A fine review for A Fine Likeness

My Civil War novel A Fine Likeness has garnered another five-star review. Under the title, "A rip-snorting historical horror story", user Kayann wrote:

"I generally don't read much long-form prose on my kindle, unless I'm trapped on an airplane but I was at home for this one. That says something about my experience with A FINE LIKENESS. Setting aside my downloaded newspapers and blogs paid off, because reading A FINE LIKENESS -- which must run over 85,000 words -- renewed my faith in both the e-reading experience and my attention span.

"McLachlan sets his horror-history story well outside the norm, avoiding the tried-and-true territory from big clashes like Gettsyburg and Shiloh. I would like to see more stories set in places that are often overshadowed by the giant military maneuvers. By sidestepping the stereotypes, McLachlan takes readers smack dab into the guerrilla war of the trans-Missouri theater. This clears out the preconceptions that Hollywood has inserted into our minds and prepares readers for a singular story with hairpin turns.

"McLachlan leads on with solid action and an especially deft hand for description. He clearly knows the terrain under his characters' feet and offers sensory impressions of the natural world that anchor the story in place and time. One well-handled account of riders approaching an abandoned camp through smoke and a screen of trees instantly conveys the creepy reality of the tale -- and there is real poetry here as well. Most tellers of swashbuckling tales tend to skip this stuff, and their stories often suffer as a result. McLachlan is at his best with description of this kind and with action -- much more so than with dialogue. One downside: I wish we had seen Bloody Bill sooner in the story, but it's tough to get everyone on stage, and set up the tale, which is braided together while being told from different perspectives.

"Central themes -- spirit photography and spiritualism - serve to tie the story together and prove thought-provoking. I even found some relevance for our own times --contemplating soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan dealing with guerrilla warfare on very different terms.

"I recommend."

Civil War Photo Friday: Veterans of the Battle of Prairie Grove

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Union victory at the Battle of Prairie Grove. This was a brutal slugfest in northwestern Arkansas that spelled the end to Confederate hopes of invading Missouri and opened up Arkansas for Union invasion. It would take both sides some time to fully realize the significance of this battle.

The battle has been well described in many places, such as this official site and the awesome blog Civil War Daily Gazette. So I'll just give you this interesting photo of the veterans of Company K, 34th Arkansas Infantry, taken at a reunion at the battlefield sometime around 1905-1916. This public domain image comes courtesy Campsite Artifacts, a very cool website run by a metal detectorist who specializes in finding (and selling) Civil War artifacts.

Herding turkeys in the Wild West

"They can have my turkeys when they pry them from my cold, dead fingers."

One of the side effects of writing nonfiction is that you end up with a bunch of little side stories and tidbits of information that don't fit in the book. These end up as material for later works, talking points at parties, or. . .blog posts!

I'm currently writing a book on Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the O.K. Corral gunfight and his Vengeance Ride. One minor figure in this history is Henry Clay Hooker, a prominent rancher in southern Arizona who sheltered Wyatt and his crew as they rode around the countryside hunting the Cowboys. Hooker was played by Charleton Heston in the movie Tombstone.

Before Hooker became a big rancher, he had quite a past. Born in New Hampshire, he moved to California in 1853, ran a store, and drove cattle to Nevada mining camps. A fire destroyed his store in 1866 and in order to make money he bought 150 turkeys at $1.50 each and herded them from California to Carson City, Nevada, where he turned a tidy profit by selling them for $5 each. This gave him enough money to get started in the cattle business, and he eventually became one of the Arizona Territory's most successful ranchers.

Herding turkeys? I didn't even know this was possible! While I doubt any Western movie has ever shown a hard-bitten hero with a ten-gallon hat herding turkeys, it's one of the remakrable stories of the Old West.

Civil War Horror blog wins the Liebster Award!

O.K., it ain't the Oscars, but this still makes me happy. Blogger buddy Sapper Joe over at Sapper Joe's Wargaming & Toys has awarded me the Liebster Award, a recognition of a fun blog with fewer than 200 followers. I may have few followers, but I have cool ones!

This being a blog award, it comes with some rules:

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Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.

Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!
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Only five, huh? That's tricky. I know a lot more deserving bloggers than that! Here are my picks:

The 2nd Kansas State Militia and the Battle of The Blue: You knew I was going to pick a Trans-Miss blog, didn't you? Jeff Bell digs into the little-known history of this Civil War battle and what happened to his ancestor John F. Bell and his comrades. Bell (the modern one) doesn't post very often but I immediately click on his posts when he does. I've been studying the Trans-Mississippi Theater for years and he always teaches me something new!

