French Cavalry and an Interview

Wellington confirmed that the French cavalry was the strongest on the European continent during the Napoleonic era.

The heavy cavalry mounted frontal charges during battle to break enemy infantry or route their cavalry.

The medium cavalry performed charges like the heavy cavalry and also acted as ‘mounted infantry.’ (See the picture below, Detaile's "Charging French Dragoons").

The light cavalry conducted reconnaissance before battle and pursuit of the routed enemy after battle.

--Napoleon's Cavalry, Artillery, and Technical Corps 1799-1815 by Gabriele Esposito

Why these bland tidbits of Napoleonic tactics that are well known to every student of the era? I'm glad you asked. I'm assembling facts and details for a short story featuring my three favorite fictional cavalry officers of La Grande Armee: Beaujeu the dragoon, Pichon the chasseur-a-cheval, and Gavrel the hussar. These three sprang to life in a story I wrote set in Egypt. Although that story remains unpublished, the three cavalrymen delighted readers in "Seventh Hussar and Aide to the Mage," published by Raconteur Press in the Wyrd Warfare anthology edited by Chris DiNote, in which they fought at the battle of Borodino.

The story in progress has them at an engagement shortly after the Egyptian campaign and long before the Russian campaign. It's an interesting battle and has been a fun one to recreate in all the various games I've played based on the battle. Naturally, our brave cavaliers will play a pivotal role that may not be well known to history. Spies, dark magic, and the desperate struggle between exhausted forces combine to threaten Bonaparte's position and demand more dangerous deeds for these heroes behind the official proclamations of victory.

Speaking of dangerous deeds, I dared to meet with The Halfling and the Spaceman to discuss writing and Accidental Pirates. I had a great time with the genial hosts.

A week or so ago, I met for another interview with another vlogger, but technical difficulties prevented anything more than a brief visit. We'll reschedule that one. Additionally, I've been invited for the Blasters and Blades podcast early next month. Of course, I'll post a link when it happens.

 

Books for Boys

I've got Accidental Pirates on my mind because I dropped in on Les Freres Corses this week. They're not bookworms by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think they've ever even read a chapter book from beginning to end. Accidental Pirates has changed that. When I stopped in for a short visit. Chris, the brother upon whom the character telling the story in the book is based, immediately grabbed the book and showed me that he was reading it, pointing out that he only had one chapter to go. "They should make this into a movie!" he exclaimed.

That response makes all the time I spent writing Accidental Pirates a complete success. Getting even one boy to read is a victory. Most of the boys I know--arguably, not that many--don't read much at all. Many boys do read, but young male readership has dropped off steadily over the last decade or two. In fact, some report (by which I mean the standard search engine) that reading for pleasure among 11-16 year old boys has dropped steeply in the last 20 years. Only 12% of Gen Z boys read books. Why? 

I suppose there is no single reason. Casting around for suspects, I know that video games provide immediate feedback for less effort invested than reading. Video games require less imagination and often channel non-stop excitement--a steady stream of mind crack that rapidly addicts the player to the immediate rush feedback. The digital rush leaves the mind in a state of decay with nothing to show for the time spent. I liked video games as kid, but I couldn't play them continuously. I had to go to the arcade and the quarters or nickels soon came to an end. Video games were a rare delight. Now many players spend fewer hours at a full-time job that they do with their eyes glued to the gaming screen. I still like video games, but they can't hold my interest like they did when I was a kid. At any rate, getting boys to read faces direct competition from video games.

Suspect number two is the short video. Boys can watch an endless scroll of short videos on youtube and other sites. Watching short videos requires even less effort than playing video games. There's a lot to be learned on these videos, but mostly they absorb time and brain cells with little long-term benefit. Don't ask me how I know.

