Post by GrayGhost on Jan 25, 2005 11:54:25 GMT -5
Looks like this will be an interesting read:
www.campbell.edu/news/releases/sp05/ns_rel0003.html
The Anderson brothers of Catawba County, North Carolina, didn’t join the Confederate Army to defend states’ rights or slavery, or lofty political ideals. Their reasons were far more human.
“The boys who signed up weren’t going to let their neighbors go off and fight alone,” said novelist Wes Barkley, of Hickory, NC. This and other fascinating insights into Catawba County’s Civil War history led the Campbell law graduate to turn a thesis paper begun at Gardner-Webb University into a novel. Barkley published the fictional history, “The Anderson Chronicles: How the Gallant Fell,” in 2004 and is finishing a sequel tentatively titled, “Fields of Fire.” A final volume detailing the brothers’ fate at Gettysburg is also underway.
One of the most exciting aspects of writing the book was getting to know the characters, Barkley said. Published by AmErica House Publishing in Baltimore, MD, “How the Gallant Fell” is based on a real Catawba County family whose sons enlisted only to find that war wasn’t the great adventure it was cracked up to be. Although the name, Anderson, is fictional and Barkley’s Catawba County family consists of five brothers instead of three, his description of the chaos, suffering, and death encountered on the battlefield is gathered from actual letters, diaries and other historical documents. While Barkley’s research provided the context of the story, transforming the characters into flesh and blood was strictly imagination. Barkley based the characteristics and personalities of the brothers on his real life brother, Travis, and four of his college friends. Some of the commanding generals and officers in his second and third books may be reminiscent of his own law professors at Campbell since Barkley was in the process of writing the books while attending the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law.
“The hardest thing about historical fiction is that you have to be accountable for historical detail,” Barkley said. “When I let a Civil War buff read my manuscript before it was published, I learned that the description of a uniform button was inaccurate. A tiny detail like that can ruin a book’s authenticity.”
Barkley, who received an undergraduate degree from Gardner-Webb in 2000 and graduated from Campbell’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in 2003, said he would never want to be a full time novelist.
“Writing historical fiction is a wonderful distraction and a great escape for me,” he said. “Waking up to an alarm clock and writing about people who didn’t have running water or electricity is a challenge, but it is amazing how these people came alive to me through their diaries and personal letters.”
Barkley practices criminal law with the firm Sigmon, Sigmon & Isenhower in Newton, NC. He is married to the former Natalie Henline.
Anyone heard anything about this one?
www.campbell.edu/news/releases/sp05/ns_rel0003.html
The Anderson brothers of Catawba County, North Carolina, didn’t join the Confederate Army to defend states’ rights or slavery, or lofty political ideals. Their reasons were far more human.
“The boys who signed up weren’t going to let their neighbors go off and fight alone,” said novelist Wes Barkley, of Hickory, NC. This and other fascinating insights into Catawba County’s Civil War history led the Campbell law graduate to turn a thesis paper begun at Gardner-Webb University into a novel. Barkley published the fictional history, “The Anderson Chronicles: How the Gallant Fell,” in 2004 and is finishing a sequel tentatively titled, “Fields of Fire.” A final volume detailing the brothers’ fate at Gettysburg is also underway.
One of the most exciting aspects of writing the book was getting to know the characters, Barkley said. Published by AmErica House Publishing in Baltimore, MD, “How the Gallant Fell” is based on a real Catawba County family whose sons enlisted only to find that war wasn’t the great adventure it was cracked up to be. Although the name, Anderson, is fictional and Barkley’s Catawba County family consists of five brothers instead of three, his description of the chaos, suffering, and death encountered on the battlefield is gathered from actual letters, diaries and other historical documents. While Barkley’s research provided the context of the story, transforming the characters into flesh and blood was strictly imagination. Barkley based the characteristics and personalities of the brothers on his real life brother, Travis, and four of his college friends. Some of the commanding generals and officers in his second and third books may be reminiscent of his own law professors at Campbell since Barkley was in the process of writing the books while attending the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law.
“The hardest thing about historical fiction is that you have to be accountable for historical detail,” Barkley said. “When I let a Civil War buff read my manuscript before it was published, I learned that the description of a uniform button was inaccurate. A tiny detail like that can ruin a book’s authenticity.”
Barkley, who received an undergraduate degree from Gardner-Webb in 2000 and graduated from Campbell’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in 2003, said he would never want to be a full time novelist.
“Writing historical fiction is a wonderful distraction and a great escape for me,” he said. “Waking up to an alarm clock and writing about people who didn’t have running water or electricity is a challenge, but it is amazing how these people came alive to me through their diaries and personal letters.”
Barkley practices criminal law with the firm Sigmon, Sigmon & Isenhower in Newton, NC. He is married to the former Natalie Henline.
Anyone heard anything about this one?