R.E. Thomas's Blog, page 2

John Bell Hood’s Mistakes

Readers of Stonewall Goes West and Mother Earth, Bloody Ground who are familiar with the 1864 Nashville Campaign have probably spotted that Stonewall Jackson’s fictional Middle Tennessee Campaign is a commentary on John Bell Hood’s performance. Given that Hood was a product of the Lee & Jackson school, using Jackson himself to lead in a […]

1914 And The Slaughter Of The Professionals

A century ago today saw the formal end of the First Battle of Ypres, what was essentially the First World War’s introduction to what the Western Front was going to become. Five weeks of combat produced almost 210,000 casualties among the Belgians, British, French and Germans who fought there, but gave very little advantage to […]

Confederate Order of Battle for Mother Earth, Bloody Ground

Most of the changes reflect casualties, sackings and promotions due to the action in Stonewall Goes West. The one change that might strike even those who have read Mother Earth, Bloody Ground as strange, and therefore demands a comment here, is Patrick Cleburne’s promotion to Brevet Lieutenant General. In the Old U.S. Army, brevet rank […]

Why Bad Amazon Customer Reviews Are Sometimes A Good Thing

A lot of authors, including myself, fret over bad reviews. The usual advice for such things is to try to learn what you can from them and otherwise grow a thicker skin, but to that I can add something new: sometimes your bad reviews are the sign of a good thing, if they are Amazon […]

Union Order of Battle for Mother Earth, Bloody Ground

Here is an updated order of battle for the Army of the Tennessee for the start of Mother Earth, Bloody Ground. Overall Commander: Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Military Division of the Mississippi Field Commander: Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson XV Corps Commanding: Maj. Gen. John Logan Harrow’s Division Osterhaus’s Division John Smith’s Division Morgan […]

Book Review: “Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy”

With Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott carved herself a niche as the “sizzle historian,” spinning entertaining non-fiction tales of the seedier side of America’s past. She ably continues mining this rich vein of material for her third book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, which tells four concurrent stories of women engaged in espionage on […]

Promoting Your Book With Book Bloggers

Whether they work with a legacy publisher or go indie, new authors usually find themselves tasked with the heavy lifting of promoting their own books. Or they do if they are not already a celebrity of some kind. Now that I’m into my second novel and working on my third, I thought I would blog […]

The Battle of Cherbourg Controversey

When Captain John Winslow took USS Kearsarge to patrol the mouth of Cherbourg harbor and force CSS Alabama into battle, he did so having armored his ship by wrapping heavy iron chains around his midships. After his defeat, the celebrated Confederate raider Raphael Semmes claimed the improvised armor was ungentlemanly, and that he never would […]

Pricing Your E-Book

Whether you are running a small garage press or self-publishing, if you are putting out an indie book one of the issues you must address is what the price point for your book(s) will be. The benchmark for legacy publishers is $9.99, while many indie e-books are sold at the rock bottom price of $2.99. […]

Characterizing Stonewall Jackson

When I set out to characterize my “senior co-protagonist,” Thomas J. Jackson, I had three things in mind. First, as a novelist coming from a historical fiction and not a science fiction angle, I wanted to stick closely to the facts. That led into my second goal, which was to avoid producing a stereotyped portrayal […]