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About
Born to privilege, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria was given an extensive, liberal education, which he strove to us to bring the Habsburg Empire into the modern world. His was a struggle against his father Emperor Franz Josef, the conservative court, and the reactionaries in the government, including the Emperor himself and against his own class, to support minorities, improve the lot of the common man, and curtail the rights of the aristocracy. His mother, the beautiful but melancholic Empress Sisi had her own struggle against the same opposition. Rudolf becomes convinced his country is heading toward a catastrophe that he can do nothing to prevent. With his ideals shattered, he meets Baroness Mary Vetsera and begins an affair that ends in the tragedy at Mayerling. Some of Susan Appleyard's books have won Brag Medallions, been finalists in the MM Bennetts Award and the Wishing Shelf Award, and The Coffee Pot Book Club's Gold Medal for Historical Fiction.Mother of three and grandmother of six, Susan lives in a snowy part of Canada but is fortunate to be able to spend part of each year in Mexico. No prizes for guessing which part.Before learning how to self-publish, Susan signed a three-book contract with a traditional publishing house in Toronto, which sold out to another company after publishing two of her books. Now, thanks to Amazon and others, she has published ten Ebooks and is working on a story set before, during and after the Russian Revolution.