Blog Post #100 and Defiant Honor

This is Blog Post #100.  A Roman C.  A Ben Franklin.  Ten tens.  Five score. 99+1.

#100 is a number that people celebrate. A Centennial Celebration.  A hundred of anything seems important because a person, an idea, or a nation stuck with something long enough to reach three digits. It’s taken me over two years to reach Blog Post #100, and I thank you for sticking with me, whenever you started reading my blog posts.

 

What better time than Blog Post #100 to shout out that I’ve finished Defiant Honor, the third and last novel in the McBee Civil War trilogy. I’m happy! I’m relieved! It’s a wrap. It’s in the can, as they say in the movie business. In fairy tales, they write, “And they all lived happily ever after.” In schmaltzy westerns, he and she ride off into the sunset, sorta like a Cialis ad, only not in bathtubs. In the book business, we type “Finis” or “The End.”

And I’ll ask for you, because I know you’re thinking it J: How does Defiant Honor end? Defiantly or meekly? Is the last chapter the last battle? Will the last page make me cry, or pump my fists like Rocky? Is the last sound a cannon’s roar or a mouse’s whimper? Are the characters who took us through three years of war, intrigue, and romantic entanglements still alive at the end of the third book? 

I’m not spoiling the book’s suspense by revealing the last chapter, or the last battle, but the last sentence in Defiant Honor reads,

“The painter was coming to finish the nursery walls that day, and she was still undecided on the color.”

Huh? Did Pollyanna join the McBee family? Painting nursery walls is not a very bellicose final statement to end three books, over a 1,000 pages of Civil War and family strife in the 1860’s. Nonetheless, I promise that the last sentence wraps up a whole lot of gritty war drama and saucy romance, and not everybody lives happily ever after.

I’m proud of the cover of Defiant Honor and owe a big thank you to the graphic designer, Karen Phillips. The cover might be considered busy in this era of bold simple book covers, designed to draw the eye as thumbnail size images on Amazon, America’s bookstore. The title letters are sure-enough bold. As for the two photos, they certainly project that the book is about the Civil War. The Confederate battle flag is still being carried forward, but is juxtaposed beneath several African-American Union soldiers celebrating under Old Glory. That cover design is not accidental. 1864 was not a happy year for the Confederacy and the soldiers of the 5^th Texas Infantry.

Here’s the whole photo taken at a reenactment outside Richmond, Virginia a couple of years ago. I’m one of the captured Rebel reenactors kneeling in angst, while reenactors of the 22^nd  Regiment of US Colored Troops (USCT) pump their weapons in the air in victory. Kudos to “embedded photographer” Jeff Cantrell for that striking photo.

A little more about the two race threads that run through Defiant Honor. Racism was rampant in the 1860’s. Many, if not most, Confederate soldiers hated the idea of ex-slaves and black freemen being good soldiers, of black men being on equal terms with them. The clashes between the “African-Yankee” regiments of the US Colored Troops and white Confederate regiments were brutal. Individual soldiers’ efforts to surrender were often ignored. Instead, the soldier who quit fighting was clubbed, shot, or bayoneted, sometimes with the epitaph “Remember Fort Pillow!” being shouted by both black soldiers wearing blue and white soldiers wearing gray.

Fort Pillow was the first publicized occasion of Confederate soldiers ignoring the universal “hands up” and killing black Union soldiers who tried to surrender. I’ve read Civil War soldiers’ memoirs from both black and white soldiers that mention both sides using “Remember Fort Pillow!” as a battle cry. It was an ugly facet of our Civil War that I’ve intentionally included in Defiant Honor.

The other race thread is that of Levi’s situation as young man with a white father who is also the man Levi must serve every day as his body servant. While John McBee eventually, reluctantly acknowledges the likelihood that he is the father of the young man who literally is his personal slave, they live in a society where that version of paternity mattered not one whit. One drop of Negro blood establishes an abyss between them over which no bridge could be built. Until John and Levi do so anyway. And that was my favorite part of writing the book. Slowly constructing the forbidden bridge between John and Levi McBee was immensely gratifying and more than offset writing the vicious battle scenes between white and black soldiers.

Since Defiant Honor just became available for sale on Amazon, and since Christmas is around the corner, here’s my once-a-book self-serving request that you consider buying a copy as a Christmas gift for someone. Or for yourself. My wife and I both think Defiant Honor is a good read—my best yet.

A Kindle download on Amazon cost $3.99. A paperback cost $14.99. Or, if you see me, ask for a paperback copy. There’s a face-to-face discount and no shipping charge. I carry copies around in my car trunk, like aspiring novelist John Grisham did before he became The John Grisham.

Here’s the link to my author’s page on Amazon where you can buy any of my novels, including Defiant Honor, in paperback or Kindle download:

 https://www.amazon.com/Philip-McBride/e/B00HPM46A6/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Happy Thanksgiving to all y’all. Nita and I are expecting a new grandson anytime now, and are ready to lavish some lovin’ on the little guy, like butter on a hot roll.