and a battle-hardened army of British soldiers, led by one of the Duke of Wellington's finest field commanders and hero of the Peninsula War against Napoleon â€" Major General Sir Edward Pakenham. Centered around two Creole families (one of French descent, the other Spanish), BATTLE KISS chronicles the tumultuous events preceding the battle as frantic citizens argue over surrendering New Orleans to the British in order to save the city from destruction. They are pitted against the rock-hard determination of General Andrew Jackson and the Americans who would burn the city rather than let the British have her. During this turbulent time, two young women recognize their growing affection for several young men caught in the battle, men vying for their love yet willing to sacrifice their lives for their new country. The story climaxes at the battle where rivals for the affections of the women stand side-by-side on that foggy January morning as the British come across the cane fields of the Chalmette Plantation. O'Neil De Noux, award-winning, international author of eight novels, seven short story collections and over two hundred published stories, was surprised when conducting his exhaustive research (forty-two source books) to learn there is no full-length saga written about the battle. Like TITANIC and GONE WITH THE WIND, De Noux's epic is a love story set against a stirring historical event. As the bicentennial of the battle approaches, with its attendant international attention (the 150th Anniversary drew ambassadors and dignitaries from a half dozen countries), many books will be written about the struggle. The Battle of New Orleans was the last time American and British armies met as enemies on a battlefield. Native son O'Neil De Noux has penned a gripping panoramic novel destined to be the finest written of this explosive time when New Orleans changed from a Creole town into an American city. So timely is BATTLE KISS, the Louisiana Division of the Arts awarded an Artist Services CAREER ADVANCEMENT AWARD FOR 2009-2010 to O'Neil De Noux for his work on the epic.