The Tenth Anniversary of Crescent City

Greetings everyone. Jack Caldwell here.

Twenty years ago, the United States suffered one of the worst natural disasters in its history. I am speaking of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. This monster storm affected 90,000 square miles (233,000 km²), approximately the area of Great Britain. The value of the damage is estimated at $108 billion— or $178 billion in 2025 dollars. Over one million people evacuated, and 70,000 were rescued.

And 1,838 people lost their lives.

I know. I was there—before, during, and afterwards. I admit the storm and its aftermath affected me greatly. As an author, there was only one thing to do—write about it. So I did. Ten years ago, after a great deal of research and recalling, I published my Crescent City Trilogy.

Why a trilogy? you may ask.

New Orleans, Southern Louisiana, and Coastal Mississippi are incredibly unique places—as different from each other as they are from the rest of the United States. To truly comprehend what happened—what was lost—one must appreciate what was there before the storm. What life was like Pre-K. And make the thing entertaining. It’s a big project; it takes time. I took that time so the reader will understand.

I chose to use the plots of three of Jane Austen’s classic novels to tell my story—Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. I changed some names to fit in with the place and time, but the reader will easily pick up the main themes:

• The attraction between Darcy and Elizabeth sabotaged by hurt feelings, arrogance, and misunderstandings (P&P).
• The tragic love triangle of Marianne, John, and Chris (S&S).
• Emma, so busy running other people’s lives, she can’t see the man who loves her under her nose (Emma).

The story begins with Volume One: BOURBON STREET NIGHTS. The year is 1998. This story is about three college friends: Elizabeth Boudreaux, a Cajun from the swamps; Emma Weinberg, a Jewish girl from Uptown New Orleans; and Mari Dashwood, a Mississippi girl.

These ladies will have a year that will change their lives. They will meet the men who love them and the men who will break their hearts. It will be a time of love and friendship, trials and tribulations, tragedy and murder.

But it is also about a fourth lady, one that is known by many names: Isle d’Orleans. The Paris of the Americas. Queen City of the South. The City that Care Forgot. Birthplace of Jazz. The Big Easy. Crescent City. New Orleans. What she was and what she may be again.

We pick up their story in 2004 in Volume Two: ELYSIAN DREAMS. Five years after the scandals of their college days, our heroines have settled down in New Orleans. Some are looking for love, some are searching for reconciliation, and others are trying to save their relationships. Happiness, heartache, and new friends are in the cards.

Meanwhile, threats from the past are still lurking. And a monster appears on the horizon.

With greater maturity come greater challenges, and the three friends learn it takes courage to seize happiness, especially in a place as magical and dangerous as the Crescent City.

Our story concludes with Volume Three: RUIN AND RENEWAL. 2005. The greatest natural disaster in American history is fast approaching New Orleans. Friend, family, stranger, and foe alike will meet their fates as a killer named Katrina tries to drown the Gulf Coast. Who will live and who will not?

The survivors must pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Can the kindness of strangers make up for the bureaucratic bumbling of government officials?

Will those remaining in the Crescent City ever find normalcy again?

There will be other characters you will recognize from other Austen novels, like Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion.

Understandably, the trilogy is the best selling of all my works in Louisiana and the Gulf South. To commemorate both the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the tenth anniversary of the launch of Crescent City, I am putting the print and Kindle books on sale for the next seven days. The print books will go for $14.50. The eBooks will go for $4.60 each.

For those who use Audible, I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by the wonderful Louisiana native Melissa Kay Benson.

To those of you who have read Crescent City, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. To the rest of you, please give it a try. I think you will lose yourself in my reminiscings, using your favorite Austen characters, and perhaps gain a greater understanding of the people of New Orleans, South Louisiana, and Southern Mississippi. It is to them this work is dedicated.

Until next time, this has been the Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles.

It takes a real man to write historical romance, so let me tell you a story…