Introducing "Dixie's Land"

It is 1851. The United States have been at war with one another for nearly a year, with nine states* fighting to sustain their right to secede from the Union. Watching nervously from the sidelines and dominating the northern and western portions of the continent is the Kingdom of Canada. It is to Canada's winter capital, New Orleans, that the Confederate Captain Charles Stewart is sent by his government to assist in the negotiating of a treaty of recognition between Canada and the CSA. More than negotiation is going to happen, though...

Beginning this week I will start serializing novels to this blog. The plan is to post roughly a chapter a week, which for most of the books in the queue means a complete novel will be up every six months or so†.

The first item up is Dixie's Land, an alternate-history novel set in the timeline-world I created for my short story "Near Enough to Home": it features a very alternate U.S. Civil War. This novel is the first I completed, and came very close to selling (twice). Not near enough, though‡.

The timeline I created for this novel was interesting enough to me that I wrote a second book, The Bonnie Blue Flag, which completes the story begun in Dixie's Land. And a third novel, An End of All Things, is in an advanced state of first-draftitude. So in time there will be more alt-history appearing here. (Next up is a mystery, though. Look for it in late summer or early autumn 2019.)

Stand by for chapter one, starting Tuesday 8 January 2019.

Chapter 1

*From north to south and east to west: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, with Kentucky's secession disputed within the state.

†Actual mileage may vary. Items are not necessarily as shown. Contents may settle in shipment. Void where prohibited by family rules or the dictates of the cat(s).

‡The first near-sale was a sad and frustrating experience. No details, because I don't think the experience reflects well on me or on any of the other people involved. So the less said the better.