Floods, China, & Gettysburg

We had floods in my part of Texas over the Memorial Day weekend. Really tragic events in places, with dozens of riverfront homes caught in the 50-foot-high flash flooding of the Blanco River and just disintegrating. As of this morning there have been seventeen flood-caused deaths reported in Texas, and people are still missing after being washed away in their houses or cars during the night flash floods. Several deaths were from an extended family’s holiday gathering at a house on the Blanco River that was caught in the flood. Horrible stuff.

On a brighter note, Nita and I had the joy this weekend to spend some time with Mary, who is a college professor friend who lives in Boston. She and her husband were in San Antonio for a professional conference. Yes, we did visit the Alamo, of course.

More interestingly, Mary told us about her four trips to China in 2014 to do teacher training sessions relating to educating kids with special learning needs. It was fascinating to hear her describe how using methods designed to reach kids with disabilities was so utterly new to the Chinese teachers. What we call Special Education in Texas, which is a part of our core public education system, something that we've learned how to do fairly effectively in our schools over the past fifty years, just doesn't exist there. That made it very gratifying to Mary to be able to awaken a new sense of empowerment in the teachers, all to better reach kids who have great challenges.

We know that basic human needs do indeed cross all borders and languages, but sadly, we are aware that lots of basic needs are not being met in much of the world. So it was terrific to listen to this smart American educator who is providing training for proven American classroom methods to teachers halfway around the world, in a culture that is alien to us. Kudos to Mary and the program that led her to China.

International pedagogy aside, probably as an act of kindness to a friend, Mary had read Tangled Honor and was happy to talk about it with me. Being a teacher, she even made notes of points she wanted to remember. Realizing that Mary is a Bostonian and not a student of the Civil War, I doubted she would like the novel, in part because it is a “southern” story. Was I ever pleasantly surprised. Not only did she genuinely seem to enjoy reading the story and liked the characters, but she wanted to chat about major themes I tried to imbed in the plot.

Themes like the multiple facets of women’s lives in the 1860’s, and the blurred values and sometimes contradicting expectations on southerners in regards to slavery. Moreover, Mary delved into the evolving relationship between the two main characters, John McBee and Levi, who are master and slave in the novel. That made my weekend, since the McBee–Levi relationship, based on two real people in my family tree, is what initially inspired me to write the novel. So, a BIG thanks to Mary.

I’ve crossed the halfway point in writing the manuscript of Redeeming Honor, the second book in the McBee trilogy. Writing about the battle at Gettysburg proved as challenging as I suspected it would be. Most readers will have heard and likely know at least a little bit about Gettysburg, and most historians consider it to be the pivotal battle of the war. That made it a chapter where I wanted to include something of the big picture for context.

Yet, I’m still telling the story from the point of view of John McBee, who is just one of hundreds of infantry captains in the battle. And there’s Levi, who is a trusted man-servant, but still is an enslaved man with the Confederate army, campaigning in the slave-free state of Pennsylvania, a state where escaped slaves would be welcomed.

With Gettysburg behind McBee and Levi, it’s now time for McBee to meet Secretary Judah Benjamin, the politician I wrote about a week or two ago. And I can’t neglect the ongoing trials of McBee’s ladies in Lexington. Stay tuned.

Adrienne and Conan

Last Saturday I visited for an hour with a young lady named Adrienne who has written a pretty darned good manuscript for a Civil War novel.  A couple of months ago a reenacting friend asked if I’d read the manuscript, since he knew I’d written two Civil War novels.  Adrienne was looking for a Civil War reenactor to read at least part of her work to see if she got the drill commands and military stuff right.  I read it and made a bunch of comments in the margins and we exchanged some e-mails about my observations.

On Saturday, during a break at a reenacting public program in Austin to commemorate Memorial Day, we sat in the shade to talk about her manuscript. As we chatted about points in the book that she or I had marked, I started mentally comparing Adrienne to me some forty years ago. She’s an attractive young single woman with a new college degree from the University of Texas, and she has a compulsion to write.

Forty years ago I was a plain young married man with a new college degree from UT who felt no compelling drive to be a published author, but still dabbled in writing. That’s why I sat at a typewriter one week and cranked out about twenty single-spaced pages of manuscript for my first novel.

Back then I was reading a lot of detective paperbacks, science fiction, and fantasy, including the Conan series. This was before Arnold the Body-Builder made his film debut as Conan the Barbarian; a time when Texan Robert E. Howard’s sword-and-sorcery stories of his fantasy warrior Conan were still stuff written by a lonely nerd, for other lonely nerds. (I was happily married to Nita by then, but I still displayed some elements of ‘lonely nerd’)

If the Big Bang Theory TV show had come out in the 1970’s, the scriptwriters would have included Conan along with Star Wars and Super Hero comic books in Leonard's, Sheldon's, and Howard’s litany of nerdy fascinations.  

