“I devoured your “By the Hands of Men” trilogy last week, and am pleased to say that my first thought was to consider how long I should wait until re-reading those three. That has not happened in a very long time.

“High praise intended for you; I’m a life-long voracious reader, with most of my books on paper. I’ll read one, and it might be decades before the same volume floats up again during cleaning or re-arranging to surprise me with a fond memory that inspires a visit.

“Double praise in that when I find a book on the kindle platform *really* good, I’ll purchase it in print. All of your efforts meet that standard.”

Those make my day.

(Oh, …

Ends June 30, 2016.

By the Hands of Men, Book Two:  “Into the Flames” has been nominated.  A vote from fans would be greatly appreciated.  (The fact I’m on the same ballot as Larry Correia and Jim Butcher is pretty exciting, itself)

Now, back to Book Four.…

No Writing Today

Just research.  In fact, as much as work as I have to put into these particular novels, one of the delights of the work is the research.  What I look for in the books I read about regular people in those time (the more obscure the better) is the telling detail, the little facts or quirks or annoyances of daily living that help make that time period feel real and relatable to anyone who’s entered my story.

The joy of research is in discovering something like this:

“A police officer stands next to a member of the “Black Legion,” an underground organization separated from the Ku Klux Klan and actively fought blacks, Jews and Catholics. …

Tends to forbid me from singing my own praises.  It’s not natural for me to tout reviews for my work.

Back in Nebraska (the Nebraska of both my youth and my imagination), understated acceptance of praise was an art form in itself, because, hell, everybody who worked the fields, everybody who had to get up before daylight to feed the animals before going to school, everybody knew the work was hard.  So when someone complimented your efforts, there had to be a touch of humility in your reply, along with a very wry acknowledgement that it was just your luck to be noticed.

“Good job getting that calf out of the well by yourself.”

“That wasn’t anything, she didn’t weigh …

Book giveaway over at TomeTender, a festive book blog that has a lot of love for both The Old World and Into the Flames  and who then had a lot of fun with me while putting it together.  Check it out!

 …

A fine-looking “gosh, I really love books and reading” blog, run by Amy Metz.  She kindly interviewed me, and made me look a lot more fun and interesting than I am with some very thoughtful questions like:

For what would you like to be remembered? 
Great question. At my wake there’s going to be a margarita machine, and everybody will get to stand up and tell funny stories about me. I’d like to be remembered as a decent, hard-working guy, a good father, and somebody who told some good stories.

I bet that will be one helleva wake! Would you make a good character in a book? 
Ah, hell, yes. I’m a renaissance man, but I think I’d be …

By  book blogger “Mrs. C.” This is for By the Hands of Men, Book One, “The Old World.”

My Thoughts

About the time I discovered my grandfather’s role in WWI, I received a request from this author to review this beautiful novel set during The Great War.  Author Roy Griffis has the rare talent of writing vividly descriptive narrative which places the reader inside the scene as a nonparticipating character.  His impeccable research has allowed this novel to be compared to Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms.

This novel begins on the battlefield during the Christmas Day truce, and takes off like a bullet thereafter.  Charlotte, a nurse, physically cares for Robert, an officer, man of mystery, and eventually …