Idle Ramblings

I went back to the library yesterday, to do some more research. I spent some time in the American Civil War section, collecting information for Eagle Blue, a young adult novel that takes place during the war and is focused on Old Abe, the eagle mascot of the 18th Wisconsin Regiment. This will come as no suprise to anyone, but the books about the Confederacy outnumbered Union about 10-1. After all, this is Georgia! Still, I found some great information.

Then I headed to the WWII section, because I'm still trying to find very specific and true historical background to put into Book 4 of the dragon series - Secret of the Dragon's Teeth. This portion revolves around the Holocaust and I can only emotionally handle a few hours of reading about the attrocities and it gets pretty depressing. By the way, writing about this terrible moment in history is really challenging my writing skills. I want to describe life in a concentration camp, without getting too graphic, and still capture the horror and hopelessness. I have decided to use certain details to communicate the scope, such as the hundreds of thousands of shoes and spectacles heaped in piles at the camps. Anyway, it's a struggle, because I want teenagers to know of this abomination, but I also don't want to make the book too dark.

I did some more King Arthur research too, just to make sure I wasn't going too far off the legends. I was pleased to find that my storyline is pretty faithful, in most regards, to both the historical Arthur and the fantasy Arthur. Combining the two makes for some interesting situations, but I'm somewhat creating my own version, with the help of a dragon.

I also checked out the books on container ships, PT Boat operations in the Pacific, the Japanese-American relocation camp in Topaz, Utah, B-29 Bomber details, and a comic book store guide. Perhaps some of these intrigued you, because you suspect there's a plot element or two hidden amongst my list. You would be correct.

I continue to send out at least 50 emails a day, promoting Derek Hart, seeking venture capital, sending press kits and review kits as attachments to numerous bookstores, speciality stores, book reviewers, magazine and newspapers, and all sorts of individuals. I keep posting at websites, blogs, social networks, etc. This kind of activity not only gets the name out, it increases Derek Hart's Google Quotiant, which is vital to keeping him at the top of the search engine's results.

Lots of things brewing and more books coming soon. Until then, pass the word.