I'm moving blogs!

As you might of noticed, this blog has been a bit quiet of late. That's because I've revived my old Midlist Writer blog. While I still write Civil War stuff, and the sequel to A Fine Likeness will come out in the next couple of months, I've been writing more post-apocalyptic fiction lately, and recently started a novel set during World War One.

So this blog no longer fully reflects what I'm doing. I'll keep it up to repost announcements and anything Civil War related, but if you want Sean McLachlan's blog, go to Midlist Writer.

Check out the new Midlist Writer blog!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm shifting my blogging emphasis over to my other blog, Midlist Writer. I'll be keeping Civil War Horror going to cover its core areas of the ACW and Wild West, but my main blog will be Midlist Writer. I'll be posting several times a week over there and will be able to embrace a broader focus on things like writing advice, travel, and National Novel Writing Month.

I always felt that this blog was too narrow for some people. In blogfests I got the impression that the title made some readers skip me. A more general blog, which still reflects the interests of yours truly, may appeal to a broader audience.

Hopefully you'll be interested in following that blog. Also, check out the redesign and tell me what you think. I'm open to suggestions. And yes, it needs some more color. I just haven't decided what yet!

Civil War Horror tops 100,000 hits!

My hit counter told me yesterday that I've gone past 100,000 hits! Thanks for reading, everyone!

This isn't the only place I can be found on the Internet. I'd love to connect with you beyond this blog. We can talk books on Goodreads, follow each other on Twitter, and you can see all of my news and online articles on my Facebook fan page. If you want to chat privately, feel free to email me at the address on the sidebar.

And if you're looking for help promoting your work, check out the How Can I Help You? page on this blog.

Done with the A to Z Blogfest

This April I participated in the A to Z Challenge, in which more than a thousand bloggers wrote posts related to every letter in the alphabet. I kept to my usual themes of the Civil War, Wild West, and adventure travel, with a bit of high strangeness thrown in for kicks.

I did every letter except X. My excuse? I went on this caving expedition and I couldn't think of anything anyway.

Of course, the point of the blogfest isn't really to do all the letters, it's to meet other bloggers and have fun. Mission accomplished. Check out my blogger profile if you want to see some of the blogs I like to read. While many are related to the subjects I write about, some are completely different, and that's fun too.

China has taken over my domain name!

A couple of months ago I let my subscription for the domain name seanmclachlan (dot) com lapse. I wasn't getting nearly as many hits on that website as I do on this one, plus I was dissatisfied with my hosting service, who could never get the graphics-light website to load at a decent speed.

Shortly after my domain name became available it returned, this time with different graphics and entirely in Chinese! Google Translate shows it to be a real estate website. It's not very well done and I think they're just squatting on the domain hoping to sell it later on.

Who's behind this? I'm thinking it's the People's Liberation Army, who have been accused of lots of cybercrimes lately. That's too bad, because I really like their propaganda posters, like this one from World War Two. Whoever is behind it, Chinese domain squatters are on the rise.

Luckily my old domain name has been going down in the Google Ranks. Search for "Sean McLachlan" and it used to come up first. It's now in the middle of the first page.

This blog, however, doesn't show up until page 5. I've added my name to the header and the metadata, something I should have done from the start, and I'm adding my name to the tags for each post.

I could still use some help. If you have the time, share this story on your own blog, using my name, Sean McLachlan, as the hyperlink back to this blog. Let's get my blog to be the first thing that shows up when you search for me, or at least on the first page!


Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Reader news for February 19

My readers have been pretty busy lately. First up is Shelly Akron, who has just come out with the print version of her ghostly novel Secondhand Shoes. To celebrate, she's made the ebook version free! She's also hosting the Run Away Bride Give Away and Blog Party on Feb. 19th, 20th, and 21st. You could win a 15 dollar Amazon card or an autographed copy of Secondhand Shoes.

