I finally signed a contract with Five Star Publishing for my Civil War novel, Dread Tribunal of Last Resort. The novel will be released in hardback next July (2020). The story allowed me to focus on two obsessions at once–the American Civil War and rocketry.

My fascination with rockets is easy enough to understand. My father, Harold Kaufman, worked for NASA much of his life. He designed a working ion engine (a small rocket engine propelled by vaporized and ionized mercury) in the early 1960s. Space flight consumed my imagination. We spent some summer nights together, gazing through telescopes at the stars and planets. I actually tried to build a rocket ship, a child’s project that ended abruptly when I announced that I needed to buy gasoline from the corner station.

My interest in the Civil War was sparked by the author Bruce Catton, who wrote The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. I fell in love with the illustrated battle maps (done by artist David Greenspan). The book was expensive, so I had to earn the money by washing cars for neighbors. (Bless their hearts – I was nine years old, and I don’t think I was very thorough.) I supplemented my Civil War reading with what my father called “the great American liberal education” (a library card). I’m still reading.

My best writing comes from exploring my obsessions. Luckily, I have a fair number of them. My thanks to Five Star for letting me share two of them with readers. I’ll keep you posted as details become available.