Secrets of the Gettysburg Battlefield coming this month

Introducing the cover of my next book, Secrets of the Gettysburg Battlefield: Little-Known Stories & Hidden History From the Civil War Battlefield. It may still get a few tweaks, but I would say this is 95 percent there. The book will be available near the end of this month, but I was excited to show you the cover.

Like the other books in my Secrets series, it’s a collection of true stories that highlight an area’s forgotten stories, and, in my opinion, sometimes, they are the most interesting stories. The purpose of the series is to bring stories to readers.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War. The July 1-3, 1863, battle saw the greatest number of casualties during the war. Beyond the fighting, the battlefield is the site of many other true stories of war, legends, reconciliation, and fantasy.

• Discover the first great battle that took place at Gettysburg.
• Learn about the prisoners of war who were kept on the battlefield.
• Read about the out-of-this-world visitors to the battlefield.
• Learn about how fairy tale creatures came to life on the battlefield.
• Discover Gettysburg’s connection to not only the Civil War but World War I and II.

Secrets of the Gettysburg Battlefield: Little-Known Stories & Hidden History From the Civil War Battlefield tells stories of dinosaurs, warriors, interesting people, and unusual incidents. These are the types of stories you won’t read about in history textbooks. Collected from the writings of award-winning author James Rada, Jr., these fascinating stories and dozens of photographs tell some of the hidden history of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

This book is the fourth in my Secrets series, joining Secrets of Garrett County, Secrets of Catoctin Mountain, and Secrets of the C&O Canal.

You might also enjoy these posts:

• Smoldering Betrayal is available!
• Secrets of the C&O Canal coming in February
• “Am I a historian?”

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Smoldering Betrayal is available!

It’s been a long time coming, but Smoldering Betrayal, book 1 of the Black Fire Trilogy, is out!

Not only has it been a long time coming, but it is a book that turned out a lot different than I first envisioned.

The story of Matt Ansaro’s return to his hometown to spy on friends and family during the 1922 national coal strike first took shape years ago. When I read about the coal strike, I knew I wanted to write a novel about it. The original idea was that a company spy would be turned into a double agent when his girlfriend is kidnapped by miners.

I also had a great title for the book. It was In Coal Blood.

I attempted to write the story only to meet with failure. I would get a couple of chapters into the story and run into a wall. I would outline the story and then do it again. Yet, I kept hitting the wall.

I put the project on the shelf and would return to it occasionally still hitting the wall.

Then in January 2018, I had a simple thought that changed the way I looked at the story and broke the logjam. That simple change was to make Matt Ansaro (who’d been named John Montgomery in the original story) connected to Eckhart Mines. Once I made the decision to make Eckhart Mines Matt’s hometown, I started getting all sorts of ideas about the characters, plot points, and the setting. I found myself carrying around a pad and pen to write down thoughts wherever I went. When I was in the car, I would record scenes, ideas, and snatches of dialogue that came to me. I would even be recording thoughts before I fell asleep at night.

I wrote more of the story in three days than I had in six years.

It quickly became apparent that the original story would take up more than one book. I researched like crazy. Because I was writing before I had a chance to research the setting, I had to make sure that the story fit the ways things were in Eckhart Mines in 1922 in later drafts.

Smoldering Betrayal contains some of the element of the original story, but also a lot of new ideas and characters I hadn’t planned in the original book.

I love how the book turned out. My beta readers enjoyed it, and I hope that you will, too.

Check out Smoldering Betrayal here.

You might also enjoy these posts:

• A spy among the union miners
• Residents get desperate for a drink during Prohibition
• Whatever happened to the coal towns?

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A spy among the union miners

Coming in September! Smoldering Fire, a new historical fiction series from the author of Canawlers and October Mourning.

Is Matt Ansaro a spy, coal miner, or loyal family member? Sometimes even Matt isn’t sure.

Matt Ansaro returns to his hometown of Eckhart Mines in the Western Maryland coal fields. It has been five years since Matt was here, and he swore when he left in 1917 that he would never return. Although Matt’s parents are dead, the rest of his family welcomes him home with open arms.

Joseph McCord, the superintendent of the Consolidation Coal Mines and a classmate of Matt’s, is not so happy to see Matt return. He has plans for Matt’s old girlfriend, Laura Spencer, and Joseph thinks he will need to compete with Matt for her attention.

