The Villages Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution has announced that award-winning author Mark Barie will be speaking at their 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 at Captiva Recreation Center. Visitors are welcome.
Barie’s latest novel about the sinking of the USS Maine will be the subject of his talk. His presentation is titled “Seven Facts about the Spanish American War that will Shock you!” The explosion and sinking of the Battleship Maine in the harbor of Havana, Cuba in 1898 set off the Spanish American War. Mark argues that the Maine incident was not sabotage, or even the victim of spontaneous combustion in its coal bin.
Barie is a native of upstate New York, and he retired after 35 years as a self-employed management consultant to corporations, local governments, and non-profit organizations in New York, Vermont, and Canada. He is a recognized expert on the subjects of Economic Development, U.S. immigration procedures, Commercial Real Estate, Strategic Planning, and International Marketing. He earned his Master’s degree in Business from St. Michaels College in Vermont and a Certificate in Advanced Management Studies from McGill College in Montreal.
He and his wife, Christine, have now been full-time residents of Sebring, Florida for seven years. Since moving to Florida, he has become the author of award-winning history-based novels. His first novel, a Civil War love story, titled “War Calls, Love Cries”, garnered national attention as a finalist in the prestigious Eric Hoffer Book Awards. The book was also awarded a gold medal for Historical Fiction, by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. The second book, in his trilogy on love and war, titled “Sister Marguerite and the Captain,” earned a silver medal from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association.
His third novel, “The Commodore and the Powder Monkey” has received rave reviews and was just awarded an “IPPY” in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The “IPPY Awards”, attract more than 5000 authors from all over the United States, Canada, and Europe, and is the largest book awards competition in the world. The book earned a bronze medal for Military Fiction.
His latest novel is about the sinking of the USS Maine and the start of the Spanish American War.