My copycat Conan was a pair of twins, one black, one white. I didn’t know if such a biological oddity was possible when I wrote it, but recently I read of exactly such a set of twins. Anyway, my little boys grew up into tough badasses known as the Twins of Arl.  Of course they had good hearts and so on, just like Conan and Robin Hood and Matt Helm. 

I regret now that I quit writing the manuscript after the first couple of chapters and it languished in my box of school papers and letters. I did reread the twenty pages a few years ago, and wasn’t too embarrassed by my fantasy heroes, thinking that for a kid I had made a good start. Nonetheless, the yellow papers remained in the box of detritus from the old days.

Back to Adrienne, she’s at about the same place in life that I was when I started the Twins of Arl manuscript. But, unlike me, she stayed the course and finished her manuscript and is now about to begin the search for an agent, and the eventual publication of her book. I’ve no idea if her work will attract the eye of an agent who can persuade a publishing house to offer her a contract. Even if an agent accepts her book, it will be a long shot because there are a whole lot of wannabe authors in America. I hope Adrienne is successful, because she created some compelling characters, has a fine writing voice, and told a good story.

After we finished talking about her manuscript, I asked Adrienne what she thought of my blog posts, and she diplomatically hemmed and hawed, until she admitted she liked some, but didn’t connect with many of them. What? A woman younger than my sons doesn’t like all of my old-man weekly musings about my writing, my family, and the Civil War? Really? Even a young woman who writes military fiction and shares my fascination with the Civil War? Dang.

As people, we want other people to like us, and as writers, we certainly want other people to like what we write. Hearing Adrienne say directly to me that sometimes my posts entertain her, but often they don’t, was worth the hour with her. We may have met for me to give her feedback about her manuscript, but I sure took away a worthwhile reminder: Even people who know me and open my blog posts won’t necessarily connect with my words each week. There’s nothing like a good old reality check.

So, to you good folks who have read this far down the page, thank you. I hope I’m entertaining you, at least some weeks, and you’ll stick with me as I carry on being a blogger in a landscape with innumerable bloggers.

This week I’m rereading an old novel from the 1970’s: Lucifer’s Hammer. It’s an end-of-civilization tale about a comet hitting earth and how the few survivors coped, or didn’t. Good reading, and still a scary basis for a story, the happy ending of the movie Armageddon notwithstanding.

 

 

 

Jackson R McBride and Judah P Benjamin

Young Jackson McBride, the grandson next door, continues to grow and grow. Nita and I are blessed to be close enough to hold him darned near every day, and watch him grow from wriggling infant into a delightfully chubby little person with a distinct and charming personality.

Yea, that sounds like a grandparent, doesn’t it, and the boy is just a few months old. If you and I stick with this blog long enough, we’ll be experts in child development.

In a related vein, Nita and I survived four days of immersive grand-parenting with Violet and Eva, our two new granddaughters, while the newlyweds were honeymooning in Scotland.  They are wonderful little girls and when they ask ‘Granddaddy Phil’ for anything, I pretty much oblige. It’s been three decades since I’ve read nighttime stories to tired little ones who are fidgeting and fighting sleep; and then made frozen waffle breakfasts, seemingly just minutes after I finished reading and turned out their bedroom light.

Yes, indeed, we were worn out from the energy expenditure involved in surrogate parenting, even for a few days, but now we’re more than two old faces to the girls, and that made the long days special.

Bookwise, I’ve taken a plunge into unknown waters by inserting a somewhat well-known historical person into my story. The new character is Judah P. Benjamin, who held three different positions in the cabinet of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. If you haven't already guessed, that’s his image at the top, 

I’ve already slid a few generals into the action, since it’s hard to tell a war story without them. Nonetheless, I’ve restrained from engaging the generals in much dialogue with my fictitious main characters and Secretary of State Benjamin’s role is growing along different lines.

Judah Benjamin has been an enigma to historians.

First, he was Jewish.

Second, as a young man he married a wealthy young Creole Catholic woman from Louisiana. After the early years of their marriage during which he managed their plantation in Louisiana, she lived in Europe while he remained in America.

Third, he destroyed all the documents related to his service as a high-ranking Confederate cabinet member.

Fourth, he escaped capture after the surrender and fled to Europe where he studied English law and became a successful lawyer in Great Britain for two decades until he died in his 70’s.

