All Comments on 'Flight from Brazil'

Another good story. 5*

I keep trying to think of different ways to say great story, but—tl;dr great story.

Excellent again, so much packed into a small space. Interesting historical facts, I assume the basis, at least, is factual

The amount. quality and diversity of your writing is really outstanding. Thank you for sharing it.

Exciting story!

5

Really fun read. Didn't think of her being CIA, so that was a nice twist and fit nicely into them reuniting in the US. 4.7*

Brilliantly done - again! Thank you

Very good read once again. I love the touch of obscure history, as it makes an excellent background. 5 stars

I don't usually care what category the author puts his/her story into, but about 3/4 of this tale was the history of this mythical family that stole the confederate money. The romance was sort of incidental to that history. Still made for interesting reading and I rate it as a 4* for keeping me connected for 4 pages.

Some fascinating insights into the chaos at the end of the Civil War.

Great story. Almost rushed through The Good Stuff (and it really was good) to get back to the story. 5 big stars for you as usual.

"... hundred thousand dollars in coins being paid to the Confederate Calvary ..."

Calvary - the place just outside the walls of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified.

Perhaps you meant Cavalry?

Very good and again 5+.

How it is? You have a plot with the American and the Arab woman maybe to rescue her daughters?

Like to read something like these

5*…AGAIN!

As always, you for writing and thank you for sharing your work.

I always look forward to this authors, I'm never disappointed. This is no exception, a real pleasure.

No idea where the facts end and fiction begins in this tale of the Confederate sympathizers and Confederate treasure. Doesn't matter as it was expertly told. Loved the ending where the good guys finally win and love triumphs. Well done story.

Another engaging tale from a talented and prolific writer.

Always a pleasure.

Thanks

ALWAYS A THRILL WHEN I READ BASED UPON A TITLE, AND DISCOVER YOU WROTE IT.

This is one of your best stories!!! Great job and Thank You

Another great story, quite believable really. For a work of fiction. (It is isn't ?)

5 stars as is appropriate.

Very interesting fiction mixed with somewhat obscure facts: it did take some digging, but some things could be definitely uncovered, while I do have to compliment you in formulating fiction where historic fact remains sketchy. However there were still some holes that don't really fit, and some of the fiction that doesn't really jive with the existing history.

***

First, I do have to compliment you on how extensively you dug into the Confederate side of the Civil War history. You certainly do have a lot of chops in that area, and I'm by no means lessening that by what I'm about to say. While I didn't dig into the American side of what you wrote as much, I did dig into the Brazilian side, which I am was already fairly well familiar with since I'm fluent in Brazilian Portuguese. First of all, using Daniels as the main kind of villain here.. while of course I assume is going to be more fictional.. because no William Abraham Daniels came up in any type of search I could execute, it really would have made more sense to have stuck with the Norris family as the most likely culprit for this fictional account: the reason why is it's the only family that is solidly documented to have gone to Brazil, and was really the only truly successful family there. In fact, the confederados as they were called basically only had one successful settlement that survived - - namely that of Americana in Sao Paulo state- - not necessarily close to the city of Sao Paulo. In fact, one can look up the article from history.com about the Norris family, and the Americana settlement, as it was the only one that survived what all the others collapsed of the roughly 10,000 Confederates that went to Brazil. They mainly went there because of Dom Pedro II, the emperor of the time, which offered them land for as cheap as 22 cents an acre. However, the history.com article plainly states all of these families were not rich nor wealthy, and few of the crops that they tried to plant as they would have in the American South largely failed, so the vast majority of them from the existing documentation returned to the US. For example you mentioned the Auburn special collections, which is a very credible source... because a professor emeritus from Auburn wrote a book that documented the Confederates that left for Brazil. However, returning to the article, most of the descendants of the confederados either moved into the cities or outright assimilated into Brazilian culture. So we basically have fiction starting with the name of William Abraham Daniels, and then extending that into a bank which the historical accounts discredit, since none of those people had enough money to do such a thing, nor were they successful enough while in Brazil to amass any money to continue living there. Additionally, there are some striking inconsistencies in the narrative: for example, when they cross into Santa Cruz, Bolivia, he consults his Portuguese phrase book to translate something that would obviously be in Spanish; another inconsistency is the Pique Macho listed as a specialty of the city of Santa Cruz-- which is not a specialty of that city, but of a city called Cochabamba. Picar is normally Spanish for to bite; to eat lightly or to get lightly drunk; or to chop into fine pieces. In one rare case, the eat lightly reference only applies in Columbia--not Bolivia. Finally, two different sources confirm that most of the people that disappear in Brazil are usually far more Brazilian Nationals than anyone else; in fact 30% of those that disappear are teenagers from the ages of 13 to 17 years old- - suggesting that they are used in human or sex trafficking. The way to have gotten around that inconsistency would have been to have tried two things: one would have been to somehow create a tale that would have involved this novelist researching a Sao Paulo gang that perhaps had been found in the US but had some obscure origin in Brazil- - as that is a sure way to disappear or to get murdered there; the second way to reasonably resolve or get around that discrepancy would be somehow to have led this novelist into the favelas of Rio de janeiro, which would have been exceptionally dangerous for anybody in the first place, and he could have also disappeared by being murdered there... because there are even police that don't wander into those favelas in Rio nor into the known gang-controlled sectors of Sao Paulo.

***

I admit that you did take a relatively obscure part of history and rewove it into a compelling and gripping story - - if someone didn't dig too deeply-- which kind of surprises me. Normally I spot check your stories, and everything is right, on down to the last dot of the i. This story also flipped the script on basically having the what would be assumed to be lead male character really as a secondary character- - because Felicia/ Annette is really the stronger lead in this case- - and so the woman is clearly the stronger figure, while the man- - despite his military background - - is nearly crippled in some cases into near inaction. So, I still compliment your ingenuity and your ability to rewrite a narrative to fit a set of circumstances that would seem plausible under most circumstances. However because of the historical issues, and the existing documentation... I have to say this is just one time that the inaccuracies detract from the story. To close with on a curious note, I kept expecting Blake , when he was going to take his leave of her, to say, "Bye Felicia!!" **3**

I enjoyed the story, but like Comentarista, I noticed the Portuguese vs Spanish word book. I do not know Portuguese but am wondering about da or do where it was used. Pobre Portuguese! I will have to look in my word book. I would never walk into any giant business and ask to talk to the top dogs. Especially in a country where I didn't know the culture.

Wonderful historical tale, with action, adventure, and the cia thrown in with a beautiful exotic female agent, what's not to like. Five stars plus! Thank you for it.

Strange kind of story. After the escape from Bolivia I felt it seemed like an episode from a longer novel. It all wrapped up pretty quickly after that and felt somewhat deprived. Have you thought of writing a much longer multi episode story? Not necessarily connected to this one.

@Comentarista82: You might want to look up the definition of the third word in your near-1000-word treatise. 5 stars for the story, 3 stars for your comment.

Minor comment:

" gerente" means the same in Spanish (spoken in Bolivia) and Portuguese (spoken in Brazil) so in this case (in Bolivia) a Portuguese dictionary would give the correct meaning,

But wasn't it already established that he spoke Spanish?

Flawless. History meets fiction, or is it the other wsy around?...smile

Excellent Story! Enjoyed the action and the loving. I have many more stories of yours to finish and keep up on the new ones you are posting!

Thanks for Writing!