Galvanized is officially launched!

“‘The Civil War is just as complicated now as the day it started.’ . . . Brantley deftly combines military and social history, a gripping narrative of one private soldier, and his personal struggle to make sense of a savage, fratricidal war and the morally fraught heritage that continues to haunt the South.”

—Philip Gerard, author of The Last Battleground and Cape Fear Rising

Galvanized: The Odyssey of a Reluctant Carolina Confederate is officially out in the world!

I’ll be honest, I haven’t slept well for days. Even though preorders and the signed copies on my website have been shipping for a couple of weeks, it all becomes official on Launch Day.

You can get signed copies here on my website or order directly from my amazing publisher, the University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books. I’ll write more later about what an honor and pleasure it has been working with them.

Major online retailers already have the book, and it should be in stores soon — if you don’t see it, support your local store and ask. They should be able to easily get it as it will have national distribution.

I went through this with Memory Cards a few years ago, and the excitement is hard to describe. As a writer, you work alone on a manuscript for so long — years — and then sell it (hopefully) … and then the process is just beginning. This was two years from the time the contract was signed.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun journey. Then the day comes and the book is out — and you hope people want it, but more importantly, you hope they enjoy reading it. All jokes aside, that is the payoff for a writer.

Sales Pitch

This book has:

•Love

•War

•Poverty

•Intrigue

•Stories you haven’t heard (probably)

•Murder!

•And news of the real last Confederate widow (hat tip to my friend Allan Gurganus — she was from this area.)

I hope this book will also connect with people on another level. When I discovered the man who is the central figure, I guessed I might be distantly related and it turned out he was great-great-grandfather. Learning about him and his fellow soldiers and his enemies and all the complexities of the Civil War was incredibly rewarding.

I’ve already had some early readers send me information and pics about their ancestors and I’m hoping to post some here. It’s never been easier to find out where you come from with so many resource out there. I’ll be writing more about them.

Other writers

I was honored to get some great quotes from other writers. One of my favorite nonfiction authors is Philip Gerard. I used his amazing “Cape Fear Rising” as a model for my thesis at East Carolina, and he had a book last out last year on the Civil War, The Last Battleground.

“‘The Civil War is just as complicated now as the day it started.’ . . . Brantley deftly combines military and social history, a gripping narrative of one private soldier, and his personal struggle to make sense of a savage, fratricidal war and the morally fraught heritage that continues to haunt the South,” Gerard said of Galvanized.

I’ll share more later.

Illustrations

I did get some teasing that after 18 years as a professional photographer, I didn’t have any photographs in my first book. There are photos, illustrations and maps in Galvanized.

I put my hands on some pretty great pieces of history working on it.

Appearances

When this COVID-19 story is over, I plan to get out and make appearances at bookstores, libraries, restaurants, clubs, civic groups, and anywhere else where people want to share stories (and will have me!). I’ll list them on this page.

I’m also considering an online reading in the near future. I’d love to know if folks would be interested in a short reading and a Question and Answer session. Just leave a comment below.

More to come …