Here’s a sneak peek into Castle Gate, including the front material and a few free chapters.
Tag: Generational Curse
Castle Gate is finally in print!
I’m excited to announce that the book I’ve been working on for so many years is finally available with a publication date of November 30, 2023.
Castle Gate is the true and tragic saga of a Scottish family whose dreams of finding their fortunes in the bountiful coal mines of Castle Gate, Utah, during the Prohibition era explode in one of the most devastating mine disasters in American history. Is their presence there just bad luck, or is it due to a generational curse dating back to their ancestors’ involvement in a grisly witchcraft trial in the 1600s?
Based on extensive genealogical research, Castle Gate tells the story of one family destroyed by a documented curse which has been wreaking havoc in countless lives, all over the world, for centuries.
Celebrations of birth and death, all in one day
Today is August 30, 2023.
On August 30, 1923, 100 years ago today, Helen Garroch was laid to rest in the Castle Gate Cemetery. She was only 38. (In this photo she was approximately 14 years old.)
Also 100 years ago today, it was Helen’s only son’s 18th birthday. In the coal mining town of Castle Gate, Utah there was a rite-of-passage tradition on a young man’s 18th birthday. His task was to go to the nearby town of Helper and start drinking at the first saloon on Main Street. He was challenged to make it to the end of the row of saloons still sober enough to hire some female companionship at one of the many brothels there in town.
Helen’s son Willie, who eventually became my grandfather — instead of celebrating his adulthood with his pals — attended his young mother’s funeral. The family had only emigrated from Scotland a couple years ago and Willie’s heart still ached for his homeland. Now he had lost one of his ties to home, his beloved mom.
Willie didn’t know that, less than a year later, he would also lose his father in one of the biggest coal mine disasters in American history.
You can read the rest of their story in the book Castle Gate, which will be available on November 30, 2023 (the author’s birthday). Sign up here on this page to be notified when it’s available for pre-order.
Castle Gate — the book … in print on November 30, 2023
Castle Gate, by Lisa Bonnice, is Book 1 in the Maxwell Curse Trilogy. It’s the true and tragic saga of the Garroch and Littlejohn families, related by marriage. The Littlejohn family is descended from a lineage that was cursed during a witch trial in 1600s Scotland, but they are unaware of it. The Garrochs are just unfortunate enough to have married into this nightmare.
The curse assures that the descendants of the accusers — who caused five souls to be arrested, tried and executed — suffer as the accused suffered. That includes having their families torn apart, watching helplessly as their loved ones struggle, or even horrific death by fire.
Book 1, Castle Gate, uses robust and extensive genealogical research to tell the tale of the families who emigrate to the United States from Scotland during the WWI and Prohibition eras, only to have the curse follow them there. The Littlejohns and Garrochs, and over a hundred others, are devastated by one of the biggest mine explosions in American history — the Castle Gate Mine Disaster of 1924 — where families are torn apart and almost two hundred men die by fire in a mine that the Littlejohns run.
Book 2, A Curse by Fire ,will tell the story of the witch trial and the origin of the curse. Book 3, Kind Miss, will wrap it up in modern-day America where the curse is discovered and dismantled by descendants of the original accusers.
Castle Gate - The Book 