Johnnie Come Lately by Kathleen M. Rodgers

Posted on February 19, 2015 by

Johnnie Come Lately
By Kathleen M. Rodgers
Camel Press

Reviewed by Keith Jones

“Johnnie Come Lately,” is an extraordinary tale about ordinary people. Then again, this story forces you to consider, is anyone really ordinary? Every person conceals a story that in the right hands comes to life with magical quality. And this one is in the hands of a master of the craft. Kathleen Rodgers takes a set of everyday people and relates their lives in fascinating detail.

Johnnie Kitchen is a Texas housewife living a mundane life with her husband and three children… or that is how it would appear if you were the random resident of her town, Portion, Texas standing on the curb outside her home. Johnnie, however; has a secret. Actually, she has several secrets and they all come calling at the same time. Sometimes the story is what you are doing now with who you are and sometimes the story is how you became who you are. This one is both. Johnnie has battled a lifetime against an eating disorder and a giant hole in her life left by a mother who abandoned her repeatedly as well as her illegitimate birth. Add to this a giant secret she has hidden from her family and the stage is set for an unforgettable book.

Like the proverbial string, once pulled it begins to unravel one thread at a time. Rodgers unrolls this story in style, perfectly segueing one thread to the next in a fashion that keeps you turning the pages until a very satisfying end that ties it all back together and answers the questions that teased you throughout the book. Want great storytelling? Read this book.

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Daniel Boyd, Feb. 3, 1865 – Hampton’s Cavalry has come from Virginia

Posted on February 3, 2015 by

On Feb. 3, 1865 Daniel Boyd wrote his sister, Mary Jane Hall — Fenton‘s widow — from his camp on the Salkehatchie River in South Carolina. Daniel and the 7th S.C. Infantry was finally home in South Carolina as they had long wanted, but it was certainly not in the way they wished. The war was drawing to a close and Sherman was on the march through South Carolina, laying the torch to everything not worth stealing. Interestingly, this letter was written right some time around the time of the Battle of River’s Bridge, yet Daniel doesn’t mention it. He makes scant mention to a “little fight” that the 3rd Regiment and 3rd Battalion were in “the other day.” This would lead you to believe that the battle must not have occurred at the close of his letter. His mention of the “little fight” was of two men killed and eight or ten wounded. At Rivers’ Bridge along the Salkehatchie River Lafayette McLaws delayed Sherman’s army for two days with 1,200 men.

Daniel talks about the swamps and the lack of healthy drinking water saying, “There is nothing but swamps down hear. We half to use the river water to drink. It is very bad but it is the best we can get in the country.” He also laments that “Some of the boys says that their folks hav turnd to unionist and that they need united states stamps to cary their letters through.”

Boys of Diamond Hill

Boys of Diamond Hill

The Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal for History 2012.

To read the entries thus far in the Sesquicentennial series for The Boys of Diamond Hill click here.

To learn more click on the “Diamond Hill” link at the top. To buy the book you may go to any major online retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or you may buy it directly from McFarland Publishers. “The Boys of Diamond Hill” is also available for the Kindle.

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My article in Gettysburg Magazine #52

Posted on January 31, 2015 by

GettysburgMag52CvrI opened my mailbox today and waiting for me was my contributor’s copy of Gettysburg Magazine issue #52. On page 69 is my article “Angel of the Wheatfield.”

In this article, I detail the story of Lt. Thomas Parks Oliver of the 24th Georgia who on July 2, 1862 took pity on a dying enemy crying out to him from the Wheatfield. Oliver crawled into the wheat and brought Lt. James J. Purman of the 140th Pennsylvania out on his back. The article is complete with a map — it was a cool experience getting to work with the magazine’s own mapmaker who constructed a map just for this article and worked with me on the proper caption for it. Also included are pictures of Purman and his friend and fellow Pennsylvanian, James Milton Pipes.

GettysburgMag52ByLineUnfortunately I was not able to track down any pictures of Thomas Oliver. In my quest I even had the occasion to speak with Oliver’s grandson, but sadly there were no photos to be found. Years after the war, Purman would track Oliver down and the two would become great friends in their latter years.

It is a great honor to have my work published by this fine magazine and have the oportunity to work with their editor, Dr. James Pula, in bringing the story of Oliver and Purman to print.

