1. How did you get interested in writing this particular genre?

I have always been interested in history. I studied it as an undergraduate and graduate student and again in my years in the army. You will find historical references underpinning many of my business related papers, articles and books. My idea of a vacation is to visit battlefields around the world, which I have had the good fortune to do. Keep in mind that I grew up in Montreal and Quebec, which are (St Augustine’s pretentions notwithstanding) the oldest and most historic cities in North America. Growing up, history was all around me. When we vacationed in the summer at my grandparent’s house in Niagara Falls, we lived on Lundy’s Lane. This was the site of the bloodiest battle ever fought in Canada—a classic Napoleonic clash of armies. My grandfather would walk me over the battlefield almost every day talking about the historic events that played out there during the War of 1812. Not surprisingly, history has always been my first love. Once I left the army (an institution I also loved), I then gravitated to the business world where, much to my surprise, I was successful. This success in turn allowed me to fund my hobby.

2. Why were you inspired to write about the Civil War in Savannah? Is there something about the city that inspired you?

I moved to Savannah in 1991 as a result of the acquisition of our company by Times-Mirror. In order for the partners to receive their full buy-out we had to stay with the company for a set number of years. I was asked to move to California, which I utterly refused to do. Then I was asked to choose a site in the southeast. We looked at Atlanta, Jacksonville and Orlando, but Savannah, with its charm and history, was the place for me. It was love at first sight and I am still smitten.

3. Hoes does this historical account differ from others?

After five years of research by a very talented team of volunteers, Civil War Savannah provides the reader with insights and details about the antebellum and wartime city that have not been covered in previous works. Our books bring the old city back to life. The reader will never again walk past old buildings as if they were mute structures. They have a story to tell. We have given these buildings, and the old city itself, a voice. The reader will find most of the information in our books to be entirely new and fresh.

4. How important is it for writers to raise social, racial and political issues in literature?

History is a transcendent, intellectual discipline. Good history must touch on all the issues influencing events and people. These include economics, sociology, technology, politics, foreign affairs, demographics, military doctrines, etc. If one seeks to understand history based solely on one angle of inquiry, the result will be flawed or at best stilted. Perhaps the greatest challenge for the historian is to capture what the Germans call “zeitgeist” or the spirit of the age. This is the synthesis of all the factors coming together to shape thinking, behavior and decision making. It is like chasing a ghost. That ghost is what I tried to capture or at least reflect, especially in the first book in the series “Immortal City.” Consider this: the South never had a chance of succeeding with secession if the North dug in its heels and said no. Anyone with a lick of sense knew this, yet they plunged ahead. What made them do it? What was it about the times that caused people to do something so incredibly reckless? To understand one would have to be there. That is the essence of the meaning of “zeitgeist.”

5. What kind of research did you do for these books?

Our team investigated just about every known source and reservoir of knowledge about Civil War Savannah. Have we missed something? Almost certainly. That is why we position our work with the words “for now this is our contribution.” We are engaged in a dialogue across the ages and we are but a part of the larger discussion. The ultimate conceit of historians is to assume that their work is the final word on any subject. Sadly, this explains why accomplished historians sometimes spent inordinate time criticizing, rather than encouraging, those who follow in their footsteps. Watch for this phenomenon to rear its head when our books are released.

6. Can you describe your writing process?

Do the research, get the facts and then begin the painful process of turning it all into a readable story. Each step takes time and patience. The easiest phase, and also the most fun, is doing the research. Nothing is more exhilarating for an historian than rooting around in old records and documents, with the prospect of some new discovery only a letter or slip of paper away. It is as close to time travel as one can come. Even the smell of old papers, books and documents is intoxicating.

Writing is a creative process and thus comes from within the author. The challenge is getting it out and onto paper. I sometimes circle the material for days, as if I’m a little afraid of it, before pouncing. The historical writer has an advantage, however, in that he has a rough script to follow provided by the assembled facts. The challenge lies in interpreting and arranging these facts in a readable way. As for writing itself, the first paragraph is the most difficult. The initial forays are usually chaotic and the resulting text sometimes jumbled, but at least you have begun and that alone provides a sense of relief. The material only begins to resemble the final product in the fourth or fifth draft.

7. What do you think people search for in a book?

Readability and a good story. The great historian Barbara Tuchman was adamant in her opinion that after getting the facts right, the key to good history was good writing. An historian who cannot hold his audience is not much good at his or her job.

8. What is the hardest part about being an author?

Dealing with the minutia of the publication process. I thoroughly hate it.

9. What is the best part about being an author

The beginning and the end. In the beginning, you are filled with wonder, excitement and limitless possibilities. At the end, you have a sense of accomplishment, tinged with sadness. The book, which has been your friend, and yes, sometimes your adversary, is leaving you forever. It will now have a life of its own separate from you.

10. What do you like reading in your spare time?

Books on history and economics, and oh yes, books on ocean liners.

11. Any recent works that you admire?

Yes, The Big Short, Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. This bestseller takes the reader inside the insane world of asset back securities and bonds, which nearly destroyed the world’s financial system. How could anyone possibly makes bonds interesting? Well, Lewis, a superb story teller, takes us into this financial netherworld through the eyes of a handful of quirky, eccentric and downright odd bond traders who saw it all coming. They shorted all the big institutions that were buying these securitized real-estate assets (later to be known as toxic assets). These big financial players should have known better but just whistled past the graveyard and continued to play the game, with our money, right up until the cataclysmic crash. Toward the end of the book, as the inevitable disaster gets ever closer, you want to jump up and scream out to the banks and insurance companies “For God’s sake, stop!”

My favorite historian is Barbara Tuchman. I love all of her work including The Guns of August, A Distant Mirror, The Practice of History, Stilwell etc. Tuchman was never really accepted inside the academic community because she insisted on writing history for people rather than for professors. In addition to being a fine historian, she was also a wonderful writer and storyteller. During the Cuban missile crisis, John Kennedy kept a dog-eared copy of The Guns of August beside his bed. This Pulitzer Prize winning book provides frightening insight into how the first World War more or less started itself without much executive direction. In the years leading up to the War, Europe’s war machine had developed a life of its own based on secret treaties, pre-prepared plans and train schedules. Once set in motion this machine could not be stopped by anybody, not the King of England, not the Kaiser, not the Czar. Kennedy’s favorite excerpt, which he read aloud to members of his cabinet, came from an exchange with a senior German general after the war. When asked how the war began he sighed, “Alas, if we only knew.” This quote reflects Kennedy’s frame of mind during the crisis and may explain how we avoided nuclear war – just.