Book signing

Had a great time at the book signing this afternoon at St. Peters Episcopal Church, I was alongside craft makers and other vendors and it was quite the fun experience. I am excited that so many people were interested in my books, and I hope to see some positive reviews on Amazon soon.

An Old Adage Ruins Adult Thought

With the surprising victory of President-Elect Trump this past week, there has been an outpouring of anger and jubilation depending on the side of the political spectrum you sit on. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites have exploded with memes, angry posts, jubilant posts and everything in between. This led to many on my facebook feed to chastise their friends for posting about politics, and it got me thinking about the adage, "don't discuss religion and politics," and that honestly made me angry. Are we truly so juvenile and petty that we can't discuss politics without somebody flying off the deep end? Are the majority of you like the "snowflakes" you so derisively mock for crying and weeping over Hillary's defeat? If you can't see other points of view and discuss them civilly, you are just as emotionally inept as the Yale students begging for a day off to grieve. I found myself guilty of this sometime Tuesday night, and I was ashamed, I saw a post that angered me, and I unfollowed somebody I respect. That was petty of me, but I feel it also was a learning experience for me as well, I saw the error of my ways, with the help of the friend calling me out, and I realized that I and most of the people I know, don't practice what we preach.
The Importance of Political Discussion

The reason that I feel so strongly about this is the fact that our country is based on sharing political ideas and ideals with each other. You don't have to like what I believe, nor do I need to agree with you, but we should, as grown ass adults, be able to share these ideas without crawling into the fetal position looking for our safe places. What if Thomas Jefferson, Ben Fraklin, and countless other founding fathers would have refused to engage in political discussion? I mean, I would enjoy tea time in the afternoon, but I am all about breaking away from Royal tyranny as our pals did in the 18th century. To grow as a nation and start to see a healing take place, partisan politics must take a backseat to the good for the country, and to start that process; we MUST DISCUSS THE ISSUES. I for one will never shrink away from a discussion again just because I disagree with somebody; that is what makes our country great. Get over yourselves and get to work on making this country as kick-ass as it can be!


MP

Side Project for teens

Been working on a side project for about a week. I was serious about writing a book for teens about gross stuff from history. The first section is about torture devices and execution methods. Here is the first chapter. Check it out!

Ok, let’s get one thing clear right now, the Vikings may be the most misunderstood and misinterpreted group of people to ever grace the earth. Popular culture would have you believe that they were nothing but mead swilling, horn helmet wearing heathens from the north countries. While they did enjoy copious amounts of mead, they did not have horned helmets and they weren’t a group of unwashed heathens. The Vikings actually had quite the sophisticated society that used their knowledge and ingenuity to conqueror most of the British Isles. Now, there are many great books about Viking history that I encourage you to check out if you are into a deeper history, for the sake of this book I am only going to discuss the absolutely bonkers way in which they executed hated enemies.

“The Blood Eagle” has to be the most insane execution method I have researched for this book. There are not many historical examples of it being used, but the practice was so terrifying that I think the Vikings made their point.

The most famous example of the “Blood Eagle” appeared in the 11^th century writing of Sigvat Tordarson. The Vikings were super-proud of their conquests of Britain and wrote a multitude of tales and poems about their conquests, and the conquest of the city of York ranked right up there. This really hardcore Viking named Ivar the Boneless (I love Viking names) decided that he needed to avenge his father. See guys, his father was a moron and thought that he could conquer the British land of Northumbria with a small fleet of Vikings, when the attack failed, Ivar’s dad, Ragnar Hairy Breeches( I really love Viking names) was executed by poison snake bites by the King Aella.

As you can imagine, having your dad thrown into a pit of poisonous snakes kind of ticked Ivar the Boneless just a smidge. He vows revenge and all that nice stuff and takes off for the City of York to implant a Viking axe into the head of Aella.

Aella and his men could not hold off the massive Viking onslaught on the city of York and he eventually capitulated. Once he was captured, Ivar saw his opportunity to avenge his father. Ivar ordered that Aella be sacrificed to Odin in the horrific “Blood Eagle”. The practice was barbaric and totally disgusting to watch, but the Vikings saw it as a necessary sacrifice to their God Odin. The enraged and psychotic Vikings would bound and tie Aella to a tree or face down on a plank of wood, the sources are sketchy on that aspect. The executioner then carved the shape of eagle wings into the back of Aella as he screamed in utter horror and pain. Then the real work began, the executioner then ribbed into his flesh and broke his ribs one by one and slowly and methodically pulled Aella’s lungs out from his back, laying them outstretched in the perfect parody of wings. All of this would still not kill Aella immediately, he suffered through the entire process and only died when he suffocated with his lungs exposed. Yea, the Vikings really didn’t mess around when they had revenge on their minds. 

