Historical

Title: Rich Man's War Poor Man's Fight
Author: Daniel Thompson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B005OAWJYQ

Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight, is the story of two Scot - Irish families who left Ireland for the promise of a better life in America. While accurately set in time and place, this is not a battle by battle account of Civil War history. It is the story of a determined people who were pressed into a war by a country who spurned their kind and used them as pawns so their wealthy sons could be kept out of harm's way. One family, a young man who hoped to use his family trade as a sword smith entered through the port of New York in 1862. New York was in the midst of the conscription riots as Abraham Lincoln's cabinet desperately fought to fill the ranks of an Army to hold the Union together. A second family left Dublin for New Orleans. They arrived as organizers tried to convince young Irish men that the South's fight for independence from the federal government is a struggle that the Irish should understand. Fate brings the young men together on opposing sides of a Virginia battlefield where they collapse in exhaustion and come to realize the irony of their meeting and the cruel circumstances that brought them together as enemies.

Title: Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight
Author: Daniel Thompson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B005OAWJYQ

Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight, is the story of two Scot - Irish families who left Ireland for the promise of a better life in America. While accurately set in time and place, this is not a battle by battle account of Civil War history. It is the story of a determined people who were pressed into a war by a country who spurned their kind and used them as pawns so their wealthy sons could be kept out of harm's way. One family, a young man who hoped to use his family trade as a sword smith entered through the port of New York in 1862. New York was in the midst of the conscription riots as Abraham Lincoln's cabinet desperately fought to fill the ranks of an Army to hold the Union together. A second family left Dublin for New Orleans. They arrived as organizers tried to convince young Irish men that the South's fight for independence from the federal government is a struggle that the Irish should understand. Fate brings the young men together on opposing sides of a Virginia battlefield where they collapse in exhaustion and come to realize the irony of their meeting and the cruel circumstances that brought them together as enemies.

Title: Northern Colors
Author: Michael Eckers
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviwer: John Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B002KE62B0

Northern Colors is a historical fiction story of young Isaiah Weldon who enlists in the Second Minnesota Infantry during the American Civil War. His adventures, and those of his family at home, are described accurately without graphic violence or profane language. Through narrative, letters and journals the reader gains general knowledge of the war and the events taking place in Minnesota from 1862 through 1865. Isaiah becomes a color bearer for his regiment and is wounded during the advance on Atlanta. Recovering from his wound with the help of a young woman he has met and brought home, he returns in time to accompany General Sherman on the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. At the same time, his family continues to face life in the North Star State without him. This book is a great read for late elementary youth through adult. Northern Colors is the cornerstone book in a series that will follow the Weldon family from the American Revolution through all the major wars and conflicts up to the present day.

Title: Seven Lives to Repay Our Country
Author: Edward Carpenter
Genre: Historical Fiction/Short Story
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B0055KT73G

The battle of Saipan pitted US Marines and Allied soldiers against the island's Japanese defenders in one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific War. In this short story written by a US Marine, a pair of Japanese soldiers on Saipan confront the inevitability of defeat in different ways.

This story mixes fact and fiction to examine the nature of humanity in modern warfare. Please note that this is a short story, written as a submission to the Kindle Singles collection, and priced accordingly. It is 9 pages long (approx. 3000 words) and contains author's notes that highlight the historical and fictional influences that drove the story.

I hope you enjoy the story, and thank you for supporting independent, self-published literature. Your candid reviews, Tweets, blog posts, Facebook sharing and recommendations to friends are all greatly appreciated!