Born in a small town in central Washington State, Greg Simon spent his childhood playing, imagining, and acting much like any pre-teen child would. Always interested in family, he had many to interact with. The Simon family can be considered pioneers in the Wenatchee Valley, where they were part of the early 20th-century apple and cherry growing and harvesting industry, which sent fruit all over the world.
The times of the 1960s and early 1970s were trying to many. Navigating college and then marriage through this time while the world was in turmoil with the cold war, freedom marches, sit-ins, the draft, Viet Nam, J.F. Kennedy’s, Bobby Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King’s assassinations, and finally Watergate was an uncomfortable obstacle course to a young man making his way into adulthood.
To his credit, G. L. Simon achieved a master’s degree from both Gonzaga University and the University of Phoenix. Both were in fields related to education (as was his undergraduate degree from Washington State University). He has also taught in the university setting, where he spent his time teaching undergraduate writing courses.
During college years, Greg met his life’s love, Sue, a fellow student in music and the arts. They were married and remain so to this day. They have three wonderful children and seven grandchildren who are grown and making their way in the world.
Now retired to his small acreage, where he raises grapes and makes wine, he has turned his focus to writing a long, thought-out series of books —a pursuit he had wanted to undertake many years ago, but time had never been available for such.
ABOUT THE BOOKS OF DER FLECTHEMANN CHRONICLE
Genealogy has always been an interest of his, but his desire to learn more about his family ’s name led him to explore the migration of the name and its iterations across the globe. Whether actual or imagined, the ordinary person plies their way through history, adding their stories to the whole. To this end, I follow the name ‘Simon’ and its many iterations through history.
With this, G. L. Simon introduces an intriguing historical fiction set in the times and trials of the 14th century. YAKOV’S RUN is a novel about a young man living life in the Middle Ages of Europe. He has common dreams, he grows, experiences life, and generates stories. Although this book is not a coming-of-age story, it does reveal the commonalities we all share in life. We are born, we survive, and we pass on. The adventures we have are our milestones along the way, where we can impart our knowledge and wisdom to the future.
The Great Famine of the early 14th century, as well as the Great Plague of the same century, set the backdrop for this fiction. Finding shelter, food, and security is paramount to survival. The nobles, the clergy, and the merchants form the upper 10 percent of society, whose wealth was received on the backs of the commoners, create the drama of this fictional account of life and struggle 700 years ago. The struggles we encounter have not changed that much.
G. L. Simon, a secondary and college English writing and history teacher for his career, now turned author, develops interesting settings, characters, and plots in these works intended for teens through adults. The books now published in the United States are also released in the United Kingdom by Waterstone, Ltd.
Also, look for FLETCHER’S GAMBIT (book 2), released in March of this 2024, and the series will continue with PLAGUES END (book 3), to be released in the second half of 2025. As well there are both audio and eBook versions of the same titles.
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