Book signing in Guyandotte, WV

I will be signing books at the Guyandotte, West Virginia Civil War days. Here is a link to the information https://www.facebook.com/mphistoricalwriting/notifications/?section=activity_feed&subsection=share&target_story=S%3A_I100001648700151%3A1215766025155009&content_id=233136200434135

Narrative Matters!

Narrative matters

As a nonfiction writer and teacher, I find that the most common mistakes in nonfiction is being bogged down by facts. While facts are the lifeblood of our work, historians and historical writers must remember that the reader does not want a textbook. I am a massive history nerd, but I have absolutely no desire to read dry, tactical based tomes that just list the facts of the event. I write about the Civil War which can bog the writer and the reader down in just strategic or tactical discussions. The key to writing an engaging passage in non-fiction is to bring the event to life for the reader. Tell us about the individuals and what they did on the battlefield, take me to the front. Instead of writing about where an Army was stationed on the battlefield, take us to the eyes of the soldier. Tell me what they would have seen, smelled or heard. History is alive all around us, don’t bog the reader down with just the facts, take them back in time and let them truly see history for what it was.

As a middle school history teacher, I have found through the years that people are not attracted to history classes and history texts. There are many reasons for this, but the most common complaint is the dryness of the information and the way in which it is delivered. Nobody wants to read a textbook, many writers fall into this trap because these writers are in love with the material and they don’t need the added narrative to enjoy the story. Writers must always remember that they are not writing for their own enjoyment, we are writing to give people information from the past and, at least in my opinion, to help people gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the past. I am not perfect, I have caught myself many times writing way too much in a bullet point formation. First this happened, then this…. Things like that. This will very quickly alienate the common reader and make your writing quite bland.

My chosen area of study is the Civil War, which lends itself nicely to narrative because there are so many personal stories to be told. I thought I would include a passage out of my next book about the battle of Antietam.

Example of narrative in non-fiction text

I am currently working on a passage about the battle of Antietam. Instead of just talking about an attack that took place, try to put some narrative and bring color into your writing. Here is an example of historical narrative depicting the attack on the Sunken Road of Antietam.

The afternoon sun was oppressive as it beat down on the soldiers of the Irish Brigade. The Irishmen stood in a woodcut watching the remnants of the II Corps, battered and beaten, retreat back to the safety behind the lines. Just as these men were reaching the woodcut, the gallant Irishman, General Meagher, screamed out to his men, “Forward March!” With that, the Irish Brigade was on the move, ahead was the Sunken Road and their date with immortality.

Copyright Matthew A. Perry

I sincerely hope this blog post sparks the inspiration to write non-fiction in a more flowing and narrative style. Keep writing about what you love and the words will come! 

Thank you

I wanted to take this opportunity to give a great big shoutout to all the people who donated to the photo rights effort! Tyler Radcliffe, Shannon Perry and Sarah were the five dollar donations that garnered a shoutout on the blog! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to continue writing this book and making it the best it possibly can be.

Kickstarter

hey guys,
I have started a kickstarter campaign to help fund historical photos I need to purchase. Rewards are signed books and other cool stuff. Check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/131259297/fund-matthew-a-perrys-photo-rights-for-his-7th-wv

The Bloody Seventh

Hey guys,
I haven't been able to devote much time to a blog entry because I am deep into research a preliminary writing on my next book. It is about the Bloody Seventh West Virginia and their service during the Civil War. They have been called the Banner Regiment of West Virginia because they saw some of the most horrific fighting of the war. They fought at Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, and Appomattox just to name a few. I hope to have a rough draft completed and ready to be sent to publishers by January 2017, but with basketball season kicking into gear in November, it will be a tight window to get everything completed. The contract for West Virginia Rebel has been signed and delivered so look for that release by the History Press in early 2017.

