fiction

4 Posts of Note on Romance Fiction

 

With Valentines Day just around the corner, I wanted to present these noteworthy posts about romance fiction. Whether you're a reader, writer, or bookseller of love stories, you'll find something of interest below. Enjoy!

1. Love, A More Excellent Way

Learn more about One Thousand Gifts

Blog post by Robin Lee Hatcher (@robinleehatcher)
"Love is what you do when the other person is unlovable," writes Hatcher in this reflection on the costs and joys of love. Read more of Hatcher's post, which was also her contribution to a book called How to Fall in Love like a Romance Writer.

 

2. A Touch of Romance: New Trends & Advice for In-store Promotions

Roundtable interview by Christine D. Johnson for ChristianRetailing.com.
In this interview of value for aspiring authors and Christian booksellers, Johnson interviews several of Christian publishing's experts on romantic fiction, including Sue Brower, Zondervan's own Executive Editor of fiction. Here is one of Brower's many wise dashes of advice:

"Many of our [romance novels] now have discussion questions in the back, and I would encourage the stores to create book clubs or an environment where a book club could meet. Sometimes people don't want to admit they read romance because it's not thoughtful reading when, in fact, it is and what helps that is having these book club questions." Read More

 

3. Interview with Lori Copeland, Romance Author

Learn more about The Christian Faith

Interview by Kim Ford for ChristianFictionOnlineMagazine.com
In this interview Lori Copeland shares wisdom for writers trying to break into the market, and encouragement for writers going through difficult patches. "Do the best you can with what you have," writes Copeland, "and learn to be a lemonade connoisseur. Plenty of lemons will come your way, but stay close to the Father, and through it all you'll have the sweetest of faith, hope, and love to help you reap the rewards God has in store." I love that phrase lemonade connoisseur. Read more of the interview.

 

4. Finally! Some Romance Characters that Look Like Me…

Learn more about Protection for Hire

Blog post by Grace Hwang Lynch (@HapaMamaGrace)
Lynch spotlights three women of color who are bringing diversity to the Romance genre, including Zondervan author Camy Tang (@camytang). Lynch quotes Tang:

"My future editor at Zondervan, Sue Brower, saw the lack of Asian ethnic fiction and the need for it, and she persisted in presenting my story to the editorial and marketing teams until they contracted my series in early 2006. Since then, I've heard from readers both Asian and non-Asian who have really connected with and related to my characters, and I'm very grateful." Read more of Lynch's post.

Postscript

Adam & Eve

This stained glass window portrays what may be the oldest love story of them all.

 

Question for Discussion: Is the story of Adam and Eve a love story?

 

-Adam Forrest, Zondervan


(Image attribution: stained glass window, St. Florentin, France. By Mattana (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared only for information purposes. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

 

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Does Fiction Lie? Thoughts on Truth and Christian Storytelling

 

“Is it wrong for Christians to … write, read or even watch fictitious material?” asked a commenter named Mukwemba on Zondervan’s Facebook page today.

Mukwemba (who permitted the use of her name here) adds some important context: some of her Christian friends do not approve of fiction, arguing this:

Fiction is wrong because it’s not true… As Christians we should hold fast to the truth and not saturate our minds with falsehoods regardless of what “good” they seem to bring about.

I’m sure Mukwemba’s friends are well-meaning, but I believe they are mistaken. I will show you why writing fiction can be an excellent calling.

 

An Editor Speaks

I sent Mukwemba’s question to my coworker Sue Brower, who is an Executive Editor here at Zondervan. Sue says:

When Jesus wanted to teach something to his disciples, he used story—Parables.  Fiction is truth in story form.  It makes concepts more accessible to the reader because the reader relates to the characters and sees themselves in the story.

I agree wholeheartedly with Sue. Let’s look more closely at the biblical basis behind these points.

 

3 Biblical Observations about Fiction

1. Fiction can help us understand, love, and serve others.

A writer (whom I can’t recall) said stories help us “extend our sympathies” toward others who are different from us. In other words, stories can open our eyes to suffering we didn’t see before. With this new awareness, we can choose to better love and serve others.

