Galvanized Cover Released, Now Available for Pre-Order

At last, at last.

I’ve been waiting anxiously to share the cover design for Galvanized: The Odyssey of a Reluctant Carolina Confederate since the fine folks at the University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books sent it to me over a month ago. I’m thrilled with how they included the book’s main character, Nash County native Wright Batchelor, with a photograph from the Battle of Gettysburg.

The book is also available for pre-order here, at the publisher’s website.

As soon as I get an exact release date, I will start booking readings at local hangouts, bookstores, and libraries.

Just like with Memory Cards, I’m always honored to sign all copies no matter where you buy them, and always glad to talk about the book.

People often ask “how long did it take you to write the book?” or “it seems like it took a long time since you announced it.” It’s true: the book process is not a short one. I signed the contract two years next month. I didn’t have a finished draft until late spring of 2018, and then it was put in line for editing, design, cover design, indexing, marketing — a lot of stuff has to happen. My publisher has been awesome.

I’ll be posting more here, including some excerpts as we get closer to the release.

There is information about Galvanized on the UNP/Potomac website, but here’s a peek at what the publisher says:

“Every Civil War veteran had a story to tell. But few stories top the one lived by Wright Stephen Batchelor. Like most North Carolina farmers, Batchelor eschewed slaveholding. He also opposed secession and war, yet he fought on both sides of the conflict. During his time in each uniform, Batchelor barely avoided death at the Battle of Gettysburg, was captured twice, and survived one of the war’s most infamous prisoner-of-war camps. He escaped from one of them and, after walking thousands of miles, rejoined his comrades at Petersburg, Virginia, just as the Union siege there began. Once the war ended, Batchelor returned on foot to his farm, where he took part in local politics, supported rights for freedmen, and was fatally involved in a bizarre hometown murder.
              
Michael K. Brantley’s story of his great-great grandfather’s odyssey blends memory and Civil War history to look at how the complexities of loyalty and personal belief governed one man’s actions—and still influence the ways Americans think about the conflict today.”