"All is connected. There is a great spider web that binds all human beings, non-human beings, and non-beings, all the past, and all the future together in one huge, sticky, fibrous mass of connectedness."
All About Me
Cindy Burkart Maynard is passionate about history, and the natural world, a passion that adds rich detail and context to her historical fiction novels. Her characters come to life on the page as they portray what it was like to live in another time and place. She weaves compelling, dramatic stories based on strong characters facing daunting challenges. She has co-authored two nonfiction works about the Colorado Plateau and the Desert Southwest and contributed articles to Images and Colorado Life Magazines. She has been a Volunteer Naturalist for Boulder County for more than twenty years, and served a Docent at the Sonora Arizona Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ.
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Awards:
Colorado Authors League Award Winner for Western literature
Women Writing the West Award Finalist
WILLA Literary Award finalist for soft cover fiction.
Readers’ Favorite Five Star Author
Winner of the Marie M. Irvine award for Literary Excellence
Professional Affiliations:
Historical Novel Society of North America
Lighthouse Writers
Women’s Fiction Writers Association
Colorado Authors League
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers
Authors Guild
My HP Books
A coming of age journey along the Camino de Santiago in medieval Spain.
Book One in the Seekers Series
#MedievalMedicalJourney #HerbalHealingQuest #WomenInMedicine #InspirationalMedievalWomen #MedievalAdventureTales
In 1250 AD, in an obscure corner of northeastern Spain at the foot of the Pyrenees, ancient
Basque traditions collide with the onslaught of Christianity. Amika, a young Basque girl on the brink of adulthood and her mother, a healer, awake in the night to the howls of an angry mob approaching their hut. Torches fly and their hut goes up in flames. The rabid throng drags her mother away to be burned at the stake as a witch. Amika flees in terror into the forest. A Wise Woman of the ancient tradition rescues her and initiates Amika into the Old Ways. Soon they too are hunted down and jailed, doomed to suffer the same fate as Amika's mother. A sympathetic priest frees Amika, but as the price of her freedom he sends her on a quest to walk the Camino de Santiago, the ancient pilgrimage route across northern Spain. Along the way Amika encounters danger, hardship, and fear before she meets the man and child with whom she will share her future.
Motivated by the memory of her mother dying in her arms, Esperanza resolves that she will one day walk the halls of the Scola Medica at Salerno and train to become a healer.
Fate brought Amika, a talented herbalist, into her life and helped Esperanza take her first steps toward gaining the knowledge that would fulfill her dream. Unfortunately, a tragic accident forced Esperanza to flee Amika's home. Her journey toward finding the path to success is littered with stumbling blocks, some more difficult to avoid than she expected.
Book Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
SPRING 1259
A mangle-eared mutt cocked his head toward the sky sniffing the breeze, sensing the approaching storm. The dog lowered his head, hunched his shoulders, and sidled into an alley. A concussive boom tore the clouds open, and torrents of rain sluiced over the stone-built town of Ponferrada. Up and down the street people scurried for shelter.
"Amika, help me haul this table up against the wall out of the rain. It will take both of us." Gabriela struggled to muscle a heavy oak table under the covered walkway along the ancient pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago. . . .
Inside their stone house on their ancient cobblestone street, an apothecary cabinet, burnished by age to a rich mahogany patina, dominated the room. An intricate warren of compartments and drawers held ointments, elixirs, and infusions. Bundles of herbs hung upside down from the ceiling. A symphony of spicy, citrusy, fruity, minty smells harmonized like a fragrant orchestra. Customers inhaled deeply and their spirits lightened when they walked through the door. When their wares were safely inside, the three companions settled on a bench, warming themselves before a capacious open hearth.
The girl turned her smokey grey eyes toward Amika. Roaming hillsides too steep for the farmers’ plough was the greatest pleasure Amika and Esperanza shared. In the two years since Amika discovered the girl curled next to the body of her dead mother along the Camino de Santiago, the two had grown as close as any natural mother and child.
Though only nineteen years old, her childhood living rough as an orphan in the wild hills of the Basque country, had made Amika wise beyond her years. Her knowledge of plants, . . . , could fill volumes. All she had learned still lived within her, and she was eager to pass it along to Esperanza, the orphan with stormy grey eyes and an ineffable power to perceive illness. . . .
"I expect we'll see many customers coughing and wheezing," Esperanza predicted. "We will need plenty of mustard greens for poultices, and catmint for fevers.”