Matt has his own plans. He is a Pinkerton detective, and he has been sent to spy on his former neighbors for the Consolidation Coal Company. The coal company owners want to know about union activity in the town and shut it down before it can gain a foothold.

Matt takes a job in the mines and works to re-establish his connections with his family and neighbors, including Laura. He also finds himself attracted to Samantha Havencroft, a suffragette and daughter of a college president.

Matt is walking a tightrope. If the miners find out he is a detective, he could be attacked and driven from town. However, if the coal company or Pinkerton Agency discovers Matt’s real reason for returning to Eckhart Mines, the result could be just as bad. He is a man alone, trying to do what he sees best, even as a national coal strike looms.

Smoldering Betrayal is the first book in the Black Fire series and full of action, intrigue, drama, and romance in the 1922 Western Maryland coal fields.

You might also enjoy these posts:

• Secrets of the C&O Canal coming in February
• Whatever happened to the coal towns?
• Why did the No. 20 mine explode?

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Review: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

I’m a big fan of David McCullough. After all, he’s the one who showed me that a non-fiction history book could read like a novel (1776).

I can’t say The Wright Brothers was such a book, but I definitely enjoyed it and was looking forward to reading it. Like many people, I know the Wright Brothers were bicycle makers who made the first powered manned flight at Kitty Hawk that introduced the age of modern aviation.

I was very surprised that the narrative reached the historic 1903 flight so quickly. When that happened, I realized that there must be a lot more to their story. While the brothers certainly went through a lot of trials to take to the air in Kitty Hawk, I was very surprised at how much resistance they met with not only in Europe but also from the U.S. government. In fact, the Europeans embraced the brothers sooner than the U.S. government did.

Although Orville made the historic first flight, he wasn’t the brother who took the most risks. That was Wilbur. Poor Orville seems to have been the one who was injured the most. He was the pilot of the first fatal airplane accident that killed his passenger on that flight.

Also, I was surprised by how quickly aviation advanced once the Wrights broke that initial barrier.

McCullough does a great job of humanizing the brothers and their close relationship. He also throws in lots of interesting little factoids, such as the person who took the famous Kitty Hawk picture had never taken a picture before. The first photo he took became iconic.

I can’t say that this is my favorite McCullough book. That honor belongs to 1776 and The Johnstown Flood. I definitely enjoyed it, and it didn’t become overwhelming like some of McCullough’s longer books. As always, I learned a lot more about the subject of the book and enjoyed the process.

You might also enjoy these posts:

• Review: Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock
• REVIEW: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
• REVIEW: Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll

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Review: Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock

I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting when I bought Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, but the topic caught my attention. I have to say that I loved it. It was a narrative type of non-fiction that I like to read and Pope Brock can tell an intriguing story.

Of course, he also found a great subject to write about, which is half of the battle.

In the early 20^th century, confidence man John Brinkley came up with his ultimate money-making scheme. He would use surgery and goat testicles to restore male virility. It makes most men cringe nowadays, but think about some of the odd things we still do to maintain our youth that involved surgery.

Brinkley also developed a sideline of selling potions and pills that turned out not to contain what they claimed to contain. This sort of thing was going on before Brinkley with snake oil salesmen and still continues today.

I found myself reading the book and thinking how could people fall for this, but then I thought about the modern equivalents and wondered how many times I’ve been taken in without knowing it.

Brinkley made a fortune off his quack theories and inspired a lot of copycat “doctors.” He also left behind dozens of dead and maimed people, all the while claiming success.

So, if Brinkley was the antagonist, the protagonist would be Morris Fishbein, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. I’m not sure about other readers, but I just didn’t like Fishbein. I actually found myself hoping that he would fail in his efforts to destroy Brinkley. On the other hand, I found myself cheering for Brinkley at times because he wouldn’t be stopped. He kept reinventing himself to work around the restrictions that were thrown at him. I admired that even though I hated what he was doing.

“Dr.” John Brinkley looking like a medical professional.

 

I’ve seen a few movies and read some books lately where I didn’t like either the protagonist or antagonist. Who do you root for then?

Besides his gross medical malpractice, Brinkley also had an impact on politics, radio, and country music.

One reason why Brinkley was successful with his scams was because he was a master marketer. His initial marketing efforts dealt with newspaper advertising and direct mail. He recognized the marketing potential of the new media of the day, radio, and made the most of it.

