PERSONAL STUDY LED TO COMBAT! Part II

Dennis Peterson    @dlpeditor

Independent author, Historian, and Editor

To refresh our memory in Part I on February 21 I began telling the process of how the idea for my book Combat! was born and how it became published.

Waiting for an author does not mean idleness. I immediately got busy with another writing project that I had already started. I learned that whenever I got stuck with something on writing the Combat! project, I could shift to the secondary project and then return to Combat! when I arrived at a solution to the problem. (It pays to have several irons in the fire at once!)

Once the publisher solidified a cover design, I used that image to create my own marketing materials: a press kit (press release, author photo and bio, etc.), business cards (with the cover pictured on one side and contact and ordering information on the other), and book marks (with the cover pictured along with ordering information on one side and “About the Book” and “About the Author” on the other). Then I began distributing those materials as opportunity permitted until the publisher announced a release date, at which point I began distributing them energetically and announcing the book’s soon release on various social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and ,my personal blog).

I found reception of the materials to be a mixed bag. Some media outlets ignored it. Others inserted a brief blurb about it. A few contacted me for more information or to request an interview. The amount those outlets printed about the book also varied, from a brief Facebook announcement of the book’s release to devotion of a half-page of newsprint to the author and the book. Such varied response is to be expected. And only time will tell how my efforts and the publisher’s marketing efforts paid off.

Combat! posits that the Christian life is a life of spiritual warfare on many different fronts simultaneously. There are times of heavy combat and times of light combat but never times of no combat! We are always in a dangerous combat zone as believers. With enemy attacks coming on all these fronts, whether sequentially or simultaneously, we must always be on our guard.

To prove this point and others in the book, I turned first to the military history of Israel as recorded in the Bible. Beginning with Abram’s campaign to rescue his nephew Lot and moving through Israel’s conflicts with the various Canaanite tribes during the conquest of the Promised Land to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, illustratring spiritual truths applicable to Christians today. In the second part of the book, I show how the various organizational aspects of the modern military—command and control, communications, logistics, intelligence, etc.—have parallels in the spiritual world as well and applies them to the individual in common life here and now.

But I am not resting on my laurels of this now-published work. I have contracted with TouchPoint for another book, Christ in Camp and Combat: Religious Work in the Confederate Armies. For the serious writer, the ideas for projects just keep coming!

Dennis L. Peterson is an independent historian based in Taylors, SC. He focuses on American history, especially its military history, the War Between the States, the Great Depression, and World War II. His former positions include history and writing teacher; senior technical editor at the historic Oak Ridge, Tennessee, nuclear weapons complex; and lead author of American history textbooks and curricula for a major Christian textbook publisher. He has been widely published in national and regional magazines and educational journals. His other books include Confederate Cabinet Departments and Secretaries, Teacher: Teaching and Being Taught, and Look Unto the Hills: Stories of Growing Up in Rural East Tennessee. He has contracted with TouchPoint Press for his next book, Christ in Camp and Combat: Religious Work in the Confederate Armies. You can contact the author
on his blog, https://dlpedit.wordpress.com ; Facebook Dennis L Peterson, LinkedIn Dennis L. 
Peterson Independent Writer/Historian and Email dlpauthor@gmail.com

PERSONAL STUDY LED TO COMBAT! (Part I)

Dennis L.Peterson  

Independent Author, Historian and Editor

             Writers get ideas for their work from a variety of sources, including overheard conversations, watching children at play (or adults arguing), commonplace events in the routines of daily life, and even their own fertile imaginations. The idea that led to the book Combat! Spiritual Lessons from Military History came from the intersection of the personal study of my two favorite subjects, the Bible and military history.

            While reading during a period of several months a few books on military strategy and tactics used during World War II, I began to realize that in many ways what I was reading dovetailed with what I was reading in the Bible. Desiring to share what I was learning; I began to organize various points for what I thought might grow into an article. Over time, however, as I continued to read and study the subjects, I realized that such writing would involve something much longer and more detailed than a mere article. It might even develop into a book!

Three Books for Every Library

By  Paul Yarbrough

I once told a friend there were three books every Southerner should have in his library:  Gone with the Wind, I’ll Take My Stand, and the Bible. I did comment––“Not necessarily in that order.”  It’s not that all Southern prose, from Virginia to Texas, is captured by these, but they do reach into the Southern soul for a view of life––past, present and future.  That is what I want to write and read about, the South and its life; past, present and future. The South is more than worthy of study.