Fifth, he is widely acknowledged as one of the brightest minds in the Confederacy. He was one smart dude.

Sixth, there are veiled, but discernable hints in contemporary accounts of his behavior that he may have been gay.

To sum up Benjamin, I’d say he was wildly successful businessman and politician in the Confederacy, but he was never of the Confederacy. In, but never of. He reminds of the story I retold a few weeks ago illustrating the difference between involvement and commitment. (Ham and egg breakfast: The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed)

Benjamin was certainly involved in governing the Confederate States of America, but in the end he did not sink with the Confederacy. He stayed until the bitter conclusion of the war, actually fleeing a burning Richmond along with his boss, President Davis; but then Benjamin split away on a harrowing solo journey to leave America. Once he reached Europe, he set about “re-inventing” himself, to use the term we retirees throw around nowadays. 

So, I chose this interesting public figure to play a role in the new novel, to become entwined in the twisting tale of Captain John McBee. I can’t say how involved Judah Benjamin will become, since the story isn’t yet fully written, but I’ve greatly enjoyed putting words in his mouth in conversation with McBee. He’s a very intriguing fellow, and I can’t kill him off since I’m not writing an alternative history novel, so he may find a way to pop into the story more than once.

 

 

Zouaves and Cinco de Mayo - TODAY

My last blog post, just a few days ago, included mention of the giant marathon race held in Chicago on 10-10-10.

Well, today is 5-5-15 and that’s enough “5’s” to merit a blog post. Some years ago, our San Antonio based Civil War reenacting group worked as French soldiers in a History Channel’s TV program commemorating the unexpected and widely celebrated Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo--May 5^th for us gringos—in 1863, right in the middle of our Civil War.

Cinco de Mayo is a big deal in Texas among the growing population of Mexican-Americans. It’s a week-end festival in Lockhart each year, with the town square blocked off and the streets filled with food and beer booths, craft booths, and live music and dancing lasting into the late night.

Most of us without Mexican heritage don’t know that during the same years that the United States was engaged in the insanity of waging war on itself, France had an army in Mexico trying to maintain its colonial grasp on the country.  It was mostly peasants against French regulars, and most of the battles went to the French, except for the Battle of Puebla.

By the way, the French only gave up Mexico after our Civil War ended and our leaders made it clear we had a huge army in the field and all the transport ships and logistics in place to land an army in Mexico to confront the French force there. The big stick thing even before Teddy Roosevelt.

In 2004, ten of us in our San Antonio Civil War reenacting outfit had just acquired Zouave uniforms to portray the 165^th New York Infantry, a regiment that fought in Louisiana at two battles we were reenacting during the 140^th anniversary year of each battle.  

What’s a Zouave, you ask? Answer:  High French Fashion, military style.

Zouave style uniforms were a huge fashion trend in the 1850’s and 1860’s. Originally worn by North African Moroccan troops in French service, the bright red pantaloons, sashes, red decorations on short jackets, and fezzes became popular with other French troops, and the fashion craze quickly crossed the Atlantic.

The militia “clubs” in many large American cities adopted the style, and wore them to their public drill performances. When the Civil War started, those militia companies kept the gaudy uniforms, and soon enough, whole Zouave-attired regiments, rather than individual companies, were formed.

During the French excursion into Mexico in the early 1860’s, four French Zouave regiments were in the force, and their uniforms were just like the ones we had, except for waist sashes being a different color for each regiment. Ours were red, and none of the four French Zouave regiments sashes were red, so we just didn’t wear our red ones during the filming.

The filming took three days and one of the old missions in South San Antonio did duty as the fortress walls at Puebla, Mexico. We scampered up and down stairs and alleys doing our best to make our ten French Zouaves appear to be hundreds. At one point we marched in a circle around the camera man who was on his belly, filming our feet, making it seem a long line of soldiers were marching past him.

We spent one day filming in a field, just four of us Zouaves against a dozen or so Mexican soldiers with muskets and peasants armed with machetes. A smoke machine added atmosphere and the fog of war, as you see in the photo.

All in all, it was great fun for which were paid a decent daily wage. And, in a surprise to me, our parts of the half-hour program aren’t too shabby. We look like Frenchies.  

The History Channel hasn’t shown the program for several years, but maybe late tonight, on Cinco de Mayo, they’ll resurrect it one more time. Meanwhile, I’ll pull out the DVD I bought off their website years ago. I can’t find it there anymore either, since this all happened back in 2004.

So, Happy Cinco de Mayo!