An Eye for Glory
April 22, 2011
This week,
the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
Zondervan (February 28, 2011) by Karl Bacon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A word from the author:
I grew up in the small picturesque town of Woodbury, Connecticut. After graduating from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, I returned to Connecticut and found employment in manufacturing. “Just a job” turned into a professional career, much of which was spent working for a Swiss machine tool company. In 2000 I started my own business to provide services to manufacturing clients across the USA. This change also allowed time to develop my writing craft.
From youth I’ve been a serious student of the Civil War. The draft of An Eye for Glory took ten years from conception to completion. Thousands of hours were spent researching every detail through copious reading, Internet research and personal visits to each battlefield so the novel might be as historically accurate and believable as possible. I live in Naugatuck, Connecticut with my wife of thirty-three years, Jackie.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Michael Palmer is a good man, a family man. But honor and duty push him to leave his comfortable life and answer the call from Abraham Lincoln to fight for his country. This ‘citizen soldier’ learns quickly that war is more than the battle on the field. Long marches under extreme conditions, illness, and disillusionment challenge at every turn. Faith seems lost in a blur of smoke and blood…and death.
Michael’s only desire is to kill as many Confederate soldiers as he can so he can go home. He coldly counts off the rebels that fall to his bullets. Until he is brought up short by a dying man holding up his Bible. It’s in the heat of battle at Gettysburg and the solemn aftermath that Michael begins to understand the grave cost of the war upon his soul. Here the journey really begins as he searches for the man he was and the faith he once held so dearly. With the help of his beloved wife, Jesse Ann, he takes the final steps towards redemption and reconciliation.
Using first-hand accounts of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, Karl Bacon has crafted a detailed, genuine and compelling novel on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Intensely personal and accurate to the times, culture, and tragedy of the Civil War, An Eye for Glory may change you in ways you could have never imagined as well.
If you would like to read the first chapter of An Eye For Glory, go HERE.
Sally Says: I am really enjoying Karl Bacon’s Civil War novel An Eye for Glory. This is one of those unique books that feels like fiction and non-fiction and that stirs patriotrism and dread all at the same time.
While the book isn’t a page turner and is somewhat easy to put down, it’s also very easy to pick back up. Michael Palmer’s story feels authentic, like I’m really reading the journal of a soldier and yet it isn’t dry. The wars are presented bluntly, as they happened, without being gory, and the history is fascinating. The dread comes from when Michael just happens to mention a town they’re marching to and I know the carnage that’s ahead.
Since the tale is form the viewpoint of a Union soldier, we see his love for his country, the country we enjoy today, and his thoughts at times are very moving. Here’s my favorite after they’ve just retaken a city from the Confederates:
“Indeed the only display of any kind was a lone Union flag hanging slack in the still morning air . . . The flag was tattered and torn and very dirty. The red, white, and blue of her stars and stripes were stained with several mottled shades of brown and gray. Surely this flag had waved proudly in the breeze when the Confederate army entered the town, and surely she had been thrown angrily down and dragged through the mud. Perhaps she had even been kicked and beaten or run through with saber or bayonet. And yet she flew once more, wounded and soiled to be sure, but unbroken and unbowed, just like the army that defended her. I stared and stared at the simply beauty of that flag . . . “
Usually fiction only appeals to fiction readers, but this book is very unique in that it will hold appeal for history fans, for those who like to read non-fiction about the Civil War, and for fiction readers as well. It would even be a great read for someone studying the Civil War to get that deeper, personal take on the various Union generals, the horrible living conditions, and the hardness that comes with war.
The Civil War has always been fascinating to me, and I was happy to hear that there was a new Christian fiction novel dealing with it. The Civil War hasn’t been done much in that arena for years, but with the 150th anniversary this month, I guess they decided to let a new one out. And I’m very glad that it was this one, a book not enraptured with the lifestyle of southern slave owners, but a book that captured the sacrifice so many gave for this nation so long ago.
The Alarmists
April 6, 2011
This week,
the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
Bethany House (April 1, 2011)
by Don Hoesel
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Don Hoesel is a Web site designer for a Medicare carrier in Nashville, TN. He has a BA in Mass Communication from Taylor University and has published short fiction in Relief Journal. He was born and raised in Buffalo, NY but calls Spring Hill, Tennessee, with his wife and two children. The Alarmists is his third novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The 2012 phenomenon that’s going viral around the globe has led sociology professor Jameson Richards to study the impact on society when, like the Y2K scare, 12/21/12 comes and goes with hardly a wrinkle.
This is the date that, according to the Mayan calendar, the doomsayers predict the world will end. Richards teams up with General Michaels, a scientist stationed at the Pentagon whose job it is to monitor the world’s fanatics, keeping an eye out for potential terrorists. Together they uncover something sinister going on beneath the surface, linked to billionaire and media mogul Jeremy Maxwell, who also happens to be a huge manufacturer of weapons systems.
The 2012 date has captured Maxwell’s attention too, and he’s looking to cash in on the public’s fear and paranoia. And what he instigates–along with his corrupt partners–nearly starts another war in the Middle East, while also bringing the world to its knees economically. It’s up to the professor/general team to blow the whistle on Maxwell, hopefully in time to avert a major catastrophe.
If you would like to read the first chapter of The Alarmists, go HERE
Sally Says: While I haven’t been able to finish the entire book yet, I know it won’t take me too much longer to do that. Hoesel’s books are a nice mix of action and suspense with well-written characters to root for and a puzzle that keeps me turning pages. The Alarmists is a great read for male readers and women who enjoy international suspense and drama.