I can think of two examples where fiction is even linked to changes in public policy. Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrayed the struggle of older workers so well that Miller’s story was invoked during a 1968 Senate hearing (The Adequacy of Services for Older Workers) as a sketch of the obstacles that face older Americans. Also, a novel by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, actually influenced the passing of new health legislation for the meatpacking industry in the city of Chicago!

2. Fiction can show you truth about yourself.

Sometimes a story is a mirror. Let’s look at an example from the Bible: after King David hides his sin with Bathsheba, remember how Nathan gets through to David? Nathan goes to David and says,

‘There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

‘Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.’

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’

Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul… Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites…”‘

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” [-From 2 Samuel 12:1-18, NIV]

So if you’re reading a story and think, “I can relate to this character,” keep your eyes peeled. You may find some some fresh insight into your own motivations, maybe even sins. I’ve been given a few such “eureka” moments through fiction, most memorably from reading Douglas Coupland’s story collection, Life After God, and a short story by Flannery O’Connor called “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” These stories revealed some of my attitudes that needed to change.

 

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Amish Country Tour Round-Up: Photos, Giveaways, and Embarrassing Moments

 

The Amish Country Tour concluded early this week, and below we've collected some tour memories from Amy Clipston, Vannetta Chapman, and Shelley Shepard Gray. Read on for a roundup of photos, giveaways, embarrassing moments, and one lethally good pie recipe.

 

Amy, Shelley and Vannetta at the Light Parade

Amy, Shelley & Vannetta after the Shipshewana Light Parade.
View more tour photos in Zondervan's album on Facebook.

On returning home, Shelley (author of Christmas in Sugarcreek) writes this:

It feels great to be home. It really does. But I have to admit that there is a part of me that wishes we were still back on the Amish Country Tour…  There had been a sense that all of us were a part of something pretty special… [We met] so many readers! [And we] visited with a lot of Amish, spending hours talking with them about books and their culture…

Shelley also mentions some behind-the-scenes tour tidbits. During their last meal together, Shelley, Amy and Vannetta took turns sharing their picks for Funniest Moment, Best Moment, and Most Embarrassing Moment from the tour. You can read their picks in Shelley's blog post: read more of Shelley's post.

I'd be remiss not to share these two items from Vannetta Chapman (Falling to Pieces): first, an heirloom pie recipe that I'm afraid to try. It begins, "Fill unbaked pie shell a little more than half full with a mixture of brown and white sugar." Read the full "Brown sugar pie" recipe on Vannetta's blog.

Secondly, Vannetta is hosting a giveaway on her blog through this Sunday (Nov. 27, 2011). Learn more about Vannetta's giveaway.

Speaking of giveaways, Amy Clipston (Naomi's Gift) will host one on her Facebook page this weekend. But as of this writing, Amy is taking reader suggestions for what the giveaway will be. Options include an Amish doll, Amish peanut butter, a set of Amy's books, and more. Add your two cents when you find Amy on Facebook.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan Internet Team

 

View photos from the Amish Country Tour

See Zondervan's photo album on Facebook

Connect with the authors on Facebook  

Find Vannetta on Facebook
Vannetta Chapman

Find Amy on Facebook
Amy Clipston

Find Shelley on Facebook
Shelley Shepard Gray

Vannetta Chapman www.facebook.com/VannettaChapmanBooks
Amy Clipston www.facebook.com/AmyClipstonBooks
Shelley Shepard Gray www.facebook.com/ShelleyShepardGray

The latest books from Vannetta, Amy and Shelley

Learn more about Falling to PiecesFalling to Pieces
Vannetta Chapman 		Learn More about Naomi's Gift

Naomi's Gift
Amy Clipston

Learn More about Christmas in SugarcreekChristmas in Sugarcreek
Shelley Shepard Gray

 

 

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8 Teen Fiction Authors Weigh in on Their Joys, Challenges, and Inspiration in Writing

 

Jonathan Michael, teen fiction enthusiast and Zondervan marketer, recently interviewed six authors of young adult fiction about the joys and challenges of writing. Also discussed: the struggles of biracial families, keeping fiction "real," where story ideas come from, and ghosts. Below I've transcribed some of my favorite parts from these video interviews, and you can follow the interview links to see more.

