FriesenPress

© 2024 FriesenPress, Inc. All rights reserved.



Rock Solid cover

  • Paperback Edition
    • 978-1-4602-9419-2
    • 6.0 x 9.0 inches
    • Black & White interior
    • 372 pages
  • Hardcover Edition
    • 978-1-4602-9418-5
    • 6.0 x 9.0 inches
    • Black & White interior
    • 372 pages
  • Keywords
    • 1800's Outport families in NFLD,
    • 1800s Bell Island,
    • NFLD,
    • 1846 12000 homeless after fire in St John's,
    • Blue whales,
    • Early English engineer,
    • Cape Spear

Publish with FriesenPress

Learn how you can publish your book with the world’s only 100% employee-owned publishing services provider.


Get our Guide

Rock Solid
by Carolyn Muir Helfenstein and Harold Helfenstein


When horse-savvy James is hired by the Duke of Dorchester to deliver a young Arab stallion to the colony of Newfoundland aboard the Hindsight in the year 1800, James and the duke’s beautiful daughter, Alicia, realize this is a perfect opportunity for them both to board the ship and escape to the New World. They would cross the sea, deliver the young horse to a Mr. Penney who lived on Bell Island, and then they would be free to live their lives as husband and wife. Nothing could stop them, so they thought. Then it happened. The Hindsight could not withstand a sudden Atlantic storm that arose near the Newfoundland coastline. Yet James and Alicia are not defeated, even as the ship founders, they tie themselves to each other with horse leads and then to the young stallion. Even as they hear frantic cries as the Hindsight slides below the waves - the powerful stallion - bred to withstand any challenge surges onward and away to an unknown shore. Alicia gives in to the ice-cold sea. James catches sight of a single light, flickering in the distance, and with that the young black stallion senses shore - and is able to scramble up on a rocky beach. Out of the darkness come two Newfoundlanders. Knowing the secrets of how to outsmart Poseidon’s deadly hand, Ted and Marion Martin, true Newfoundlanders, get to work to save Alicia. Equally important and pivotal to the entire saga is the lonely Mr. Robert Penney. Overwhelmed with joy when James delivers the young stallion to his doorstep, Mr. Penney offers James, Alicia and their two Newfoundland friends an opportunity that sweeps the reader through the next fifty years of true-to-life Newfoundland‘s rich history.

www.carolynmuirhelfenstein.com


Carolyn Muir Helfenstein photo

In 1956 while on her first trip home to Newfoundland, Carolyn Helfenstein listened to her Uncle Doug spin the tale of a duchess and a coachman eloping across the sea from England to the New World. It took decades but those lovers eventually became the stars in Rock Solid. One of Carolyn’s earliest adventures with Harry was their boarding a cargo ship in Toronto, travelling the St. Lawrence seaway and as the only Newfoundlander of the 12 passengers on board, Carolyn and Harry were privileged to see the lights of Newfoundland from the bridge, well past midnight. And with no stabilizers, they were soon to discover the Hindsight was no cruise ship. But they eventually arrived in Germany, travelled to Switzerland on a delightful European train and was introduced to Harry’s family. They were curious about Harry’s choice, no doubt. Much later in life Carolyn was receiving awards by OCNA for her investigative writing; as well being invited to sit on the OCNA Board of Directors; finally Chair of the Board. Her search for her Newfoundland identity did not happen until she was in her seventies. She researched through the University of Waterloo (independent studies) earned a degree, and with her thesis, In Search of My Identity Carolyn developed a perfect framework to write Rock Solid now in its second edition. In 2021 with all their belongings in a huge van, they made a casual four-day drive to Halifax, NS.


Contributors

Author
Carolyn Muir Helfenstein
Author
Harold Helfenstein


What People are Saying





Other eBook Editions

This book is also available in eBook format from these sites.