Tyrean Martinson recently came out with Champion in the Darkness, book one of her YA Christian fantasy series The Champion Trilogy.

At the beginning of the month, Jack Badelaire announced that he was finishing up the draft for Commando: Operation Bedlam. This will be the followup to his awesome Commando: Operation Arrowhead, which I reviewed here. It will come out this spring and it's on the top of my to-read list.

David Meyer, author of Chaos, has finally restarted his Guerrilla Explorer website, one of my favorites. It features "mysteries of history, lost treasure, strange science, cryptids, conspiracies, forgotten lands, and explorers." Welcome back to the blogosphere, Dave!

Are you a reader of this blog and have some news to share? It doesn't have to be writing related. Drop me a line at the email address to the left and I'll add it to the next Reader News!

How will the world end?

How will the world end?

Slowly.

Despite what the wide-eyed True Believers would like, the world is not going to end today or any other single day. No civilization has ended in a day. The real destruction of the world as we know it will come around a lot more slowly.

And that's going to make it a lot more painful.

This Choose Your Own Apocalypse blogfest came along at just the right time. While I'm busy with my next Civil War novel, I'm thinking of what I'll do next. One possibility is a series of loosely connected post-apocalyptic novellas. That got me to thinking how are world could fall apart.

First would come the Lean Years as the current worldwide economic meltdown worsens. This leads to various wars and civil unrest that stir the pot even more. Environmental degradation picks up pace and soon coastal areas are flooded by rising sea levels. This causes large-scale migration and that, compounded with a cash-strapped governments not being able to control the outbreak of diseases, leads to the Plague Years.

Now the world governments are really backed into a corner, and they do what they always do in such a situation--they start a war, actually The Wars, several major conflicts between groups of constantly shifting alliances. Thinks 17th century Europe with 21st century weapons. Not pretty. A few places will get nuked, biochemical weapons spread more disease, and the breakdown of civilization begins in earnest.

Then comes the World Revolution. This isn't one revolution but several. The people have had enough and a bewildering array of political and religious groups try to take over. The weakened governments fall after taking out large numbers of their own citizens. Countries fragment and the revolutionary groups end up with little patches of territory. Having widely different belief systems, they start fighting against one another, ushering in the Feudal Times.

But we're not done yet! In a world left with virtually no infrastructure or reliable long-distance trade, things like electricity and gasoline become rarities to be fought over. The new feudal states begin to collapse because of their own infighting, local revolutions, or simple starvation. A vastly depleted population is left living in fortified villages or scavenging the remains of the civilization they destroyed through their own ignorance.

And that leaves us at page one of my first book. . .

Now I just have to write it!

This photo of the Namibian ghost town Kolmanskop is courtesy Harald Süpfle via Wikimedia Commons. To learn more about this eerie ghost town and to see more photos, check out an article I did on Kolmanskop.

The Cheers, Cavanaugh Blogfest!

Today I and a whole bunch of my online friends are participating in the Cheers, Cavanaugh Blogfest. If you don't know Alex Cavanaugh, he's a bestselling science fiction writer who has made a name for himself in the blogosphere by helping others. His positive outlook is an inspiration and we want to thank him.

The rules of this blogfest are to answer the following four questions:

What does Alex look like?
No idea. We all get mental pictures of people we don't know, though. I imagine a middle-aged guy, slightly receding hairline, bit of a paunch (sorry Alex, but there it is), and a smile permanently fixed on his face. I know I have the smile part right.

Who could play Alex in a documentary? (Living or dead.)
For a living Alex it could be just about any male actor, since we don't know what he looks like. For a dead Alex, any of the male zombies from 28 Days Later. Can you imagine Alex with the Rage Virus? Weird, huh?

Who does Alex remind you of?
That cheerful kid in high school who we all knew. Everyone liked him and he skated through adolescence with no damage. "Whatever happened to that guy?" "Oh, he became a science fiction writer." "Figures."