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Dark Digital Sky by Carac Allison

Posted on December 27, 2014 by

Dark Digital Sky
By Carac Allison

Reviewed by Keith Jones

“Dark Digital Sky,” Carac Allison’s freshman effort promises great things to come. This book’s hero is a bi-polar former FBI agent now making a good living as a private investigator. Chalk, our hero, specialized in tracking serial killers while at the FBI, but but fell from his lofty perch when his ex-wife used his weaknesses as a weapon to cost him his parental rights and his job. Now Chalk is a lone wolf and a hired gun.

While working to find a Hollywood mogul’s long lost children, Chalk stumbles into a plot involving a mysterious figure calling himself General Ripper after the “Dr. Strangelove” character. Like the proverbial thread sticking from a sweater, this story will keep you compulsively tugging until the end. The plot twists are unexpected and the hero is as relate-able as he is quirky.

“Dark Digital Sky” is billed as being volume 1 of the “Dark Pantheon” series. So there is the promise of many more editions in the exploits of Chalk and the characters Mr. Allison creates.

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Read my latest short story FREE at Bethlehem Writers Roundtable

Posted on October 31, 2014 by

Just released in the latest edition of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable — the literary journal of the Bethlehem Writers Group — is my short story: Dressed–And Stuffed–To Kill: A Matt Cutter Mystery

This features tongue in cheek private investigator, Matt Cutter. Cutter is in the style of the old time Private Eye Mystery harkening back to Mickey Spillane and Dashiell Hammett. I dreamed up the name Matt Cutter and was dying to find a use for it. One day I was inspired by a silly story I imagined about a corrupt meteorology conspiracy and fashioned it into a Private Eye Noir satire. I quickly discovered something about the Private Eye Mystery and Noir markets… they have absolutely no sense of humor. So, not surprisingly, the first Cutter Mystery has yet to find a home. Perhaps the BWRT will be interested in that one as well. In the meantime, I trotted Matt back out for this tale of turkeys and treachery as a special for Thanksgiving and I am pleased that you may read it online for free.

I hope you enjoy this and maybe we will see more of Matt Cutter soon.

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Daniel Boyd, Oct. 25, 1864 – Battles of Cedar Creek & Hupps Hill

Posted on October 25, 2014 by

On Oct. 25, 1864, Daniel Boyd wrote his father Robert Boyd from camp in New Market, Virginia. In this letter he goes into great detail about what he refers to as “a big fight near Strasburg.” What he refers to is known today as the Battle of Cedar Creek. This was one of the largest reversals of the war. Jubal Early‘s Corps attacked just after daybreak with Kershaw’s Division attacking at 7:15 am.

Daniel’s regiment the 7th South Carolina was a part of James Conner‘s Brigade. Conner had lost a leg at the Battle of Hupp’s Hill a week earlier and the brigade was under the command of Maj. James Monroe Goggin, a staff officer of General Joseph Kershaw‘s until receiving this appointment.

Early’s Corps caught the federals under Phillip Sheridan completely by surprise and routed them completely. Daniel details it this way:

We captured all their pickets and then marched in to their camps and fired in to their tents wher they was sleeping. We kild a great meney of them a sleep. We drove them out of their breast works. They went flying all over the country leaving everything in camp. We drove them six or seven miles. It was a charge all the time. We captured 38 peaces of artillery from 1500 to too thousand prisoners and blankets and tents enough to souply the army and eneything that you can call for.

Unfortunately, the hungry army paused to resupply and eat from the captured Union goods and allowed Sheridan to regroup and counter attack at 4:00 pm. Daniel describes the result:

Every thing went rite til after twelve oclock. We had the completely routed but to our mis fortune they got reinforcements and made a charge on Gordon’s division and broke their lines. They was on the left. They run of and left Kershaw’s division to fight it out. We fought them til they got in our rear and then we had to do som of our best running and the Yankees after us. Their was no such thing as rallying our men. They went swarming like bees. They drove us back over the same ground that we drove them in a bout as big a hury as we went. They got all their artillery back and nearly all of ours and a good meney wagons.

In a postscript Daniel gives some brief details of the Battle of Hupps Hill in which Brig. Gen. James Conner lost a leg.

Boys of Diamond Hill

Boys of Diamond Hill

The Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal for History 2012.

To read the entries thus far in the Sesquicentennial series for The Boys of Diamond Hill click here.

To learn more click on the “Diamond Hill” link at the top. To buy the book you may go to any major online retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or you may buy it directly from McFarland Publishers. “The Boys of Diamond Hill” is also available for the Kindle.