Currently Researching

Hey guys!
I am currently in the first research stages and first draft work on my next book. This book will deal the Bloody Seventh West Virginia, the Banner Regiment of the state during the Civil War. They fought at Antietam, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and were at Appomattox. Really excited for this next journey

Serious reading interview and review

The great people over at seriousreading.com recently did an interview with me and reviewed both of my books. Both books received 4.5/5 stars. Check it out!
http://seriousreading.com/book-reviews/history/6736-protectors-of-the-ohio-valley-book-review.html
http://seriousreading.com/author-interviews/6352-interview-with-matthew-a-perry-author-of-a-west-virginia-rebel.html
http://seriousreading.com/book-reviews/history/6734-a-west-virginia-rebel-albert-gallatin-jenkins-and-his-border-rangers-book-review.html

Serious reading interview and review

The great people over at seriousreading.com recently did an interview with me and reviewed both of my books. Both books received 4.5/5 stars. Check it out!
http://seriousreading.com/book-reviews/history/6736-protectors-of-the-ohio-valley-book-review.html
http://seriousreading.com/author-interviews/6352-interview-with-matthew-a-perry-author-of-a-west-virginia-rebel.html
http://seriousreading.com/book-reviews/history/6734-a-west-virginia-rebel-albert-gallatin-jenkins-and-his-border-rangers-book-review.html

Huge publishing news

Where do begin?
Today I received a phone call very early in the business day, I saw it was from one of my potential publishers, and I figured they needed information for one of my proposals, little did I know that they had decided at their early morning meeting to accept my book "A West Virginia Rebel." I was floored, I honestly was speechless for a few minutes. I think the booking agent got a good chuckle from me when I said, "Listen, I'm just a public school teacher who loves to tell stories, this means the world to me." It's the truth, at the end of the day, it's my love of teaching and my love of history that drives me, and to have a book published feels like a great vindication of years worth of hard work.

Revised thoughts on teaching history

My latest blog. "Being a history teacher: 1 part educator, 1 part actor."
Hey, guys!
I promised a post earlier in the week, but life got in the way, sorry for that. I thought that today I would write about a topic near and dear to my heart, teaching history. There is much negativity out there about teachers and the profession of teaching in general, but there will be none of that here. I love teaching, yes some things drive me crazy, mostly the insane attention paid to DATA and test scores, the word data makes me physically ill come March, but enough of that. Teaching is rewarding, that may be too small of a word. Teaching kids give me such joy that it makes all the data-driven crap worth it. I could write a book about teaching history and the love I have for it, but I wanted to focus just on one simple thing today, instilling a love of history in your students. We all had our fair share of boring history teachers, most of my terrible history teachers were in college. I made it my goal, once I got my teaching license, to entertain kids every day. A good teacher, in my opinion, is 1 part educator and 1 part actor. Standing in front of 12-year-old kids and trying to get them to give a darn about the Viking invasions of Britain requires a little acting, but the payoff is worth it. The best payoff a history teacher gets is when you hook a group of kids on your topic, it's like a drug for history nerds when kids are hanging on every word of your story and wanting more. I work with two other fantastic history teachers that have that gift as well, it is a gift that I am so thankful for because it makes teaching fun. So the next time you think that history is boring, you just have to open your mind and bring it to life.

The business side of writing

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been learning a lot about the business side of things that comes with writing. I must say that I am terrible with money and don't necessarily enjoy the business side, I write because I like the experience, and I like teaching people. I love to sit and write in my journal nightly; it is therapy for me, and my historical writing is the same type of experience. I have found that advertising, worrying about book downloads, and the other multitude of things on the business side of writing has taken a little fun out of my last week. To remedy this, I have decided to write a good old-fashioned history blog post, hopefully, to be ready tomorrow.

Thanks guys

Finding the voice

Hey guys,
I thought I would share one of the most difficult things that I have run across as a writer. Finding your voice can be a very difficult task depending on what you choose to write about. To obtain a masters degree in American history it requires countless research and writing assignments. I was quite comfortable writing this way I would get in trouble or would lose points when I strayed to a narrative style too much. Writing books for public consumption you want to bring that narrative voice out but also keep the facts and the historical record intact and that's the hard part. I've read through my first two books and at times I felt I was a little too flowing with my narrative and then at other times I felt that I was too straightforward with just historical facts. The difficult part and what I am working on is finding a good voice that is a happy medium between the two. What do you all struggle with when writing? I would love to read some comments
take care

Historical fiction

Hey guys,
I have begun work on a historical fiction novel about a teenager fighting in the Civil War. One thing I have already discovered is that I will not write this as quickly as my historical books. The reason for that is it is a new genre for me and I have to change the style in which I write. When you write strictly history, you keep to the facts and make it flow as a narrative. In fiction, the sky is the limit so the dialogue and events have to come completely from my imagination, not just sources. I hope to keep people updated on all my work and remember that both of my books are free to all amazon members for a week.