Stay up to date on more author interviews, book giveaways, and new book excerpts when you Like "Good Teen Reads" on Facebook.


WARNING for fans of teen fiction: you'll want to add at least one of these books to your Christmas wishlist.

 

Melody Carlson on authenticity: "I have a hard time being completely 'light'…"

Watch Interview with Melody Carlson

 

JONATHAN: Your On the Runway series is kind of like high fashion meets reality TV. That sounds like a "light," subject but then you put some heavier things in there—

MELODY: I have a hard time being completely "light." [Laughs.] There's something about me that has to put that jolt of reality in it…

[My characters] are just getting out of their teen years, but they need to make some really hard life decisions, and one sister is really drawn towards all that glitters, all the glamor, and she makes some bad decisions. The other sister is trying to be a good Christian while helping her sister, and keeping the reality show going. And she is faced with some really difficult choices too, with her friends and her romances… I guess I like to keep it real. And that's the thing I hear back from teens, too — "Thanks, it feels real." Watch Interview

Learn more about the On the Runway Series
Visit her at www.melodycarlson.com

 

 

Joan Lester on writing about struggles of biracial teens: "I wanted to empower the reader…"

Watch Interview with Joan Lester

 

JOAN: I was impelled to write [Black, White, Other], because I'm a member of a biracial home. I have biracial kids, and I saw the kind of struggles they had…

I've written a lot of nonfiction about the topics of race and gender, those are kind of my areas of expertise. But to write about it in fictional form [was new for me].

In order to write good fiction, you have to create good characters that people will really care about, characters with flesh and blood… And I wanted my story to be inspiring, because that's the kind of literature I like to read and pass on. I wanted to empower the reader. Watch Interview

Learn more about Joan's book Black, White, Other
Visit her at www.joanlester.com

 

 

Bill Myers on exploring the supernatural

Watch Interview with Bill Myers

 

BILL: As we know, there's a huge fascination that teens have for the supernatural… So what I did in The Forbidden Doors series is explore these various supernatural counterfeits [such as seances, ghosts, ouija boards, reincarnation]. The premise of the stories are that a brother and sister, teens, have stumbled upon a group of kids in California who are experimenting with all this stuff, to see if it's something you should mess around with. There's a lot of true information in the stories…

[It's interesting] to see this pattern over and over again, in the legitimate supernatural counterfeit — there's a good side to the supernatural too — but with the counterfeit stuff, it's always the same pattern. It's [basically] glow-in-the-dark action figures that are saying "You are like God," or "Come worship me." And they only pick on Jesus Christ. They don't pick on Buddha or anyone else, they always say they're better than Jesus Christ, even the UFO abductees. That was interesting to me. Watch Interview

Learn more about Bill's Forbidden Doors series 
Visit him at billmyers.com

 

 

 

Heather Burch on heroic teens and writing "X-Men meets Cinderella"

Watch Interview with Heather Burch

 

HEATHER: My trilogy The Halfings is a story about Nikki Youngblood, who's being being hunted by men and demons.  She turns to three half-human, half-angel young men for protection. While they're keeping her safe, two of them sort of fall in love with her… Which is deadly on a lot of levels. 

I really wanted to write a story about teen heroes. I've known some amazing young people, and some of my characters are based loosely on young people I've known. I wanted to write a story with characters who were larger than life, but who were teenagers. Sometimes I call my trilogy "X-Men meets Cinderella." [She smiles.] Probably heavier with X-Men, with a little bit of Cinderella…

The challenge is to capture the attention of teens. There are so many things vying for their attention… If you can give a story that captures them, and eveything else just fades away? That is it, that's my challenge and that's what I hope to do. Watch Interview

Learn more about Heather's upcoming series The Halfings
Visit her at www.heatherburchbooks.com

 

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Into Amish Country! 3 Fiction Writers on Wisdom, Escape, and Food (Roundtable Interview)

 

Is Amish fiction about fleeing from reality? What should we expect if we meet an Amish person? What do the Amish think about us? Discover answers to these questions and more in this roundtable interview with three preeminent authors of Amish fiction: Amy Clipston (Naomi's Gift), Shelley Shepard Gray (Christmas in Sugarcreek), and Vannetta Chapman (Falling to Pieces). Pull up a chair — wooden or otherwise — and read on.