The Sable Arm: Jimmy Price blogs about black soldiers in the Civil War. This is another blogger who I wish posted more often. There's a lot of good material here, including a fascinating series on whether Robert E. Lee's slaves joined the Union army.

The Post Modern Pulp Blog: Jack Badelaire is becoming an indie publishing machine. He loves all those men's adventure novels of the 60s, 70s, and 80s and he's busy writing new ones in the old style. He blogs about his favorite genre and throws in some reviews and military history to boot.

Mad Padre: A Canadian Army chaplain blogging about spirituality, wargaming, books, and travel. He has a second blog called Mad Padre's Wargames Page that's also worth a visit. I'm not a wargamer, but his posts there are entertaining that I read them anyway. I can't seem to find his real name. He just goes by "Mad Padre." I wonder what his regiment thinks of that?

Donna's Book Pub: Donna Volkenannt is a Missouri writer whose short stories and articles have appeared all over the place, including the Chicken Soup books. She blogs about her work, the writing life, and posts calls for submissions. If you're looking for a blog about the writing life from a hardworking pro, this is a good one to follow. She's at 165 followers; let's see if this award can push her over 200!

Confusing friend and foe in Civil War Missouri

As I've mentioned before on this blog, it took some time on the western fringes of the Civil War for uniforms to settle down to the familiar blue and gray.

The First Kansas Colored Volunteers, a Union regiment, wore gray uniforms. At the Battle of Wilson's Creek, the detachment of the Union army under Col. Franz Sigel confused the advancing 3rd Louisiana for the 3rd (1st!) Iowa, a Union regiment that wore gray. They didn't realize their mistake until they got fired upon. Even the Confederate South Carolina Flying Artillery wore blue at the beginning of the war.

In Missouri, many local militia had no uniforms at all. The Union militia near Lancaster wore white hatbands to show who they were. On October 18, 1862, a large troop of them were hunting some rebel bushwhackers. The rebels decided the militia's "uniform" was easy to imitate and made themselves some white hatbands. The poor militia let most of them escape, even though they greatly outnumbered the rebels. They simply didn't know who was who!

Book Review: My War: Killing Time in Iraq

My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read Buzzell's famous memoir in preparation for my own trip to Iraq. While I was going as a tourist and not a soldier, I found this book to be really informative.

For example, Buzzell says, "[the women] would stare at us but as soon as you made eye contact, they would look away. The Iraqi men were a little different. They stare too, but don't look away, and if you wave, which is something they never initiate, they wave back, nervously."

That was 2003-4. In October 2012 the women still look away, except for a few younger ones. The men are more forthcoming. On the street they rarely wave first, but when you wave or say salaam alaykum most burst into a smile and return your greeting. If they're in a place where they feel more comfortable, like a mosque, they'll often come up to you first and start a conversation.

While this is a war memoir, much of the book is about Buzzell's personal growth and the uncomfortable position he gets in when the blog he's writing becomes famous. The Army had never had to deal with this before and its policy on blogging was pretty much created because of him.

The subtitle, "Killing Time in Iraq" more accurately reads, "Killing Time in Iraq". Buzzell discovers all too well the truth of that old saying, "War is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror."

The boredom is narrated with hilarious cynicism. The terror is some of the best combat writing I've ever read. If you want to know about the war in Iraq from a grunt's-eye view, read this book.

View all my reviews

I've made it past 300 posts!

This past week I've gone past 300 posts! I didn't even notice at the time, but my post on Thanksgiving in the Civil War was number 300.

This blog keeps growing. I only started in July of 2011 and I've collected a nice group of followers. I appreciate every one of you! Thanks to you my hits have risen to an average of 250-300 a day. I'm planning on expanding this blog in 2013 with more posts and participation in blogfests. I'm always open to guest posts too.

I'm sort of spread out on social media right now and I think it's best to focus only on one or two. This blog and my Goodreads account will be getting the most attention. I'll also be using my Twitter feed, because that brings in new readers.

So what does this picture have to do with anything? Well, it's a 300-pounder Parrot gun, a rifled cannon used as a shore battery that threw a 300-pound shell. The photo is courtesy Wikipedia.