Write flash fiction using all these prompts: Cavanaugh, Ninja, IWSG, Cosbolt, Guitar.
Mrs. Cavanaugh took her red pen and marked a word on the manuscript that lay on the dining room table. She looked up to where a man in a ninja costume clung to the ceiling.
"Replaced that light bulb yet, honey?" she asked.
"Just getting to it now," the ninja replied as he scuttled upside down towards the chandelier.
"You misspelled Cosbolt again," she said. "This time you have it as 'Cosbot'. Makes it sound like some kind of droid."
The ninja detached himself from the ceiling, did a triple back flip, and landed soundlessly on the floor.
"Thanks, honey, I don't know what I'd do without you."
Mrs. Cavanaugh put her pen aside and studied the ninja for a moment.
"Now that you've completed the third book, what are you going to do?" she asked.
The ninja shrugged.
"I don't know," he replied. "Maybe take up my guitar again and start a band. Rap is still big, how about I do that?"
The ninja struck a gangsta pose, or at least a computer programmer's approximation of a gangsta pose, and rapped out, "I'm down with IWSG, yeah you know me!"
Mrs. Cavanaugh folded her hands on her lap, let out a sigh, and said, "Honey, I think it's best if you write another novel."

Bonus Points: Leave a comment for Mrs. Cavanaugh - thanking her for sharing.
Included above. Thanks Mrs. Ninja!

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:

 -----------------------------------------------
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!

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.

More on the Gadling travel bloggers summit

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently flew from Spain to Washington, DC, to attend the Gadling travel bloggers summit. It was great to finally put faces to names and we got to see some of the city too. My fellow Gadling blogger Laurel Miller has just published an account of that trip. She's so complete that I really have nothing to add. If you want to know what happens when a bunch of travel bloggers get together for a long weekend in a strange city, check it out. It's good, bad, and occasionally ugly!

G is for Grizzled Old Traveler

Grizzled Old Traveler was my very first blog. It ran from 2008-2010 with a total of 199 posts. It was mainly a travel blog with some random personal stuff thrown in. I stopped writing it when I got a paid blogging gig at Gadling (there's another G for you) and saw no reason to continue.

It's still up and got 447 hits last month! Nice to know somebody's still reading it. Or maybe those were just spambots. Whatever. My favorite posts are Ten Reasons the Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory is Stupid and The Thunderbird Photo and False Memory Syndrome. I also wrote a lot about Spain, where I live much of the year.

Two writing milestones

I reached two milestones in my writing this week. The first was getting halfway through the next novel in my Civil War horror series. I'm taking a step back for a while to edit, polish, and map out the second half. I'll also be working on a fantasy novel I've been diddling around for a while. The back burner becomes the front burner! I always write new material for something so that editing doesn't become an excuse for not writing.

The second milestone was writing my 1,000th post for Gadling, the travel blog I work for. In total I've written 465,451 words in 1,048 days. That's what persistence gets you! Check out the link for some of my insights from this long and crazy ride.

Guest blogging over at Guerrilla Explorer

I'm a bit late in announcing this one, sorry! I recently guest blogged over at the super-cool Guerrilla Explorer on the enduring historical debate: Did Jesse James fake his own Death?

David Meyer does a fine job with his blog. Guerrilla Explorer explores mysteries of science and history, as well as conspiracy theories and other interesting subjects. His combination of an open mind and a critical eye make for interesting reading. Drop on by to my post and leave a comment, and don't forget to read his other postings!

Getting a hundred hits a day!

After the first ten days of December I had a total of 1,010 hits for this month. I'm now getting a hundred hits a day, my Technorati ranking is steadily rising, and I only started this blog in July. Thanks to all of you for the retweets, follows, etc! Of course I'm not in the big leagues yet (I can't even imagine how many daily hits Alex Cavanaugh gets) but I'm slowly building this blog up.

