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.