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Left Behind – 2014

Posted on October 12, 2014 by

Left Behind the Movie 2014

I got the opportunity to check out the Left Behind remake this weekend. I had read the book series a number of years ago and really enjoyed it. That’s why, like many people, I was looking forward to the original movie that was made from the first book. And – unfortunately – was also greatly disappointed by the result.

First off, I am happy to report, that this effort is orders of magnitude better than the previous film. The casting was excellent, most of the characters were almost exactly as I had pictured them from the book. Nicolas Cage was actually the most physically dissimilar from the character in the book, but he nailed his portrayal of Rayford Steele. Rayford’s wife, Irene, is not – to my recollection – extensively portrayed in the book. Lea Thompson’s performance as Irene, the recent Christian convert and mother of Rayford’s children, not only is in keeping with the tenor of the story as intended in the book, but serves to deepen the background of the Steele family.  So I was pleased with the addition of her storyline.

Chad Michael Murray turned in a very good portrayal of Buck Williams and Cassi Thomson’s rendering of Chloe Steele is – at times – stunning. Her heroics as the college student whose life has been turned upside down, during the latter half of the movie, kicks the old proverbial tail.

This movie had a far better budget than the previous film and it shows. Production quality, cinematography and scripting are all top notch. I would place the airline scenes up against any airline disaster movie I have seen. The writers did an excellent job of resisting the urge to lay the preaching on heavy and instead – wisely – allowed the story to make their points. That is often a problem with Christian movies, they are so eager to make their points that they fail to tell the story. Any good storyteller is familiar with the “show, don’t tell” adage. A good storyteller will allow the audience to learn about their characters and the world they live in through sights, sounds, smells and actions. In short, you paint them a picture and allow them to draw their own conclusions. If you have to “tell” them about what kind of person your character is or how she is feeling, you have failed as a storyteller. If a Christian storyteller, whether through book or film, has to beat you over the head with the point, he has failed in his mission. Then the movie comes across as preachy and the only people who end up enjoying it are those eager to agree with it. In short, the film-maker is preaching to the choir. This movie does not suffer from that problem.

I was pleased by this rendition and hope that it leads to the filming of the rest of the series.

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The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson

Posted on September 30, 2014 by

The Dark Horse
By Craig Johnson
Penguin Books

Reviewed by Keith Jones

The Dark Horse is yet another great example of writing that is both excellent and fun. We see Sheriff Walt Longmire exhibit his idealistic character through his inability to leave well enough alone. Walt has a guest lodger from a neighboring county in his jail in the form of confessed murderer Mary Barsad. Despite having admitted to shooting her husband as he slept, something about the case doesn’t seem right to Walt.

So, we get to see something akin to “Longmire: PI” play out before us on the page. Walt goes undercover outside his jurisdiction to get to the truth. Craig Johnson shows his talent with another variation of styling in this story. Naturally there is the same humor and wonderful inner narrative that populate the Longmire books, but he tells this story using a dual timeline much like he does in “Another Man’s Moccasins,” but rather than reaching back many years for back story like in “Moccasins” this time his story traverses a one week timeframe. This story device can be difficult to pull off, but Johnson does so seamlessly.

This book is a great balance of humor, suspense and mystery running though a beautifully savage landscape. Each book in the Longmire series thus far, has been better than the one before.

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Georgia Remembers Gettysburg wins Gold from MWSA

Posted on September 28, 2014 by

On Saturday night, Sept. 27, 2014, my book, “Georgia Remembers Gettysburg,” was awarded a Gold Medal for History from the Military Writers Society of America.  The annual conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona.  Previous obligations prevented my attendance, but I understand MWSA had a grand time.  The Conference kicked off with MWSA donating over 900 books contributed by its members to the VA hospital in Phoenix.

For a full list of winners, you may click here.

I wish to thank MWSA and all its members for their kindness and encouragement in addition to this generous recognition.

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Your chance to save history – Bennett Place

Posted on September 24, 2014 by

The Bennett Place in Durham was the site of the largest surrender of the War for Southern Independence.  This is an important piece of history.  The state has long had an option on land across the street from the park which was also holds important history.  That option is expiring and if they are not able to raise the money to by this land it will soon be developed and this chance will be gone forever.

Watch this great interview with site director John Guss by clicking here.  John also did an interview with WUNC radio, which is worth the listen.

Historian Michael C. Hardy also has a great article on this wonderful historic site and the chance to save its history.

Please spread the word and give generously.

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