There hardly exist, in my opinion, a population of characters more colorful and charismatic than Southerners. But they exist when, as Dr. Clyde Wilson has stated in Defending Dixie, one understands that one of the greatest Southern writers, William Faulkner. 1 wrote about Southerners who were not simply “aristocrats” and “poor whites.” Because Faulkner knew the South and knew that they were not simply that. Most were between those groups. And they all were made of flesh with demonstrably great accomplishments as well as great sins.

The three works I mentioned above encapsulate the greatness and wonder of the American South which includes it treasures, its pride, its kindness and its flaws. The South has never been puritanical. That is, again my opinion, a Yankee trait. i.e. New England.

Southern stories include blemishes of its characters. I Certainly recommend Flannery O’Conner at this point. Puritanical stories are largely about a mythical “American exceptionalism.” No defects.

The South has had its greats such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee. It also has had its murderers, drunkards and vagabonds. Gone With the Wind demonstrates in historical novel fashion this wide variety; I’ll Take My Stand in multiple essay accounts shows the humanness, hard work and sincerity of the South.  

The Bible in no uncertain terms reveals greatness and failure (Saul for example). But the ultimate revelation is that there is no chance for the puritanical polish of mankind by other men. Purity comes from the sacrifice of one man. The South did not give itself the name “The Bible Belt.” The name was given to it. I was born and raised in the South, Mississippi; schooled and married into the wonderful state of Louisiana; and have lived and probably will die in one of God’s most prized places on earth—Texas.

There may be those who know the South better than I. But there are none that love it more.

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 Paul Yarbrough was born and reared in Mississippi and have lived in both Louisiana and Texas. I have spent most of my business career in the oil business. I took up writing as a hobby 15 years ago and love to write about the South. I am just about finished with a fourth novel which takes place in Texas, circa 1953. I write some short stories and essays. One of my favorites is a Southern site, The Abbeville Institute. They have even posted a couple of short stories of mine as well as essays and one poem. I like to write poetry though I have only one poem posted. I mostly do it like the rest of my writing, as a hobby. I had a former friend in another Southern state, herself a fine writer, offering advice but she dropped out. So, I don’t do so much verse now.

A Question of Inspiration and Passion

By Terry Palmer

One question that I often get as a novelist is about inspiration and passion. What are my sources?  What moves me on to both write the story and then to ‘get the message out’?

As a writer, I need only a prompt, a ‘what if…’ to close upon my mind. At that point I’ll write out the beginning and end and simple wait for the fun journey to begin. I write about the struggle of man with darkness and light. A passage in Joshua makes my point.  Joshua sets out to take the Promised Land, not in the power of man, but through the power of God. It’s a classic tale about the overwhelming power of man against the faithful few and the Power of God. That is also a description of my fantasy series, Chronicles of Orm.

In our Bible passage, five kings attack, confident in their combined strength to defeat this small army of believers.  Joshua 10:11 and following…from the Open Bible. And it came about as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horan, that the Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

I need no other inspiration than this.  I used this sequence for my poor wandering tribe of faithful, who step forward in faith upon the shores of a new continent. The wrath of darkness is about to descend upon them through the packs of vicious wolf like characters of darkness. The faithful few and the power of His spirit against the hordes of darkness.

Here is my type from chapter twenty four of Chronicles of Orm, Book One, Legend of Cre – lo - Way.  Lightning flared upon the hiding places of the horde, who chose this moment to crowd together in hiding just beyond the sight of those in the half circle on the beach. Sharp hail struck with the full stunning force of nature upon either side of mankind on the beach.  Streaming hail stripped leaf and limb from the protective overhang letting mankind see and understand the way of the horde. Huge hailstones rained a stunning and eroding death upon those who lurked in the shame of hiding.

In this case as in His Word, many more fell from the hailstones as from the edge of the sword.

My entire series is built this way, making those who stand for the light against the throws of darkness, dependent upon the strength of the light to overcome.  In this manner, both inspiration and passion flow together to help each scene make my message clear and plain.  By the end of the narrative, the reader will know the darkness, know the light, and know the difference, making it very plain about which to choose from this day on.  Indeed, which will you choose?

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Terry Palmer is a writer from northwestern Wisconsin.  Since 2008, Terry has sought to bring the message about the battle between darkness and light to his readers. His latest work is a fourteen eBook series about Valentine’s Day – The Procrastinators Guide to Valentine’s Day. Each eBook takes a few verses from Proverbs 31, about the virtuous woman, and matches that with key words of inspiration. Chronicles of Orm returns to his calling, making a sharp contrast between good and evil in the hope for that one who struggles in life with the throes of darkness will find hope and direction to turn to the light.  And this is the message that we have received and give to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. I John 1:5 Open Bible. Contact Terry at Fictionbypalmer@gmail.com. https://amazon.com/author/terrypalmer

https://terry-palmer.branded.me