When the government started to crack down on how the airwaves were used, Brinkley moved south of the border and opened a radio station in Mexico that eventually broadcast more than a million watts. Not only was this more powerful than his Oklahoma radio station had been, it was more powerful than all of the U.S. radio stations combined.

Besides pitches for his products and surgeries, Brinkley also presented entertainment. Many of the performers he chose went on to become pioneers in country music.

When Fishbein started to have an impact on Brinkley’s goat gland empire, he used his radio popularity to move into politics and very nearly became elected governor of Oklahoma as a third-party candidate.

I found Charlatan to be a fascinating story. I kept guessing at what Brinkley would do next to outwit Fishbein and his other detractors.

You might also like these posts:

• REVIEW: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott
• REVIEW: Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll
• REVIEW: The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City & Sparked the Tabloid Wars by Paul Collins

 

 

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REVIEW: Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War caught my attention because I like to read about topics that are somewhat off the beaten path. Karen Abbott writes about four women who served their country, whether it was the Union or Confederacy, as spies and in other functions.

I had known some of what Belle Boyd did during the war, but the other women were new names to me. Honestly, Boyd had never impressed me. True, she was an effective spy, but it seemed like what she was doing was just as much about making herself important as it was to help the Confederacy.

Rose O’Neal Greenhow was a member of Washington society who was able to seduce politicians and military men into divulging secrets. I found her time in prison very interesting in how she refused to let it break her, but then she feared going back so it definitely had an effect on her.

Belle Boyd

Elizabeth Van Lew was part of Richmond society who helped hide Union soldiers in her home and pass on information to the North. I actually found the story of Mary Bowser, one of Van Lew’s servants, more interesting. Bowser was hired in the Confederate White House and collected information right from Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s home and passed it on to Van Lew.

Emma Edmonds’ story was the one that truly caught my attention. She took on a male persona and became a soldier in the Union army where she fought, nursed soldiers, and served as a postmaster. She also went undercover as a female slave to collect information.

Emma Edmonds

The epilogue that explains what happened to these women after the war I found particularly interesting. Although I am pleased that the country recognized the contributions these ladies made to the war effort, not all of them led happy lives after the war.

Abbott does a great job of telling the stories in a compelling way, but sometimes the transitions between the stories was muddled. I found that I was quite fascinated to find out what would happen to these ladies.

I am surprised that Abbott included the stories of all four of these women in one book. I would think that any of them deserve their own book.

I was worried when I started reading that Abbott would write a feminist, politically correct book. I am pleased to say that is not the case. At times, I saw some things that might be construed that way, but that could have been because I was looking for it. By and large, it was a straightforward and compelling story.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy serves as a good introduction to these ladies, but you should look for additional books to flesh out the stories. Some reviewers have pointed out problems in some of the details that Abbott included. Many of these are minor problems, but some are distracting. One that caught my attention was her description of what the Confederate soldiers did to the Union dead after a battle. I have never read anything like that before and it seems so outrageous that she would have wanted to make sure that it was verified.

In other sections, I found myself thinking, “I wish I had written a passage like that in my books.” Abbott definitely made me appreciate the efforts of the women more than I had when started reading.

• Author focuses on little-known nuns’ work during Civil War
• Female reporter on Gettysburg Address gets her recognition 78 later
• Radio interview about Civil War nursing

 

 

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REVIEW: Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll

Six Frigates is the story of the creation of the U.S. Navy and it’s a great read. I picked up a copy when I was in Mystic Seaport. It took some time for me to get around to reading it, but once I did, I was fascinated.

The Navy was created to defend the young United States from threatening foreign powers. This had been a definite weakness during the Revolutionary War.

Unlike a biography, which you can find for many of the major players in Six Frigates, this is a history of the Navy rather than the people who created it. I thought that this would be a big drawback to the book, but author Ian W. Toll does a good job of balancing personal details with history. You read about political motivations and economic considerations to creating a national fleet.

Six Frigates refers to the first six ships that formed the basis of the Navy. Built by a man who had never designed a warship before, the book begins by addressing the problems the United States faced in actually building the ships.

The story then moves to the sailors and their rocky performance. The book gets really interesting with the tales of the Barbary pirates and the Navy’s battles against them.