 

ZBLOG: Has your research on the Amish way of life changed how you view our broader American lifestyle?

VANNETTA: Yes, very much so. It's re-affirmed a lot of things that my husband and I practice (trading in a suburban lifestyle for a rural one), etc. It's also confirmed for me that Americans in general are looking for elements found in the Amish community, elements that existed in our grandparents' community — more intimate friendships, closer knit neighborhoods, slower pace lifestyles, etc. Those things are still available to everyone to some extent.

AMY: I'm more aware of how caught up in the day to day some Americans are, and I try to take a step back and appreciate the small moments with my family. Instead of just focusing on the daily grind of commuting to work, paying bills, and rushing off here and there, I do my best to spend quiet time talking to my children and listening to them every day, even if I can only squeeze a few minutes before they go to bed at night.

SHELLEY: I've definitely learned to appreciate each moment and day more fully. There's a time for everything, and from my research and friendships with the Amish, I've tried to stop being in such a rush and fretting about the future.

 

Find Vannetta on Facebook
Vannetta Chapman

Find Amy on Facebook
Amy Clipston

Find Shelley on Facebook
Shelley Shepard Gray

 

ZBLOG: What’s one thing about the Amish that would surprise most people?

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Sign up for the “Falling to Pieces” Blog Tour

 

Falling to Pieces
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Want to be one of the first to read Vannetta Chapman's upcoming Amish mystery Falling to Pieces? We're giving away 15 advanced reader copies to bloggers for review. Sign up below, and if your blog is selected we'll ship you a copy!

About Falling to Pieces: A Shipshewana Amish Mystery
Two women, one friendship quilt, and a dead body. Shipshewana will never be the same.


Callie Harper's past haunts her. Deborah Yoder is an Amish woman who loves to quilt and piece things together—even mysteries. When a murder takes place in the small town of Shipshewana, an unlikely friendship blossoms between the two women. Will they solve the murder, and will Callie let go of the past so she can embrace the future God offers her?

 

Sign up for the Falling to Pieces Blog Tour 

  1. Sign up below by Friday, September 2. If your blog is selected we'll ship you a copy of the book.
  2. Post your review on your blog during the week of October 3. Please link to your review in a comment here on Zondervan Blog, because we'd like to hear your thoughts on the story!
  3. Please post your review on your favorite book retailer's website (amazon.com, christianbook.com, etc.).
  4. In your review please mention that Zondervan gave you a free copy for the purpose of an unbiased review.

 

 (DON'T SEE A SIGNUP FORM? Go here.)

 

Also of Interest: Join Vannetta Chapman on the Amish Country Book Tour, November 10-19

Join Vanetta and her friends Amy Clipston (author of Naomi's Gift) and Shelley Shepard Gray (author of Christmas in Sugarcreek) on the Amish Country Book Tour. Learn more about the tour stops and let us know if you plan to attend at www.zondervan.com/AmishCountryTour.

Amish Country Book Tour
Let us know if you're attending at zondervan.com/AmishCountryTour.

 

About Vannetta Chapman
Find Vannetta Chapman on Facebook Vannetta Chapman (Facebook.com/VannettaChapmanBooks) is the author of inspirational Amish fiction novels. She discovered her love for the Amish while researching her grandfather’s birthplace of Albion, Pennsylvania. Her first novel about the Amish, A Simple Amish Christmas, quickly became a bestseller. She has published over one hundred articles in Christian family magazines and has received over two dozen awards from Romance Writers of America chapter groups. Chapman lives in the Texas hill country with her husband. Learn more at her website www.vannettachapman.com.

 

 

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Bloggers: Sign up to Review “Nobody’s Child” by Austin Boyd

 

Nobody's Child
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We’re giving away 50 copies of Austin Boyd’s new novel Nobody’s Child to bloggers for review. Sign up below, and if your blog is selected we’ll ship you a review copy of the book.

