The paperback edition of Brookhaven just arrived. I downloaded the Kindle version last Thursday, but it is something else to hold the physical book in my hands. Behind it are a few of the books (but only a few) I used for research.
The Paperback Arrived!
Glynn,
I got my copy in yesterday. I cracked it open this morning to read the opening chapter, and, boy, it is off like a rifle shot. The mystery angle is a great set-up for the story.
Cheers,
Brian
Glynn,
I must ask, did you base the McClure family/sawmill business on an actual family?
bmiller@wingedelmfarm.com
Cheers,
Brian
Brian, no, I didn’t. the McClure family is loosely based on my own (which didn’t own a sawmill). I added the sawmill aspect because Brookhaven is in the Piney Woods area of Mississippi. My great-grandfather Samuel Young was the youngest son, and he did lose two older brothers and a brother-in-law during the Civil War.
Well, it would have been too much of a coincidence. A cousin of mine (and it is a long fascinating story) found her birth parents three years before her own death. They had been about 15 when she was born. And their parents made them give her up for adoption. Her parents eventually married each other, stayed together, and had three sons. So, she discovered her birth parents, still together, and had three full brothers. A remarkable story. The only key she had (prior to DNA solving the mystery) was that her grandparents owned a sawmill in the Brookhaven area of Mississippi. Her parents had a very similar (though different) surname to McClure. So, hence my question.
Really enjoying the novel, Glynn.
BTW I left you a review with Bezos using my review alias (my great-great uncle who died at the battle of Mansfield).
Brian, thank you so much for the review. What a wonderful Christmas present! My wife’s father and his family grew up in the Mansfield area. They’d moved there after the Civil War, and his father was a long-time school principal (who ran afoul of Huey Long).
Thank you again – the review means a lot.