It is almost like a coming-of-age story with the Navy playing the part of a teenager. The War of 1812 shows the Navy with its ships built and sailors trained as they set about to defend the country.

This was Toll’s first book. He has since written two more books that are centered around the Navy during WWII. I haven’t read them, though given how much I enjoyed Six Frigates, I will probably buy them at some point.

The U.S.S. Constitution

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REVIEW: The Secret Life of Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman

I didn’t know much about Harry Houdini before reading The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero. I remember seeing an old TV movie about the escape artist, but I really didn’t remember much about it. I also liked the fact that William Kalush, one of the authors, was a magician himself.

He and co-author Larry Sloman do a wonderful job of bringing Houdini to life on the pages of the book. They explore all aspects of his life from his childhood to his rise to fame to work debunking spiritualists. It also gives non-magicians like me a unique peek behind the curtain to see how magic is made.

I have to give Sloman and Kalush credit. They have written an exciting biography. Although Houdini led an interesting life, they still could have written a boring book. I am reading another biography now about an exciting man and yet, I find this particular book boring. So they deserve credit for making a larger-than-life character very alive.

Though Houdini made a career manipulating people, he was actually a very nice person who mentored other magicians. He was a strong family man. He also wore a lot of hats in his life: magician, escape artist, husband, son, brother, spy, actor and debunker of spiritualists. You get an excellent perspective of all these roles in the book.

So do yourself a favor. Read an exciting, true book about one of the most-interesting people you will ever get a chance to know.

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Cover art for “Lock Ready”

Here’s the cover art for my new historical novel that coming out next month. Lock Ready is my first historical novel in seven years. It’s also been 10 years since I wrote my last Canawlers novel.

Lock Ready once again return to the Civil War and the Fitzgerald Family. The war has split them up. Although George Fitzgerald has returned from the war, his sister Elizabeth Fitzgerald has chosen to remain in Washington to volunteer as a nurse. The ex-Confederate spy, David Windover, has given up on his dream of being with Alice Fitzgerald and is trying to move on with his life in Cumberland, Md.

Alice and her sons continue to haul coal along the 184.5-mile-long C&O Canal. It is dangerous work, though, during war time because the canal runs along the Potomac River and between the North and South. Having had to endured death and loss already, Alice wonders whether remaining on the canal is worth the cost. She wants her family reunited and safe, but she can’t reconcile her feelings between David and her dead husband.

 

Her adopted son, Tony, has his own questions that he is trying to answer. He wants to know who he is and if his birth mother ever loved him. As he tries to find out more about his birth mother and father, he stumbles onto a plan by Confederate sympathizers to sabotage the canal and burn dozens of canal boats. He enlists David’s help to try and disrupt the plot before it endangers his new family, but first they will have find out who is behind the plot.

 

I’ve had fun writing about the Fitzgeralds over the years, but at this point, I see this as my last Canawlers novel. I do have an idea for a non-fiction C&O Canal book, but it will still be years before it comes out. Until then, I hope you enjoy my three Canawlers novels and one novella. The best order to read them in is: Canawlers, Between Rail and River, Lock Ready and The Race.

 

 

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Read about Gettysburg’s forgotten history

Home to a U.S. president, Hall of Fame pitcher and  a classic automobile inventor, there’s so much more to Gettysburg than just a three-day battle.

Sure Gettysburg is best-known for the epic Civil War battle that was fought there in 1863. It tends to overshadow many of the other interesting and important stories that have taken place in Gettysburg and the vicinity.

Gettysburg was also home to one of the first tank training camps in the country during World War I. This camp brought a young army officer to Gettysburg who would play a very important role in town but also the world. His name was Dwight David Eisenhower.

Hall of Fame pitcher Eddie Plank called Gettysburg home. He even owned a garage in town after he retired.

Gettysburg is filled with stories of the famous and the not so famous, the curious and the cute, the mysterious and the deadly. Together they will tell you the story of a Gettysburg that you don’t know. It is a town with a rich history that spans many years before and after the Civil War.

Now you can read the stories of Gettysburg that stretch beyond the battlefield in my new book, Beyond the Battlefield: Stories from Gettysburg’s Rich History. It’s a collection of 46 stories and 56 pictures that show you the side of Gettysburg’s history that you don’t often read about.

You can get a copy here or check with your favorite bookseller about ordering one.

 

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