Austin Boyd’s Nobody’s Child: What Price Will a Mother Pay to Save Her Only Child? is a story of love lost and loves found. Weaving together faith and contemporary questions of bioethics, the heart-rending tale hearkens to the myth of Pandora’s box — of unprecedented choices never intended by heaven, and their unintended consequences never before seen on earth.

To Laura Ann McGehee of Nobody’s Child, her body represents the one remaining financial resource that can save the family farm. For Sophia McQuistion, Laura Ann’s unusual sacrifice fulfills her own dream of having a child. The story poignantly dramatizes the question, “Just because we can … should we?”

 

Sign up for the Nobody’s Child Blog Tour

  1. Sign up by Thursday, July 28. If your blog is selected we’ll ship you a copy of the book.
  2. Post your review on your blog during the week of September 5. Please link to your review in a comment here on Zondervan Blog, because we’d like to hear your thoughts on the story!
  3. Please post your review on your favorite book retailer’s website (amazon.com, christianbook.com, etc.).
  4. In your review please mention that Zondervan gave you a free copy for the purpose of an unbiased review.

 

 (DON’T SEE A SIGNUP FORM? Go here.)

 

About The Pandora Files Series 
Nobody’s Child is the first in a new series called The Pandora Files, stories that dramatize ethical questions we can no longer ignore in medicine. Journey to the crossroads of life and science, where some believe that recent medical advances promise us a better existence. Are we embracing hope in biotechnology … or being seduced by the illusion of playing God? Push headlong into the uncharted labyrinth of bioethics. Everything’s not what it first appears on this quest—a journey of discovering that our actions may have unintended consequences. Just because we can … should we?

 

About Austin Boyd
Austin Boyd Austin Boyd is the award-winning author of the thrilling space suspense trio, The Evidence, The Proof and The Return. An inventor, business entrepreneur, spacecraft engineer, and Navy pilot, he weaves real science with true-to-life characters in descriptive page-turning suspense. Austin and his wife, Cindy are the parents of four adult children and live in Huntsville, Alabama where he manages an engineering and design company, and serves the community through Crisis Pregnancy ministries. Learn more at www.AustinBoyd.com.

 

 

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Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, by Alison Strobel

 

In this guest post, novelist Alison Strobel explores the mystery of how our bodies and beliefs affect each other. This theme appears in Alison's latest novel, The Heart of Memory, which also examines the difference between emotional faith and life-giving truth. Read more from Alison on emotion and truth in her guest post …And Therein Lies the Truth.

 

About ten years ago, back before I'd even finished writing my first novel, I read an article in People Magazine that made me think, "Now there’s an idea for a book!" It talked about organ transplant recipients who began experiencing strange changes in personal taste (food, music, etc.) and memories of things they knew they'd never actually experienced. One man developed a sudden appreciation for the violin. Another, a craving for beer and chicken wings when she'd never liked either one. Still another found himself moved to tears by a recording artist whose music he'd never liked before. One kept having dreams of blinding lights swinging into his vision, accompanied by a feeling of intense fear.

 

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Through some detective work they each managed to contact their donors' families—and discovered these new memories and preferences actually came from the donors themselves. One had been a violinist who actually died clutching his instrument. One had been a biker with a steady diet of—you guessed it—beer and chicken wings. One had been a huge fan of the singer Sade. And the dream of blinding lights? They were likely the last thing the donor had seen before a car collided head-on with his in the middle of the night.

 

When the time came to start my research, I feared I wouldn't find anything else about this phenomenon, because I'd never read of anything else like it outside of that one article. As it turns out, there is very little written on the subject—in fact, much of the medical world dismisses such experiences as bunk. But then I read a book called The Heart's Code. The author, psychologist Paul Pearsall, kicks off the book talking about his own heart attack—and all the signs his body tried to give him beforehand that something was dreadfully wrong. He didn't heed the signs, and it nearly killed him. He posits in his book that our body has more 'intelligence' than we give it credit for, and shares research that supports his theory.

 

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…And Therein Lies the Truth, by Alison Strobel

 

In this guest post, novelist Alison Strobel discusses her latest book The Heart of Memory and how it explores the difference between emotional faith and life-giving truth. Also, don't miss the Heart of Memory eBook Giveaway. Through May 2, you can download the eBook free wherever eBooks are sold.

