"Peace River Boundary" New Novel focuses on Charlotte County History

"Peace River Boundary" a new work of historical fiction written by Dr. Douglas Houck, which has the territory that is now Charlotte County as a backdrop,  has just been published. The book focuses on the Spanish monarchy and its place in Charlotte County’s history, which Houck described as “a unique history characterized by conspiracy, uncertainty, and conflict during a thirty-year period extending from the 1830s to the 1860s.”

Dr. Houck, an English professor at Edison State and President of the Peace River Center for Writers located on the Charlotte Campus, described the story of war and peace in Southwestern Florida as “fictional history.” His inspiration was spawned during research for his fifth book “Historic Charlotte County; An Illustrated History,” which was released in mid-March.

“Eventually you get into these things and the stories start telling themselves … one kind of spills over into another,” Houck said. “You start something and you say, well that doesn’t really fit right in here but it’s too interesting to let go.”

While Houck has written historical fiction before, “Peace River Boundary” is his first such work relating to Southwest Florida. The book will soon be available on Amazon.com.

“Historic Charlotte County; An Illustrated History” also is available on Amazon.com for $34.95. Commissioned by the Charlotte County Historical Center Society, Dr. Houck received the editor’s credit with Frank Desguin, Lynn Harrell, Carol Mahler, Dot Minzer, Mary Patterson, Sandra Price, Joyce Schenk and fellow Edison State professor John Pelot acknowledged as contributing writers.

“Historic Charlotte County” depicts the area from as far back as 1512 up to the first decade of the Twenty-First Century and serves as a colorful overview of Charlotte County.