'The Wedding Gift' is in development for a major motion picture, produced by Apelles Entertainment, currently filming Steve Alten's blockbuster 'Meg'

Hello very dear readers,

I wanted to write a brief (well, I’ll try) explanation of how my carefully planned series of four books about the life and times of Alix became five.

I didn’t want to write five, I didn’t plan to write five, I just ended up having to do it, to my endless misery, but I hope not to yours.

I’ve spent the last three or so decades somewhat obsessively researching Alix through what she didn’t burn, a few diaries, her enormous correspondence to Nicholas – though a great deal of it, most of it in fact, is limited to the war years – and other sources, such as memoirs and records of police interrogations. These other sources are a goldmine. That was a time and place where people had begun to record their thoughts and observations, and they left thousands upon thousands of pages of words, and a lot of those words concerned Alix.

Confusingly, Alix was painted in the memories of those who knew her as either a saint or maybe the worst person imaginable. This conflict of opinions continues right up until the very end of her life in the memoirs of her captors.
But I didn’t see her that way. I never have. I think she was a great deal more ordinary and neither particularly saintly nor a monster of evil manipulation. Nor do I think she was insane. I think her life was insane. I came to believe – and it is how I’ve tried to present her – that she was an ordinary girl (well, ordinary considering her outstanding beauty and a fairly elevated beginning to her life), who married into the most extraordinary family that ever lived.

'Extraordinary' is a tactful word: the Romanovs were pretty much loons on an epic scale, and for more about them I recommend Simon Sebag Montefiore's astounding work which covers some of their greatest hits, such as patricide, filicide, dressing up as chickens, court martialing rats etc. I could go on, but Mr. Montefiore already has, and in hilarious and graphic detail, so you should just read his 'The Romanovs: 1613-1918.'

Imagine marrying into that. And while Nicky was not as bad as some of his ancestors in obvious ways, he was, to say the least, challenging, as was every living Romanov of Alix’s time. To me, this made her one of the most fascinating people who ever lived, for what is more interesting than the predicament of an ordinary girl thrust into the strangest family on earth and given more power and money and danger than most of us could, or would wish to, dream of?

And to me, her whole life is of interest, not just her death, which has been extensively covered by others. Obviously I have to deal with this as well (in Book Five) and I do, but in writing her story I just couldn’t decide what to cut ... what not to tell. So, in the end, I decided to tell it all and that fills five books. And no, don’t even say, “Couldn’t you have edited it down?” because it has been. If it hadn’t been, there’d be ten of the things, a private encyclopedia series of Alix.

So I hope you’ll forgive me for the extra book and the time it takes to read it, but I think there were too many interesting people and events to cut them out and maybe it will help us all understand how it all went so wrong.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this,

​Kathleen Mckenna Hewtson
San Francisco, September 2016.

'Pride of Eagles'

Volume IV of 'The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra'

To be published in May 2017
​

After the near-catastrophic events of the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Revolution, the years 1907-13 passed relatively peacefully in Russia as Chief Minister Stolypin steered the country away from war and civil disruption, and toward industrialization and economic prosperity.

However, in Tsarskoe Selo, the closeted domestic life of the Imperial Family was far from calm. While Emperor Nicholas II cloistered himself away in his study, Empress Alexandra struggled with her own chronic ill-health and that of the light of her life, the Tsarevitch Alexei, whose hemophilia threatened the future of the House of Romanov as it approached its tercentenary.

The only person holding out the promise of a cure for Alexei’s illness was a wandering holy man from Siberia called Rasputin, whose wild and licentious ways stoked outrage and hatred against him among ruling circles every bit as much as his apparently miraculous healing powers built the Empress’ devotion. As Rasputin put it, so long as the Romanovs kept faith with him, all would be well; should they be involved in his death, they too would be destroyed.

​And then there was the Empress’ constant companion, Anya Vyroubova, whose guileless appearance and behavior masked an astute and scheming nature. Her alliance with Rasputin was to undermine yet further the public reputation of the Empress, and therefore ultimately that of the Emperor himself and of his dynasty.

​​All five volumes are (planned) as follows:

1. 'The Funeral Bride' 1884-1894 - published November 2015

2. 'The Empress of Tears' 1895-1904 - published March 2016

3. 'The Shaken Throne' 1904-1907 - published July 2016

4. 'Pride of Eagles' 1907-1914 - published May 2017

5. 'No Greater Crown' 1914-1918 - to be published by March 2018

Available in Kindle - here
​Available in paperback - here

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'The Shaken Throne'

Volume III of 'The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra'

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Empress Alexandra is triumphant. After producing four daughters, who are regarded as of no consequence by her mother-in-law, Dowager-Empress Minnie, and the court, she has at last given birth to a son and heir, the Tsarevich Alexei.
​
This success, after so many years of praying, hoping and despairing, will not ensure her popularity in Russia, but it will at least convince everyone that Alix has fulfilled her primary duty as an Empress, which should in turn gain her more freedom to live as she wishes amid her cozy little family and away from the burdens and responsibilities imposed upon her by her position.

