Showboat Soubrette
By Brodie Curtis
FROM STAR SHOWBOAT SINGER
TO PIRATE PREY ON THE WICKED RIVER!
Showboat singer Stella Parrot’s star rises in the Antebellum South with every sold-out performance along the lower Mississippi River. When a river pirate viciously assaults her, new friends Toby Freeman and John Dee Franklin foil the attack. However, the pirate’s family is bent on revenge.
Stella, Toby, and John Dee escape their riverboat with able assistance from young cub pilot Sam Clemens, only to be pursued by the notorious Burton Gang. As the trio runs for their lives, mortal perils await at every turn: a fierce storm, high-stakes gambling confrontations, deadly combat, and a cotton boat up in flames. Stella, a Cherokee Indian, and Toby, a free Black man, and their friend White man John Dee endure relentless racial prejudices and injustices in the gritty underbelly of the Wicked River while fleeing to New Orleans—where the Burtons will be waiting!
SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE’s fast-paced lower river adventure chase features romantic showboat scenes and is unsparing in its exploration of the bigoted and sometimes lawless riverboat era.
Publication Date: December 10th, 2025
Publisher: Westy Vistas Books
Pages: 367
Genre: Historical Fiction
'Curtis is also a master of description and atmosphere. The novel is vivid with detail from the dining room and theatre of the showboat to the whorehouses of New Orleans. Life on the Mississippi is in full view here, from river pirates to dock workers. Sailors, gamblers, and society ladies all get their fair share of attention, and despite the class differences, more social fluidity occurs than we might expect.'
Tyler, Goodreads 5* Review
An interview with author, Brodie Curtis.
What inspired you to start writing?
For me, it all starts with reading, and I suppose that is always the case with a writer. I read voraciously as a young boy, but lost momentum with it during my teenage and college years (meeting a few distractions during that period). As I settled into my career, I got back to reading, accumulating stacks of novels and non-fiction titles and made myself good and near-sighted by reading in the evenings, on planes, whenever.
History was always my go-to. That started for me early in high-school, when I was assigned Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. A story set during the American Civil War, Crane’s rendering of a common soldier’s ambitions, fears, insecurities, survivalist instincts and, of course, courage in the face of mortal conflict, has never lost its influence on me. Maybe capturing Crane’s writing magic has always been my quixotic dream. Crane was the first, but I have gone on to read countless novels set around military action, as well as dozens and dozens of war-time non-fiction works and biographies.
My debut novel, THE FOUR BELLS, was set in motion years ago, in a homey lounge, when I heard a gorgeously mournful acoustic version of John McCutcheon’s song about the transcendent Christmas truce of 1914. It inspired me to research reports on the truce in contemporaneous writings and non-fiction, and to walk the fields of Flanders.
I decided to write about the truce. Once my pen hit paper, my characters took me down their own road, and the truce became just one scene in the story. Where protagonists Maddy and Al left off at the end of THE FOUR BELLS set the stage for my second novel, ANGELS and BANDITS. My third and current novel, SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE, turns to America’s 19th century Western Frontier, the Lower Mississippi River, and the romantic but under-fictionalized time of paddle-wheeler showboats.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE’s essential conflict deals with the stark social divisions during the Antebellum Period on the Lower Mississippi River. My characters must deal with and overcome inequities that are almost beyond belief today. Perhaps my most instructive research sources were eye witness accounts of events that took place during the institution of slavery. Reading passages from these sources gave me emotions ranging from profound sadness to fury.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
My Grandmother, and then my Mother, displayed a charcoal portrait of a beautiful young woman in an ornate wooden frame. The young woman is dark complected with high cheekbones, straight-backed and stares confidently ahead. She wears long, dangling earrings and an elegant dress with a laced collar and a satin Esque bow with a stone on it. A choker band is around her neck and long curls are arranged high on her head. My Grandmother told me she was Cherokee and walked the Trail of Tears, and that account is confirmed in a family letter from early in the 20th century. But Grandma didn’t know anything else about this ancestor’s life. Undoubtedly this young beauty had a story; her look is a far cry from a farmer’s wife. The portrait hangs in my office now and inspired Stella—my female protagonist who is the SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE.
If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
Kind of a hard one! For Stella Parrot, the SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE, I’d cast Kelsey Asbille, a young heroine in Taylor Sheridan’s YELLOWSTONE series. Her beauty and soft-spoken strength would shine through. I’d be looking for a young James Garner in casting John Dee Franklin, a gambling, charismatic but wise-cracking friend of Stella’s. For the other male protagonist, I’d go with Keith Powers from STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON for his physical stature and ability to project confidence and a strong will.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
During the Antebellum Period, the Lower Mississippi River was a place of incredible contrasts. A lazy flowing grand river navigated by graceful paddle-wheelers transporting elegantly-clad passengers. Many boats transported cotton and other agricultural commodities that required oppressed laborers to fill their holds. Social stratification was extreme and people of color were subject to deprivations that makes one sad and furious. A sense of lawlessness permeated the region. Three young people, two of them of color, would need special qualities to survive. I envision an optimistic world where young people can dig deep within themselves, bond, and work together to overcome grievous obstacles.
I hope readers feel this praise from HISTORICAL FICTION COMPANY’s review is warranted: "Showboat Soubrette is a novel that transcends a simple river chase, unfolding instead as a richly textured portrait of a time and place where beauty and brutality are forced to coexist. Brodie Curtis has crafted a story that entertains without simplifying, thrills without trivializing, and ultimately delivers a powerful testament to courage and solidarity on the margins of history, a balance he achieves through a masterful control of narrative flow, where quiet moments of character revelation flow seamlessly into heart-pounding action, and through a prose that is both evocative and precise, giving voice to a trio of characters whose depth and resilience transform them from "archetypes" companions to indelible individuals. For readers who crave historical fiction with pace and teeth, this novel will be a compelling and unforgettable ride.”
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Raised in the Midwest, Brodie Curtis was educated as a lawyer and left the corporate world to embrace life in Colorado with his wife and two sons.
Curtis is the author of THE FOUR BELLS, a novel of The Great War, which is the product of extensive historical research, including long walks through the fields of Flanders, where much of the book's action is set. His second novel, ANGELS AND BANDITS, takes his protagonists into The Battle of Britain. Curtis’ third novel is set on a Mississippi Riverboat prior to the Civil War.
A lover of history, particularly American history and the World Wars, Curtis reviews historical fiction for the Historical Novels Review and more than 100 of his published reviews and short takes on historical novels can be found on his website: brodiecurtis.com.
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Thanks so much for hosting Brodie Curtis today, with such a fabulous interview about his gripping new adventure, Showboat Soubrette.
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club
I really appreciate you hosting my book SHOWBOAT SOUBRETTE today! Great interview questions! If anyone has a question about my book or the interview, please reach out! Brodie
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