Civil War Horror with author Sean McLachlan

I’m excited to announce that travel writer, historian, and novelist Sean McLachlan will be guest blogging here on Thursday, December 1st! His topic: “Writing a historical novel in my own backyard.”

Sean’s most recent release is A Fine Likeness, billed as a Civil War horror novel. Interestingly, Sean reports on Facebook that sales are going well in the UK: “Strange the Brits are going for a Missouri Civil War novel almost as much as the Yanks,” he writes.

Stay tuned for more about Sean’s book on Thursday—along with a guest post from Sean himself about why he chose Missouri as his setting for the novel. And check out a schedule of all his online appearances here (including my site!): Civil War Horror/Online Appearances

In the meantime, here is an excerpt from an interview I did with Sean for Missouri Writers’ Guild in June:

Around the World with Travel Writer Sean McLachlan

Missourian and writer Sean McLachlan is clearly a man on the go—but he graciously agreed to pause for an interview with me for Missouri Writers’ Guild. Sean moved to New York from Canada when he was eight years old. He later attended the University of Arizona and then lived for many years in Columbia, Missouri, beginning in the 1990s. In mid-September, Sean and his family will move from Madrid to Santander, Spain, but Sean still spends part of his time in Columbia, Missouri. At the time of this interview, Sean was in Oxford.

How many countries have you visited to date? How many places have you lived?

Sean: That depends on your definition of a country. I would say 31, but I visited the West Bank before it became independent Palestine. I’ve also visited Somaliland, a breakaway republic in northern Somalia that isn’t recognized as a nation. So 29-31 depending how you want to slice it. I’ve lived in Canada, the U.S., Denmark, England, Bulgaria, and Spain.

In 2012 I’m hoping to visit Iceland, Romania, Macedonia, and the Republic of South Sudan. That last one probably won’t happen because of some bureaucratic difficulties with the new government. It’s worth a try, though!

You’ve written many books, most historical nonfiction, and some set in Missouri. Do you do most of your research before beginning to write? Which book was your favorite or most interesting to write? Which was the most challenging?

Sean: I tend to pile on the research before I write so I can get a good handle on the subject before writing the first draft. That said, research only ends when you run out of time. I research up until the first page proofs come in. I’m one of those annoying writers who’s always bugging their editor to add “one last thing!”

While I enjoyed all three of my Missouri history books: Outlaw Tales of Missouri, It Happened in Missouri, and Missouri: An Illustrated History, my favorite book was on a completely different subject. Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons covers the development of the firearm. These were first seen on medieval battlefields in the 14^th century and were soon adopted by all armies. They weren’t very accurate and took a long time to reload, but could punch through armor better than arrows could.

What made this book challenging to write is that no book has ever been written about the first firearms, in English or as far as I could tell any other language. I spent nearly two years going through museum collections, studying scholarly articles, and working with scientists and reenactors to write the first book-length treatment of one of the world’s most influential weapons.

How has your experience as an archeologist played a part in your writing career, or has it?

Sean: I worked as an archaeologist for ten years and that certainly affected my writing. In fact, I got started in writing back at the tail of the zine boom back in the 1990s. Several zinesters asked me to contribute articles about my work and travels, and that led me to start my own zine, Ichthyoelectroanalgesia. That only lasted four issues but gave me the writing bug. When I became a professional writer, I continued to write about archaeology and history, as well as other subjects.

You have several blogs. For what purpose do you use each one?

Sean: One of my jobs is as a travel blogger for www.gadling.com/. Gadling is the most popular travel blog on the Internet with an average of 3.6 million unique visitors a month. I write about pretty much anything travel-related that I want. I’ve done series on my trips, including two on Ethiopia (http://www.gadling.com/tag/cityofsaints), one on Somaliland (http://www.gadling.com/tag/somalilandadventure), two hikes in Scotland (http://www.gadling.com/tag/EastHighlandWay, and several others. I also write a lot of archaeology, museum, and hiking posts.

I have three personal blogs:

http://civilwarhorror.blogspot.com/ is my newest. It’s dedicated to my novel A Fine Likeness and to the House Divided series. I also blog a lot about historical fiction, Kindle Direct Publishing, and the Civil War in Missouri. I’m always happy to interview or host Missouri authors or authors who have books set in Missouri. Feel free to drop me a line if you’re interested. Contact information is available via the blog.

http://midlistwriter.blogspot.com/ is my personal blog about life in the midlists. It’s pretty freeform, with a mixture of insights into the writing industry, news about yours truly, a bit of travel, some photography, and the occasional guest post.

http://grizzledoldtraveler.blogspot.com/ is a personal/travel blog I stopped working on shortly after I got my job at Gadling. After becoming a professional travel blogger, there didn’t seem much point in keeping it up. There’s a lot of fun stuff still there, though.