​However, her euphoria is short-lived when little Alexei starts to show signs of suffering from the 'English Disease,' hemophilia, that has killed so many of Alexandra's family and which she knows she has been responsible for passing on to her little baby, Alexei.

Her pain and guilt at his appalling suffering is unbearable and the knowledge that Alexei will be unlikely to live to adulthood absolutely crushes the already fragile Nicholas. Worse, the war between Russia and Japan is becoming an ever-greater disaster by the day, fueling widespread strikes and civil disobedience in St. Petersburg that could possibly lead to outright revolution.

Will the Imperial Family be forced to flee Russia altogether?

Then a man is miraculously introduced to Tsar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra who appears to offer them renewed hope, not only for the recovery of their son but also for the recovery of the Imperial Romanov fortunes in Russia as a whole, a man who calms Alexei with his prayers and even stops his bleeding, and who exhorts the “Tsars,” as he calls them, to “spit on all their fears, and rule.” Here is a peasant, a wandering holy man, come to save Russia in that long-hoped-for alliance between the tsar and the people.
​
Rasputin will save Alexei; he will save Nicholas and Alexandra; and he will save Russia.
​
​All five volumes are (planned) as follows:

1. 'The Funeral Bride' 1884-1894 - published November 2015

2. 'The Empress of Tears' 1895-1904 - published March 2016

3. 'The Shaken Throne' 1904-1907 - published July 2016

4. 'Pride of Eagles' 1907-1914 - published May 2017

5. 'No Greater Crown' 1914-1918 - to be published by March 2018

Available in Kindle - here
Available in paperback - here

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'The Empress of Tears'

Volume II of 'The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra'
​

As the ‘Funeral Bride,’ Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt marries Tsar Nicholas II only a week after the premature death of his father, Tsar Alexander III.

Already dismissed out of hand by the court, Alexandra has to further contend with the continuing ambition of her mother-in-law, the Dowager-Empress Minnie, who has no intention of ceding imperial precedence to the new Empress or of giving up one inch of her power and influence over her emotionally-dependent son, the new Tsar.

Nevertheless, Empress Alexandra is determined to stamp her authority on Russia as a whole and on Nicholas in particular, but to do so she must produce an heir. Having given birth to daughter after daughter after daughter, she becomes desperate and turns to the first of her mystical advisors, Msgr. Philippe, who persuades her, among other things, that she is invisible.

And then comes the moment of her greatest triumph with the birth of her son and the heir to the throne of all the Russias, the Tsarevich Alexei.

All five volumes are (planned) as follows:

1. 'The Funeral Bride' 1884-1894 - published November 2015

2. 'The Empress of Tears' 1895-1904 - published March 2016

3. 'The Shaken Throne' 1904-1907 - published July 2016

4. 'Pride of Eagles' 1907-1914 - published May 2017

5. 'No Greater Crown' 1914-1918 - to be published by March 2018

Available in paperback - here
Available in Kindle - here

'The Funeral Bride'

​Volume I of 'The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra'
​

The love story of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia has long been considered a fairytale romance with a startlingly tragic ending, when the entire Imperial Romanov Family was shot and bayoneted to death by a Bolshevik firing squad in a cellar in Ekaterinburg on July 17, 1918.

Nicholas and Alexandra were famously devoted to each other, writing each other cooing notes daily, but successive tides of political, military, and then revolutionary, history swept them away.

At least that is the received wisdom, but the truth is somewhat more complicated. Tsar Nicholas never wanted to be Tsar, was never trained to be Tsar, and indeed proved to be catastrophically inept in the role. Empress Alexandra was stunningly beautiful but socially and physically clumsy to the point of being repellent to her mother-in-law, Dowager-Empress Marie, most of the Russian court, and therefore by extension to the Russian people at large.

When King George V of Britain heard of the executions, he remarked that, as they regarded Nicholas and Alexandra, they were probably for the best, but the children’s deaths were truly tragic. The British Ambassador to France, Lord Bertie, reported that seasoned diplomatic observers considered Nicholas to have been criminally weak and Alexandra to have been criminally insane.

So what is the truth, and what was the truth as Empress Alexandra saw it?

Pulling together what is known about Empress Alexandra and her family, and indeed much that is little known, in the ‘Autobiography of Empress Alexandra’ series Kathleen McKenna Hewtson is placing the reader in Empress Alexandra’s shoes and behind her eyes from the moment she first met the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas Romanov, when she was twelve, to the early morning that she and all five of their children died violently at his side.

