Updated author appearances

Tuesday March 8 - William Latane SCV Camp, Mechanicsillve, VA
Monday March 28 - Princess Anne SCV Camp, Virginia Beach, VA
Sat & Sun April 9 & 10 - Elkton Historical Society - Miller-Kite House, Elkton, VA (signing)
Wednesday April 13 - Urquhart-Gillette SCV Camp, Courtland, VA
Wednesday May 11 - Norfolk Historical Society - Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Sat & Sun May 14 & 15 - Battle of New Market reenactment, New Market, VA (signing)
Saturday May 21 - James Brady SUV Camp, Isle of Wight, VA
Tuesday May 24 - Richmond VMI Alumni Association, Richmond, VA (signing only)

Upcoming Appearances

Filling out the calendar for 2011 with speaking engagements and book signings. This is what I've got confirmed so far, with a couple others in the works but not yet finalized - will post here as additional dates are added.

And if anyone is interested in a presentation to their organization or hosting a book signing, email me.

Tuesday March 8 - William Latane SCV Camp, Mechanicsillve, VA
Wednesday April 13 - Urquhart-Gillette SCV Camp, Courtland, VA
Wednesday May 11 - Norfolk Historical Society - Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Tuesday May 24 - Richmond VMI Alumni Association, Richmond, VA (signing only)

Events

First a brief report on my latest outing...On Tuesday August 17 I spoke to the Outer Banks Civil War Round Table at the gorgeous Duck Woods Country Club in Southern Shores, NC, about the Battle of New Market. Had a good crowd of about 30+ on-hand. Turned it into a day-trip, as it had been years since I had visited the Outer Banks. Went over to Roanoke Island - Lost Colony is still lost...and somehow I have a knack for visiting NC Nat'l Park Service sites when they are renovating their Visitor Centers - last time on the Outer Banks, the Wright Brothers VC was closed for renovations and they had set up temporary shop in a painfully small modular. Ditto that this time around for the Fort Raleigh site. And eavesdropping on other, shall we call them 'less than properly informed' visitors made me long for the days of being an interpreter (This particular visitor made the stereotypical 'why aren't there bullet holes in the monuments?' question seem tame in comparison to some of the wonderful questions and misperceptions she had...kudos to the Ranger at the desk for keeping her cool.)

Now, for the upcoming events:

Saturday August 21 - I'll be signing books at the Civil War show at the Richmond (VA) Showplace 10-4 with old reenacting buddy Marc Ramsey. Find me at the Owens & Ramsey booth.

Sunday September 5 - Back to New Market for "Rat Day." If you've never seen this ceremony, it's definitely worth a trip. This is where the incoming freshman - "Rat" - class at VMI takes their cadet oath, after charging up Bushong Hill from the Bushong orchard, as their predecessors did on May 15, 1864. For many years former Secretary of the Army John Marsh gave the keynote address; I'm not sure who has taken those reigns from him. I'll be set-up at 8 am that morning and going until...?

Next week I'll post the highlights of my St. Louis trip for the 2010 reunion of Douglas MacArthur's Honor Guard ...

Gettysburg signings

It's off to Pennsylvania in the morning for a short vacation culminating in a week-end stay at Gettysburg, where I will be making book signing appearances at four different venues. The schedule for the weekend is:

Saturday June 26
10 am - 2 pm Butternut & Blue booth at the Civil War Show at the Eisenhower Conference Center south of town (Tom Clemens will also be there signing his new South Mountain book)
3 pm - 5 pm Battlefields & Beyond Book Store (777 Baltimore St., near the Jennie Wade house)

Sunday June 27
10 am - 12 pm Gettysburg Gift Center/American CW Museum (the old wax museum there on Steinwehr, sort of behind the old visitor center)
1 pm - 3 pm American History Store (461 Baltimore St., near the Farnsworth House)

So stop by one of these locations if you're in the area!

Book signing

I will be giving a presentation about the Battle of New Market, followed by a book signing of Valley Thunder, at the MacArthur Memorial Monday 31 May (Memorial Day) at 2:00 pm.

Also, in the last week I was interviewed by Gerry Prokopovicz on Civil War Talk Radio and by Mike Noirot of This Mighty Scourge - look for these on their respective websites soon.

Reenactment after-action report

The book signing at NMBSHP was a spectacular success! The Park sold about 60 or so copies of Valley Thunder, and a few folks stopped by who already had copies. Got to visit with some old friends from college and former co-workers. Weather was absolutely splendid. Now the actual reenactment left quite a bit to be desired - nothing like having the 2 lines move to w/in 30 yard of each other and just blast away w/bttn volleys for several minutes producing of course absolutely no casualties. Sunday's action was even worse, with most of it occurring on the reverse slope of the ridge and thus out of view of the majority of the spectators. Oh well...

In unrelated news, after my official duties at the Park were concluded on Saturday, my son got to try his hand at miniature golf for the 1st time. And thankfully the Green Valley Book Fair (near Mt Crawford) was in full swing, so we stopped by there on the return. Either their CW section is not what it once was or my library is growing faster than I realize, since it was pretty much WWII titles that I stocked up on this time...