‘The Refused,’ Singerton’s newest historic novel

David Jerome
Correspondent

Local author and artist Ron Singerton, approaching his 80th birthday, is celebrating the release of a new historical novel, “The Refused,” available now on Amazon (and receiving reviews that must make the writer proud.) Hill residents may know him from his long and continuing involvement with the Art Alliance of Idyllwild and his Singerton Gallery in the Village Centre from 2008 to 2016. He and his wife Darla now live in Garner Valley, and his art is still being shown in Town Gallery.

“The Refused” is his fifth period novel, but his history as a writer goes way back. Before coming to Idyllwild he taught history and art for 25 years in Southern California high schools. During that time he wrote a set of over 30 “mini” books, “Moments in History,” depicting important people and events for young readers, which were accepted by the state as “supplemental teaching materials.”

His historical novels soon followed. First came a pair following the adventures of a Roman centurion, Gaius, whose campaigns take him all the way to the great wall of China. Then came a pair that spans the period starting with the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and finishing with WW II.

His first novel, “Villa of Deceit,” according to Chanticleer Editorial Review, Singerton … “vividly conveys the brutality and wanton disregard of life on and off the battlefield in this cleverly plotted historical novel that speaks to a time that would change Western Civilization for the next millennia.”

The Russo-Japanese/Japanese-American pair follow another conflict between nations and cultures through two generations of war. As readers would expect, forbidden romances lead to children of divided loyalties, and characters driven by “[c]ommitment, terror, compassion and unswerving loyalty” ricochet through “a story of unyielding nations in a world gone mad.” (Penmore Press)

Singerton’s latest, “The Refused,” takes its title from the French artists who, refused by the art establishment of mid-19th century Paris, started their own salon. The action starts amid the horrors of slavery on a Virginia plantation on the eve of the Civil War. An artistic young woman, Charlotte, discovers her family’s dark secrets as the world around her heads toward disaster. As a nurse she witnesses the horrors of period medical technology, or lack thereof.

She flees to Paris, but Europe is also wracked by war. Will Charlotte find happiness? What about her brilliant, mixed-race half brother? Where does Egyptology fit in?

The human experience, the conflicts on one level between individuals, and on another between elites and nations, attracts readers to this genre. Taut, action-laced storytelling with sympathetic characters (and complex villains) is woven between the threads of history to entertain while encouraging an interest in history.

As Singerton said, “Technology of the past often appears elementary to us, the emotions do not.” Stories that span continents tie together parts of history we may not normally think of as contemporary. Beyond the merits of any one story, this seems a worthwhile mission.