​All five volumes are (planned) as follows:

1. 'The Funeral Bride' 1884-1894 - published November 2015

2. 'The Empress of Tears' 1895-1904 - published March 2016

3. 'The Shaken Throne' 1904-1907 - published July 2016

4. 'Pride of Eagles' 1907-1914 - published May 2017

5. 'No Greater Crown' 1914-1918 - to be published by March 2018

Available in paperback - here
Available on Kindle - here

The Night My Husband Killed Me

The deaths of Natalie Wood, Nicole Brown Simpson,
Sunny Von Bulow and Colette MacDonald
​- as told in their own words

A movie heart-throb 
A sports superstar 
An aristocrat 
A brilliant surgeon 

Killers all. 

These are the stories of those they killed. 

Their wives. 

'The Night My Husband Killed Me', is the story of four women who were murdered by their husbands. 

All of the women were beautiful, and were either famous at the time of their deaths, or became famous for being the victims of the charismatic, disturbed, men who ended their lives. 

Being dead doesn’t end a woman’s feelings, or her anger. There is Natalie, the international and revered movie star who died the death she had most feared all of her life. There is the beautiful, life-loving Nicole, who might just have gone back to the stunning athlete she loved, if only he hadn’t killed her first. Then there is Sunny, heiress to one of America's greatest fortunes, sent into an irreversible coma for paying too much for all the wrong things. And finally, there is Colette, the high school sweetheart who married the golden boy and endured a marriage of increasing lies and disappointment, culminating in her death and that of her little girls shortly after Valentine’s Day. 

These four amazing women’s lives were cut short, but each has a story to tell … and now they have.

Available in paperback - here
Available on Kindle - here

The Wedding Gift

Less a gift than a curse!

Leann wasn't good enough for her upper-crust in-laws, so they gave her the mansion none of them wanted. Years ago, something or someone in the house killed Leann's brother. Will its violent secrets kill her next?

" . . . a spine-electrifying supernatural tale where a huge Southern States mansion contains one of the most terrifying, violent and indeed psychopathic ghosts to haunt any town. It is also a murder mystery--why did Robina Willets apparently kill all five of her young children, and her husband, before stabbing herself to death? And, if you are in the camp of believing that 'Justice . . . just is not,' then this will have you frothing at the mouth with righteous social fury."
--Tim Roux, author of 'The Blue Food Revolution,' 'Harry Walker's Wife' and 'The Angel at the Bar'

Available in paperback - here
​Available on Kindle - here

Family Matters

Based on the real-life meetings in the Chino-Corona California Institution For Women
​between the author and Susan Atkins of the Manson Family

Can the living haunt the living? 

When Izzy Stanley, an ambitious TV broadcaster, hears that Susan Atkins has petitioned to be released from prison to be allowed to die peacefully at home, she cannot resist making the wise-crack on air that Susan Atkins' petition is only fair as she herself helped Sharon Tate to die peacefully at home in her turn. 

Her impromptu remark inevitably provokes a tumultuous response, and prompts Susan Atkins herself to demand to see her to explain her perspective now that she has found God, which seems like the journalistic coup of the century. 

Even better, Izzy suddenly realizes that she herself bears an uncanny resemblance to Susan Atkins' victim, Sharon Tate, a stroke of luck she fully intends to exploit to the full. 

Then she starts having dreams in which she is Sharon Tate on that fateful night. The thing is, though, they don't really feel like dreams ….

Available in paperback - here
​Available on Kindle - here

The Night My Husband Left Me

A member of the British aristocracy disappears after committing a murder

A British aristocrat murders his children’s nanny, mistaking her in the dark for his wife, and disappears, never to be seen again. 

For forty years the British press will look for him. There will be ‘sightings’, there will be leads, but the police will eventually close the case when he is officially declared dead. 

For many, the whole affair was the best and most addictive of mysteries, based on a tragedy, and before that on a turbulent marriage between a breathtakingly handsome, elegant and noble gambler and an inept, and possibly insane, social climber. 

But for his wife, it was the most romantic and passionate of love affairs, turned sour – a love affair that would stretch beyond death itself.

Available in paperback - here
Available on Kindle - here

'Jungle Rot'

Jonestown, an American Holocaust

​On November 18, 1978, nearly one thousand people - including over 300 children - were murdered in Jonestown, Guyana, as the Reverend Jim Jones urged them to hurry up and die.

Jim Jones, for a time, was the darling of San Francisco, counting among his friends and advocates such luminaries as George Moscone, Mayor of San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist. Then the San Francisco press started to take an interest in the activities of his Peoples Temple and realized it was basically a cult that abused, enslaved and robbed its membership. So Jim Jones transferred his operations to Guyana where he claimed to be establishing a Socialist paradise.

It wasn't. Jim Jones merely wanted to run off with the $25 million or so he had harvested from his "flock" and eliminate the witnesses to his bizarre take on religion, and indeed Socialism, claiming he was God incarnate and that he could cure the diseased and dying.

Kathleen's latest book, 'Jungle Rot,' captures the fetid and corrupt last days of Jonestown through the eyes of six eye witnesses as the Reverend Jim Jones plans to distribute Flavor Aid laced with cyanide to his confused and beaten supporters.

Available in paperback - here
Available on Kindle - here