Standing Ovation

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on;and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”The Tempest Act 4, scene 1 – William ShakespeareThe years:1900-1901The location: Los Angeles, CaliforniaThe woman: Annie Mae SteinbergHer goal: Make The Mari Mort Theater a Resounding Success.Annie Mae Steinberg survived an adventurous journey by train and stagecoach from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. A naïve young girl became a woman along the way.Through deadly circumstances, Mae becomes the owner of The Mari Mort Theater. With her best friend and partner, Claire Brenner, she gathers a group of like-minded women of the stage. They sing, they dance, and Mae performs recitations of popular soliloquies for a growing audience. Her dream of being an actress is a reality at last!But, shortly before Christmas a despicable character from back East threatens a young mother in her troupe. Can Mae eliminate this threat? Will her new romance with a wealthy hotel owner survive the tumult?The year 1900 is taking its final bow. Ladies and gentlemen, please prepare to give it a standing ovation!

L. C. Bennett Stern, born in Philadelphia, was raised from a young age in southern New Jersey as the middle child in a family of nine. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, as well as: Philadelphia Hometown Reads, Historical Fiction Authors, Vintage Philadelphia, #The Awethors, South Jersey Women for Progressive Change, and Birds of the Eastern United States, online sites. She enjoys doing research for her books, politics, nature and architectural photography, backyard birding, and is recognized as the family worrywart.
Her first book (Award-Winning Finalist in the "True Crime: Non-Fiction" category of the 2017 International Book Awards) is Bosses and Blackjacks: A Tale of the "Bloody Fifth" in Philadelphia. It tells the true story of her paternal grandfather, David Bennett, a police lieutenant who becomes embroiled in a political scandal with the mayor and a butcher, resulting in a murder on Election Day in 1917. The trial that ensues is national news, sharing headlines with WWI.
Her second book, Mae's Revenge, is the first of a historical fiction trilogy, built upon some basic truths about one of her grandfather David's older sisters.
Standing Ovation is the second act of the trilogy.
Linda is the mother of two grown children, a daughter and a son. She lives with her husband, a fellow author, in a small New Jersey river town directly across the Delaware from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.