(See post below to view a cast of characters. Find links to teaser trailers in the sidebar.)
November 2018
I found a listing of a few publishing companies that accept unsolicited submissions without an agent. Like the old days when I used to send out whole manuscripts in a box directly to publishers - not agents. I am working on a synopsis for a submission - along with 50 pages - to one of the publishers.
I edited a 43-page excerpt from the novel as a stand-alone story - entitled "A Lady of Gettysburg" - and submitted it to - fittingly - The Gettysburg (College) Review. This process led to some beneficial changes in the complete manuscript.
After all the books and notebooks and practice maps - I am now able to draw a map of the battlefields from memory.
October 2018
I am now continuing to send submissions to agents. I need a connection. I guess I am a nobody in the publishing world. It seems to be all about who you know. I had a referral to an agent – the first one to whom I submitted – but he didn’t want it. “I’m sorry, but SAVAGE ARMED is not a fit for me at this time.” It’s a book, not an article of clothing!
Summer 2018
Continued the break from sending out queries as I did a final edit of the manuscript by reading the whole thing out loud.
June 11 – 13, 2018
I went to Gettysburg again! Sunrise and sunset. Final hikes to points of vantage to imagine what the soldiers saw when they were there. Culp’s Hill and Benner’s Hill and the cavalry battlefield.
At the David Wills house, I viewed an impressive, detailed panorama of what the town looked like in 1863.
February to June 2018
Wrote a query letter and sent submissions of letter and chapters to 80 literary agents. Many rejections. “Not for me!” How rude! “I’ll pass on this project but I wish you luck with another agent.” Many non-responses. Many of these agents are much younger than I am - just out of college; they could have been a senior in my A.P. English class about five or six years ago!
Meanwhile, I was still rewriting and editing.
After 75 submissions, I took a break from the agent search. I worked through the whole novel, adding a new character who acts as a chorus throughout the story. I changed the title.
The title comes from Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.”
I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
Summer 2017 – January 2018
Writing and writing. Rewriting and editing. Up to 10 drafts? The manuscript reached 913 pages. More reading.
June 12 – 15, 2017
Back to Gettysburg via D.C.. Lots of hot hiking touring the battlefield. Up early for the sunrises. Evening strolls and sunsets in the tall damp grass with fireflies and ticks. Made some discoveries of hidden markers down by Plum Run. Hooked up with Chris Rebmann who, along with another guide, took me to a shooting range where they set me up loading and firing a Springfield rifle multiple times! This experience, more than anything, took me back in time. It showed me how cumbersome it is to load and fire a muzzle loader – and suggested how difficult it must have been to load and fire during a battle.
Took the tour at the Lutheran Seminary building and went up to the cupola where the tour guide gave a most informative, articulate narrative of the action on July 1, 1863. Watch the video:
Click here.
2016 – 2017 School Year
I wrote about three drafts of my novel. Exciting how it expanded and transformed.
June 14, 2016
After flying to D.C., I drove to Gettysburg and stayed at the Tillie Pierce House. Matilda (Tillie) Pierce Alleman was a fifteen-year-old Gettysburg girl who wrote a diary of her experiences during the battle and its aftermath. The layout of the old house inspires the layout of Dorothea’s house in the novel.
Took a guided tour with John Fuss, Licensed Gettysburg Guide. After the tour, I asked John if he knew anyone with a Springfield rifle I could fire. He connected me with someone who might be willing to arrange that.
2015 – 2016 School Year
Wrote the first draft of the entire novel. At school, a colleague of mine who teaches A.P. American history would stop me in the hall and ask where I was in the manuscript. “The retreat through the town on the first day.” “Devil’s Den.” “The Wheatfield.” “Pickett’s Charge.”
2014 – 2015 School Year
During the school year, teaching a full load of English and history classes, I developed an outline for a Gettysburg novel and began writing the flashback episodes that would tie a number of characters together.
2015
Read book after book about the battle; ultimately filled five notebooks with handwritten research notes; continued developing the plot and writing the flashback scenes that connect some of the many characters.
Summer 2014
Inspired by the park guides I had overheard at the battlefield, I decided to study to be an Official Gettysburg Guide. Began taking notes and memorizing details about the battle. Then I realized that I didn’t want to do all this research just to be a guide. What I really wanted to do was write a novel covering the entire battle from the points of view of multiple characters, connected by past incidents, who participate in different phases of the battle. In this way I could present a comprehensive picture of the battle.
June 5, 2014
Drove from Cape Cod to Gettysburg. Viewed the renovated Cyclorama of Pickett’s Charge. Went to the museum – the best one I’ve seen about the entire Civil War.
June 6
An epic hike around the battlefield along Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge. At the site of the Bliss Farm, I stopped to watch a hawk eating its prey.
June 7
Breakfast picnic on Warfield Ridge – where Longstreet’s massive assault on the Union left flank began on July 2, 1863. Drove along Cemetery Ridge.
June – June 2013
I read more non-fiction about the Civil War, filling in my knowledge of the whole war – books covering the Overland Campaign and Sherman’s March.
June 16
During a visit to D.C., my nephew and I drove up to the Gettysburg National Military Park. This was my fourth visit there. It was the first time I saw the new Visitor’s Center with its bookstore and amazing museum.
January – June 2013
I set out to read a number of one-volume non-fiction accounts of the battle. I started with the excellent
Gettysburg, by Stephen Sears. Now I was hooked. One after the other, I read three more single-volume books about the battle.
January 2013
I read the novel
Cain at Gettysburg, by Ralph Peters, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the battle. This piqued a resurgence in my interest in the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg, topics I have pursued throughout my life and taught in 8th grade American history.
(All Photos - by Richard Bellamy - taken at Gettysburg National Military Park.)