"Speaking of cool, wet weather, I have just what we need." Gabriela heaved herself up off the bench and trundled into the kitchen, emerging with a thick stew of beans, onions, and lentils. A smile crinkled the corners of her blue eyes as she handed Amika and Esperanza wooden bowls and heels of barley bread. The three companions huddled together like birds in a nest. The warmth of affection enfolded them like a well-loved quilt, Gabriela plump as a partridge, Amika tall, lithe and still beautiful, with cupid’s bow lips and acorn-brown eyes, and Esperanza, defiant and serious, her smokey gray eyes peering out from under a wide forehead and springy mouse-brown hair. In the years since their unlikely meeting, they had settled into an amicable partnership that did not require words.
Book Trailer
Book Reviews
BOOK LIFE MAGAZINE
Plot/Idea: In book two of the Seekers series, an orphaned girl in medieval Europe travels far and wide to pursue a dream of becoming a doctor. Maynard beautifully captures the distant time and place, fully pulling readers into her storytelling.
Prose: Maynard writes clearly and directly with evocative descriptions of rural landscapes along with references to cultural and historical touchstones of the era.
Originality: Maynard integrates threads of historical fiction and fantasy for a unique reading experience.
Character/Execution: Esperanza and peripheral characters bring both a sense of mystery and realism to the pages through descriptions of daily customs, desires, and struggles. Maynard's storytelling succeeds in being both ethereal and anchored in history.
LEFT HAND VALLEY COURIER
"Esperanza's Way" author Cindy Burkart Maynard will appear at Inkberry Books Oct. 28.
It feels like it's been a while since I've gotten a fiction selection from Inkberry Books-and I'm so happy it was historical fiction, which is one of my favorite genres. Cindy Burkart Maynard's "Esperanza's Way" was an absolute delight.
It's the 13th century and the story takes place between what would eventually become Spain and Italy. Esperanza is a poor orphan with a gift: she has uncanny intuition, which comes in handy in her work as a herbalist/healer. Moreover, she's not just poor financially, she's (seemingly) poor in luck.
While nearly everyone she meets is impressed by her boldness and her extensive knowledge of healing plants, no one seems to know what to do with her. As such, when one tragic event after another happens, Esperanza is constantly being offloaded as somebody else's problem. She stays resolute in her desire to be a certified physician, but she is a woman, with no references and no formal training. As such, her way forward is very much unclear.
I loved reading this book-it is the second in a series- but it seems to be more or less a stand-alone story. It has strong characters, an interesting plot and a fair number of minor twists that are sure to keep readers engaged. I absolutely flew through the approximately 250-page book in just a few sittings, as it was that hard to put down.
Esperanza is very much a woman out of her time. She's driven and smart and incredibly bold. That said, there were a few times where her determination was almost exasperating.
I understand that when betrayal is central to a character's growth, that can sometimes make them feel a little cold at times, but I still wish that she would have warmed up to the other characters more. Despite the fact that the reader essentially follows Esperanza through most of her life, there was-in my opinion-not enough character growth. I would also have liked to see a little bit more of the development that happened as she shifted her goals from licensed physician to where she ultimately ends her story. She was still incredibly well fleshed out, relatable and an overall pleasure to meet.
The ensemble cast was also fairly colorful and dynamic. Some of the supporting characters were only briefly present, but for the most part, the reader engages with them enough to see how they impact Esperanza, and they don't linger too long. I did love how we got a little more development with characters later on, especially with Dolores, because I felt like their presence and growth really uplifted Esperanza's story.
As for the plot, it's not exactly rags-to-riches, but that's perhaps the closest comparable trope. The book spans 40 years (45 if you include the epilogue), and therefore has a ton of action and vignettes of Esperanza's life. We are able to see her grow from a shrewd, distrustful tween into a successful and fulfilled adult, all through seeing the trials and tribulations of her life. It's hard to describe those trials without giving away too much of the plot, but to some degree, as she becomes more secure in life (e.g., financially) she becomes more secure in herself and her place in the world (e.g., self- and familial-love).
As a technical critique, I do wish that there were fewer chapters with temporal tags. Each one would have a title hinting at a theme of the chapter, accompanied with a season/month and a year. There were a few that didn't seem to make sense-for instance, chapter six, "Diaspora - Winter 1262 to Winter 1263" and chapter seven, "On the Threshold - Spring 1264," which end and begin only a day apart. I think it would have been more helpful to only give those indications of time at major plot points, such as when Esperanza is journeying (or fleeing) from one adopted home to the next.