We should look at another suspect in this crime against boys: Publishers. Who runs the publishing companies and decides what books get published? It's not men. Women and girls read more than men and boys, so it's natural to expect that more books directed to women and girls would be published--but boys suffer for it. It's a truism that most girls will read books with boys as the main characters. The opposite is not true. Boys rarely read and enjoy books with girls as the main characters. Boys want action and adventure. They want to be able to imagine themselves as the heroes who save the day, solve the crime, and vanquish the foe. Tea parties, frilly dresses, girls engaged in long conversations, and even tomboys doing fun and weird things (I'm talking about you, Pippi) don't hold much appeal for boys. Put a girl with red pigtails on the cover and you turn away 90% of boys who would be interested if a boy were featured. Maybe boys are sexist. Maybe I'm sexist. I don't think I am, but I do know that I can usually tell after reading a paragraph or a page whether a man or a woman wrote the story. Most women tell stories with a different tone and emphasize different aspects that do men. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I came to recognize the difference at an early age and realized that I usually preferred the male tone, even though I continue to enjoy stories written by talented women.

I'm happy to report that Raconteur Press has taken up arms against this sea of suspects. Raconteur Press continues to publish adventure books for boys to promote the dreams that come by exploring the undiscovered country of an exciting tale. RP has already published several great adventures for boys in a variety of genres:

Dreams of Fire and Gold by Fred Philips

Meteor Men by Scott Schad

Boy's Own Starship by Christopher Nuttal

I've Got This by Frederick Key

Fossil Force by Graham Bradley

Accidental Pirates by Stanley Wheeler 

I've probably missed a couple titles, but if you have a boy who reads, or who would read if he had the books before him, you can't go wrong with any of these titles. 

 

 

 

 

Hard Time in Kharput

 

The sequel to Accidental Pirates has been sent to the publisher for consideration. Chris and Kenny are thrown into a kingdom in turmoil facing treachery within and enemies without. Chris has been drafted to replace the blood mage - and he finds the job has a serious downside. Kenny wields enchanted steel against a host of enemies. Together they are the kingdom's only hope against a new evil.

I've been doing a lot of reading about Enoch - Genesis 6, Moses 7 & 8, as well as The Book of Enoch, a long with A Brief History of Time and an Alan Dean Foster novel. I may post about these at some point, but at I haven't yet finished any of the books, so I'll post a fun fact from something I did finish - or at least I think I did. This is condensed from chapter 11 of Crusaders by Dan Jones:

Fun Fact:

During an expedition to Egypt, King Baldwin I died after eating a breakfast of fresh fish. His body was salted, spiced, and transported back to Jerusalem to be buried beside his brother Godrey at The Holy Sepulchre. Baldwin of Bourcq raced to Jerusalem, beating the other contenders, to be anointed king and was later crowned in Bethlehem. Nearly sixty, he had been Count of Edessa for almost twenty years. Frankish power and Crusader confidence had been dealt a severe blow at the Field of Blood. The fate of the Crusader kingdoms depended on European help.

Ilghazi, the victor of the Field of Blood, died in 1122--his death probably wasn't from the fish--and the Franks looked to Aleppo again with greedy eyes. September 13, 1122, Joscelin, Count of Edessa, was captured by Balak, Ilghazi's nephew who had stepped in to fill his uncle's slippers. After being transported, sew inside a camel skin, Joscelin was locked up in the fortress of Kharput. Then Baldwin himself was also captured and locked up with Joscelin. The Crusader fortunes seemed fated never to recover from the defeat at the Field of Blood.

A year later, Ilghazi's son Timurtash succeeded Balak after the latter's death in May 1124. Baldwin arranged to pay Timurtash a ransom for his release. However, Baldwin had built up some ill will about his capture; he failed to pay the ransom as agreed, preparing to attack Timurtash instead. The other good news for the Crusaders was the capture of Tyre.

Baldwin II arrived at the walls of Aleppo in October with his Timurtash tax in the form of an army at his back. Additionally, he had among his forces the troops of a Muslim ally, Dubays Ibn Sadaqa, whom he had promised to install as the commander of Aleppo in place of Timurtash. Baldwin laid siege to the city until January 1125, when Muslim forces began raiding Antiochene territory. Baldwin returned to Jerusalem. A stalemate between the Franks and the Muslims had developed and could only be broken by an influx of new warriors from the west or a uniting of Islamic forces.

 

Next week I'm scheduled for a podcast interview. I'll post a link when it's available.