I'm slowly building up sales and visibility of my Civil War novel too. Thanks a million to those who have been buying it!

Gadling named one of the top ten adventure blogs by Outside Magazine

Ethiopian monk with medieval manuscript, Lake Tana.

In the midst of hateful spew coming at me from Neo-Confederates on this blog, the Missouri Civil War Forum, the Kindle Forum, and even anonymous messages to my public email account (didn't know you could do that until now) I got some good news.

Outside Magazine has named the travel blog I work for, Gadling, one of the top ten adventure blogs! While we cover all aspects of travel, it's the adventure travel that most interests me. Our bloggers go all around the world, doing everything from riding camels in the Middle East to eating bugs in Asia. It's a fun team to work with. I've done a few adventure travel series myself, including a road trip in Ethiopia, visiting Somaliland, and living for two months living in Harar, Ethiopia.

I'm making plans for 2012 but there's nothing solid yet except a visit with my family to the Orkney Islands. In the meantime you can follow my feed where I give you updates about archaeology, art, and short trips I'm doing. Don't forget to go to Gadling's main page to see what my ultra-cool coworkers are writing about too.

Tell my boss to send me to Afghanistan

As many of you know, I'm a travel blogger for Gadling, the world's most popular travel blog. I've done several series on adventure travel, including one on taking a road trip around Ethiopia, and another on living in an African city. I did another on visiting Somaliland.

In my more than 20 years of adventure travel, I've never been to Afghanistan, and it's always been at the top of my list. I visited Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province in the 1990's and spent several pleasant weeks among the Afghan communities there. Afghanistan's long history and varied cultures would make a great Gadling series. . .

. . .but I can't afford it. So I need your help. If you'd like to see a boots-on-the-ground series on Afghanistan written by yours truly, tell Gadling to be my sugar daddy. I'll write about culture, history, and daily life, all the things the news ignores. I already know an adventure travel company that can take me there. If enough people vote, maybe Gadling will send me!

Please leave a comment at this link, telling Gadling they need a series on Afghanistan.

[Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Welcome all new followers!

Participating in the Pay it Forward blogfest was lots of fun. I got a bunch of new followers and found some cool blogs I'd never heard of. It also turns out that one of the bloggers I picked, David over at Guerrilla Explorer, has just published his novel, a thriller filled with conspiracies and cryptids. So hit the link and check it out.

In a further attempt to make this blog more visible, I'm registering with Technorati, which explains the claim code that follows. T44E5PJRF3PX

That means nothing to my readers. Back with some more Civil War tomorrow!

Pay it forward blogfest: my three picks

Today I'm skipping my usual Civil War Photo Friday to participate in the Pay it Forward Blogfest. We're all supposed to pick three blogs that deserve more attention. So here we go. . .

A daily dose of the Civil War
The Civil War Daily Gazette tells you all the latest news, 150 years after it happened. That's right, this tireless blogger is going the distance and posting every day until 1865, um, I mean 2015. I found this blog a couple of months ago and quickly got addicted. It's one of the few blogs I visit daily.

Grumpy writer tells all
Dean Wesley Smith may already be known to you. He is a hardworking midlister like yours truly and has decided to mix traditional publishing with self-publishing via Kindle. Because he's chosen a similar career path, I read his regular rants about the publishing industry and where it's headed. I do find him overly negative about publishers and agents and don't agree with his analysis all the time. That's a good thing. There would be no point in reading him if I always agreed with him!

Lost Treasure! Mysteries of History! Cryptids! Conspiracies!
Guerrilla Explorer takes on the shadowy areas of the world and history. Did Hitler fake his death? Probably not, but there's some intriguing evidence that makes this less silly than it sounds. I'm not convinced those Russian scientists will find anything on their Yeti hunt though. Oh, and the post on the Student Loan Conspiracy was downright depressing.

Head on over to these blogs and see if you like them. If you do, give them some love and leave a comment. tell them I sent you!