MemberNovelhistorian(he/him)

My library focuses exclusively on historical fiction, with an occasional nonfiction historical title thrown in. Since my historical specialty as an author and researcher is the First World War, I'm always looking for emotionally complex, historically plausible novels about that conflict, whether dealing with the years before, during, or just afterward. But I'm eclectic in my tastes, and the titles I read and/or review can come from any time period or any location, provided that all the action takes place at least fifty years before publication, how I define historical fiction.

I seldom read historical fantasy, though there are exceptions. Future histories, dystopic or otherwise, aren't for me. I avoid Romances, capital R, but I always appreciate a psychologically astute love story.

My debut novel, Lonely Are the Brave, is due out with Cynren Press in mid-April. (Yes, I borrowed the title from a terrific Kirk Douglas movie, screenplay by Dalton Trumbo.) It's about a hero returned from the Great War in 1919 who scandalizes his small logging town by turning at-home father, only to hear a rumor the child isn't his--and to find out the truth, trades secrets with the timber baron's daughter, wife of his former lieutenant.

I've also published two works of historical nonfiction: The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World; and The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I.

But for the past twenty or so years, historical fiction has been where I live, as a writer and reviewer. As Novelhistorian, I review a historical novel a week on the blog of that name; I'm also an editor at Historical Novels Review.