Historical Fiction
Date Published: July 24th, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
What’s left of a man’s soul when everything he loves is taken from him?
It’s 1864, and Gabriel Cooper couldn’t care less about the civil war raging around him. Framed for crimes he didn’t commit, he’s been sentenced to a Confederate chain gang, where swampland justice rules and alligators prey on the unwary.
So when Colonel Robert Tremont rides into camp offering freedom in exchange for fighting on the front lines, Gabriel jumps at the opportunity. He thrives as a soldier, but the end of the war leaves him adrift.
Gabriel ends up in New Orleans, where he meets Simone Livingston, a fiercely independent woman with hidden scars of her own. Kept on a tight rein by her overbearing father, Simone only wants freedom—and the enigmatic Gabriel.
But Gabriel has unfinished business and a mind for vengeance. Will he be able to create a peaceful life with Simone or will his greed and thirst for retribution keep them trapped in a dangerous web of deceit—a web Gabriel fears can only be untangled with murder.
Interview with Jean K Kravitz
What is your favorite part of the book?
I’m a great fan of things coming full circle, so I gleaned a certain satisfaction of Gabriel finally confronting those who had taken his family.
Does your book have a lesson? Moral?
I think the book poses certain questions of morals in general: when is a price too high to achieve your dreams? Maybe the reality will never fit the fantasy because of what you must do or become to get there. Is that worth it?
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
All the characters are products of my imagination, but certain characteristics of different characters are based off real people. The world we live in is a classroom and I’ve had years to learn from the people who live in it.
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?
This is like trying to pick a favorite child because I saw my characters as multi-dimensional. But I think I would pick Lucinda, even though she was not in the book for long, she had a profound impact on Simone who eventually had a profound impact on Gabriel. Her wisdom traveled throughout Scars of Sand and Soil.
What character in your book are you least likely to get along with?
That’s a toss-up between Mason Hugo and Simone’s father, Peter Livingston, but Peter Livingston would probably win out. He was wracked with resentment and cloaked it in religious piety. That is a tough combination to deal with.
What would the main character in your book have to say about you?
It depends on how well Gabriel or Simone knew me. On a surface level, probably not much. Polite, attentive, nothing too notable. Deeper down, I think both would appreciate my sense of irony and my somewhat twisted sense of humor. There’s definitely more to me than meets the eye.
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I plan for this book to stand on its own.
About the Author
As the quintessential queen of “what if,” Jean Kravitz channeled her active imagination to pen her debut novel, Scars of Sand and Soil. However, achieving her childhood dream of being a published writer was not a straightforward path.
Jean earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in human development and aging from the University of California, San Francisco. She went into clinical research in pharmaceuticals, but left her career when her children were born. Then, she picked up writing again, honed her craft, published articles in a small newspaper, and passionately immersed herself in historical research.
Jean has many interests, including reading, gardening, needlepoint, and learning new languages. She lives in Southern California and has a husband, two daughters, and two cats, Lenny and Penny.
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