Coming Up For Air

No, I haven't been lost in the wilderness with no access to the internet. No, I haven't given up my pursuit of the Civil war and all things cavalry. I've simply been learning a ton of things in the process of preparing my first manuscript for publishing which will make a wonderful series of posts AFTER it is delivered by the 31st of this month.

But I'm back. Mostly. As times permits between now and the end of the month, then "full time" once again.

So what's been happening while I was gone?

Retiring. Again. Finished up my retiree recall with the Army on Tuesday, with all of the administrative joy and loss of productive time that one might suspect. It was an amazing ride, and I'm truly grateful to all of those who helped along the way.

Finishing the manuscript. One teaser from the upcoming Getting Published series of posts - plan for success. We were incredibly fortunate to have our (my partner, Jim Jones and I, there's no royal plural here) first query accepted by a publisher instead of searching for months for an interested publisher. An acceptance letter and one complete chapter leave you a LONG way to go in the process. Enough said.

Maps. We have not one, not two, but 14 maps for the book, by two very talented cartographers. After the much-lamented Blake Magner's passing, Steven Stanley was kind enough to step in on very short notice and provide the maps for the Beverly Ford and Brandy Station chapters.

Back soon, manuscript to finish, syllabi for spring semester to post....