Storyteller
Or so I claim in this interview with Historical Fiction author, Maria Grace.
“You can outsource your compassion (and outrage), or you can do something with your own sweat, toil, and money to change the world around you right now. It’s up to us to make God real in the world. We are God’s hands and feet, we are the miracles He promised.”
It was a fun interview.…
Had some unexpected help with today’s research. BabyKat dropped by to give me her perspective on the issue at hand.…
A few weeks ago, I commented on a book (“The Sword and Shield”), which covered, in 732 pages, the KGB archives that came out with a Russian Defector. It dealt with nearly 80 years of the USSR’s attempts to influence and coerce. The scarier tidbits (and there were a lot) covered how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration was riddled with communist agents, the stories the Reds planted with the press to derail Presidential candidates (a job the press now does cheerfully for free against the “wrong sorts”). Assassination (both character and mortal), overthrows, plots, millions of dollars a year to the “innocent” American Communist Party, to say nothing of their insanely focused efforts to steal technology from the US (from
“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:
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 …
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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!
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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 …