Overall, this was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anyone who leans toward historical fiction. If you enjoy strong and driven female characters, you're also likely to enjoy this novel.
Author Cindy Burkart Maynard will also be in Niwot Oct. 28 for an event at Inkberry Books, where she will discuss both "Esperanza's Way" and its predecessor, "Finding the Way."
Happy Reading!
ON-LINE BOOK CLUB
Motivated by the memory of her mother dying in her arms, Esperanza resolved in her heart that she would one day walk the halls of the Scola Medica at Salerno and train to become a healer. Fate had brought Amika into her life and she had taken early steps in search of the knowledge that would fulfill her dream. Unfortunately for her, the death of the wife of a nobleman from misuse of a drug Esperanza provided forced her to flee Amika’s home and begin her journey. Cindy Burkart Maynard’s Esperanza’s Way reveals that during her adventure she would find the path to success littered with stumbling blocks, some more difficult to avoid than she expected.
Cindy Burkart Maynard shares a young woman’s struggle to achieve her dreams despite the setbacks she encounters. Europe in the Middle Ages is a curious choice for the setting of her story, but an interesting one nonetheless as the entertaining plot conforms to the historical accuracy of the era. The characters are well-developed and their conversations, though simplistic, maintain the depth I would expect from a story revolving around drama. The subplots involving romance, acceptance, and the gradual passing of the torch between generations are balanced and individually interesting, especially when considering how fluidly Maynard weaves all of them into one storyline. Esperanza’s Way provides immersive entertainment with a high degree of realism brought to life courtesy of Maynard’s engaging style of storytelling.
READERS FAVORITE
FIVE STAR REVIEW
Motivated by the memory of her mother dying in her arms, Esperanza resolved in her heart that she would one day walk the halls of the Scola Medica at Salerno and train to become a healer. Fate had brought Amika into her life and she had taken early steps in search of the knowledge that would fulfill her dream. Unfortunately for her, the death of the wife of a nobleman from misuse of a drug Esperanza provided forced her to flee Amika’s home and begin her journey. Cindy Burkart Maynard’s Esperanza’s Way reveals that during her adventure she would find the path to success littered with stumbling blocks, some more difficult to avoid than she expected.
Cindy Burkart Maynard shares a young woman’s struggle to achieve her dreams despite the setbacks she encounters. Europe in the Middle Ages is a curious choice for the setting of her story, but an interesting one nonetheless as the entertaining plot conforms to the historical accuracy of the era. The characters are well-developed and their conversations, though simplistic, maintain the depth I would expect from a story revolving around drama. The subplots involving romance, acceptance, and the gradual passing of the torch between generations are balanced and individually interesting, especially when considering how fluidly Maynard weaves all of them into one storyline. Esperanza’s Way provides immersive entertainment with a high degree of realism brought to life courtesy of Maynard’s engaging style of storytelling.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4.0 out of 5 stars A Medieval Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2021
While reading Finding the Way by Cindy Burkhart Maynard, I felt as though I were traveling on the famous
Camino de Santiago along with Amika, the book's teen-age protagonist. Set in the mid-1200s in northern Spain, this historical novel reads like a Grimm's Brothers fairy tale, starting with the death of Amika's mother in their small Basque village, when the evil village priest and villagers - believing she is a witch - burn her at the stake.
Fearing for her own life, Amika escapes the village and follows the Camino, or road, to the town of Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, a traditional, multi-week pilgrimage many people make for spiritual and religious reasons. Along the way, we meet several of Marika's fellow pilgrims, including nine-year-old Esperanza, a clairvoyant who is able to foresee events through the voice of her dead mother, and Mateo, a young man who becomes a special friend. Finding food and shelter and escaping danger along the Camino is a challenge for everyone in this suspenseful story. I highly recommend Finding the Way to anyone fascinated by Spain and its cultural and natural history.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dramatic and immersive historical fiction of medieval Spain and the Camino de Santiago
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2024
I enjoyed this immersive Camino story.
How I found this book:
I love non-fiction and memoir about the many Caminos (the Kerry Camino, the Portuguese Way, the Camino Freances and the Norte - all fascinating, all on my hiking wishlist) but I also wanted to find historical fiction where the journey on the Camino plays an integral part. That's how I found Cindy Burkart Maynard's FINDING THE WAY.
What I loved:
The history of Spain's Pyrenees region, medieval village life, memorable characters, suspense and drama, along with an emphasis on the herbal and healing arts, all of it creates a vivid backdrop to the story of Amika and her pilgrimage through life, and through many hardships.