Take care

Book distribution and WV Rebel release

Hey guys,

I have been working diligently in finding possible distributors for both of my books. I have a few lines in the water, but nothing concrete. I will be releasing West Virginia Rebel over the next few days and it will soon have a promotion for free ebook downloads, as will Protectors of the Ohio Valley so be watching for that.

The Greenbrier Ghost

Hello, all! My first blog on my new site!

I thought I would post some writing I have been working on independent from my books. This is an old post about a famous West Virginia folktale that will be published later this year in an anthology of West Virginia Folktales. Hope you enjoy!

Greenbrier Ghost
Sam Black Church/Lewisburg, Greenbrier County
Written by: Matthew A. Perry
Greenbrier County, West Virginia is a bucolic, outdoor lover's dream. The natural beauty of the Mountain State is no more prevelant than along the shining riverside of the mighty Greenbrier River. It is a rural county with very few large towns, so mountain culture and lore are important to the inhabitants of the area. Hidden in the beauty and the outdoor pursuits, is one of the strangest tales in American history.
Near the turn of the 20th century, the small, unincorporated town of Sam Black Church, would see the unexplained death of a young local woman. Zona Heaster was a 24-year-old girl that worked in a local store. A new man in town started coming around, Edward Shue, and they soon fell in love. Despite the objections of her mother, Zona married Edward after a short engagement.
Things went fine for the newlyweds early on, but Mary Jane Heaster, Zona's mom, despised her new son-in-law. On January 23, 1897, Edward sent a local boy on an errand to his home. When the local boy arrived, there was no answer at the door. The boy noticed that the door was ajar and slowly opened it wider. To his horror, he found the lifeless body of Mrs. Shue lying at the foot of the stairs. Her body position was quite odd, she laid out with her legs together and her hands on her chest. Not quite the position one usually finds a victim from a fall. The local Doctor/Coroner, Dr. Knapp is called in to perform the autopsy.
During the autopsy, Mr. Shue was doting over the body of his dearly departed causing the Dr. much aggrivation. Every time that the Dr. would try and examine the neck of Mrs. Shue, Mr. Shue would become bilidgerant. Even with the odd behavior of Mr. Shue, Dr. Knapp ruled the death accidental and burial was set for two days later. As was common practice in rural areas, the wake was held in the front parlor of Mrs. Heaster's home. This was the tradition of "sitting up with the dead" that was popular near the turn of the century. The reasoning behind it was simple; there were many cases where rudimentary medical practitioners had declared people dead when they truly weren't. This led to many cases of people being buried alive. Unfortunately for Mrs. Shue, she was most assuredly dead. During the wake, Mr. Shue would not allow people to get near his wife. He had dressed her himself (quite out of the ordinary) in a high necked dressed. This behavior seemed odd, but noone attempted to re-open the case. Mrs. Shue was buried and life in Greenbrier County went on.
Life went on for everybody except Mrs. Heaster; she was convinced that her beloved daughter was murdered by Mr. Shue. This is where the story takes a paranormal turn. Starting a month after the burial, Mrs. Heaster claimed that her daughter came to her in a succession of dreams. She said that her ghost spun her head around fully to show that her neck was snapped. Mrs. Heaster pleaded with the local prosecutor to exhume the body and re-open the case. The prosecutor does so, and the Dr. is allowed to examine the body without the interference of Mr. Shue. The Dr. finds that there was massive amounts of burising around Mrs. Shue's neck, finger prints on her neck and her windpipe was crushed. Mr. Shue was a blacksmith, so he had the strength to crush her neck with his bare hands.
Charges of murder were brought against Shue and trial was held at the county seat of Lewisburg. The prosecution used cold hard facts, but the defense wanted to try and make Mrs. Heaster look like a crack-pot, the plan didn't work. Mr. Shue was convicted of murder and was sent to the infamous Moundsville State Penitentary written about earlier in this book. Mr. Shue was the first, and last, person ever convicted of murder in the United States on the testimony of a ghost. Only in West Virginia....

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