 

One of the themes of my latest novel, The Heart of Memory, is that of the nature of truth. In this postmodern age, truth has been discussed to death—is there absolute truth, can we really know truth, what is truth in the first place? One of the most damaging realities that has arisen from this discussion is the emphasis some people place on emotion as an indicator of truth, especially as it relates to faith and religious belief. Nowadays there are some who teach that if a particular truth hurts your feelings, or doesn't feel right, or seems unfair, then it must not be true. But is this—well—the truth?

 

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things. We can all think of a time when our feelings led us down wrong, even destructive, paths, or when our emotions did not support the idea of doing what we knew was right. Relationships that are formed on nothing but feelings will crumble beneath the weight of discord or tragedy. And a faith that is contingent on feeling God's presence is a faith without the foundation of Scripture, and is likely to dissolve in the face of persecution or doubt.

 

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In The Heart of Memory, the main character, Savannah, finds her faith disappearing. Instead of returning to the unchanging Word of God, she allows her emotions—inexplicable as they are—to guide her. Sadly, this doesn't only happen in novels. I'm sure we can all think of someone (maybe even ourselves) who has turned their back on God because they let their emotions determine what was true. A life lived that way—ruled by feelings and not by truth—will always come to ruin eventually. Savannah was saved from the natural consequences of her emotions by a friend who cared enough to say, "Hey, I think you’re making a mistake." Do we have it in us to be that friend when we see someone making the same poor choice? Or do our own feelings—of fear, of pride, of embarrassment—keep us silent?

 

If you decide to give The Heart of Memory a try, I hope its examination of the true nature of truth will be an encouragement to you as you navigate your own faith. I know God gives me these stories for a reason—perhaps your own life is why The Heart of Memory was written.

 

Download the Heart of Memory eBook FREE through May 2
Download it from Christianbook.com, Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Sony.com, or anywhere else eBooks are sold. This is a limited time offer, so download it now!

 

 

About Alison Strobel
Alison Strobel

Alison Strobel writes novels that explore life, love and faith. She lives in Colorado with her husband and two daughters. Visit her at www.AlisonStrobel.com.

 


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A Civil War Story: Karl Bacon on Writing “An Eye for Glory”

 

Guest post by Karl Bacon, whose first novel An Eye for Glory: The Civil War Chronicles of a Citizen Soldier just hit stores. In this post Bacon discusses his goals for writing Civil War fiction, how he immersed himself into the mindset of his characters, and the realities of being a "pantser"…

 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." -Philippians 4:6

 

Pantser, noun; A writer who depends less on planning than on instinct and inspiration; one who doesn't know the story they're going to write until the storty starts happening.

I first heard the term "pantser" a couple of years ago and immediately thought, "Hey, that's me, a seat-of-the-pants writer." When I began writing An Eye for Glory, I was employed by a Swiss machine tool company in the development of some fairly sophisticated metalworking applications, mostly for the medical and electronic fields. I never gave a thought to becoming a writer, and never studied writing, except for those boring required courses in college, but I believed the Lord was leading me to tell the story of Michael Gabriel Palmer. I began to write in 1998, never thinking a published novel would be the end result, and from word one, I set three goals for the story:
(1) Honor the Lord Jesus Christ
(2) Honor those who served by getting the history right
(3) Write the best piece of literature I possibly could.

 

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It took ten years to complete the story. Research rabbit trails often took days or weeks to resolve. I read extensively about the history of the Connecticut regiment Michael Palmer would enlist in. I read about every battle in the story and visited each battlefield at least twice. How did the battle play out over this land? I tried to find the exact spot where Michael would have been. What would he have seen and heard and done? Sometimes I just sat still, soaking up the atmosphere of the place, so I might better bring that atmosphere to life on the page.

 

When it came to the actual writing, I essentially began to tell Michael Palmer's story as I thought he would have written it. I experimented with first person and third person points of view, and quickly settled on first person, because Michael's story is an intensely personal one, a man writing to his grown children twenty years after the events occurred. I read diaries of soldiers from the war, as much for the historical content as for the use of language, from which I developed Michael's manner of writing and speaking.

 

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