Official Interview: James Harold Kelly

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Official Interview: James Harold Kelly

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Today's Chat with Sarah features James Harold Kelly author of These Sacred Lands.

Official Review

Kindle Edition (Free on Kindle Unlimited)

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1. Tell us about the first story you ever wrote.

My first story was written in response to a request. Years ago, while attending the National Defense University in Washington D.C., the students visited one of the many Civil War battlefields in the surrounding area to discuss strategy and tactics. In this case Gettysburg, where I was asked to provide an abbreviated history of General Winfield Scott Hancock. After some quick research, I gave the presentation, and I was hooked.

The effort became a five-year research project and my first novel. Historical fiction provided the opportunity to ask “what if.” What if I had been a fly on the wall or standing on the battlefield listening to conversations and observing the actions of Hancock and others? It offered me the flexibility to create dialogue and actions that were entirely plausible given the historical facts. The story became two volumes: Rebellion and Turning Point, both Online Book Club “Books of the Day.” It set me on a new career path as I transitioned to retirement. Yes, I am that old.

The Hancock story was quickly followed by These Sacred Lands, also Online Book of the Day and a Five Star Award winner from the Historical Fiction Company.

2. Who has been most influential in your writing?

It is shared by Dan Brown and David Baldacci. I have become a student of the writing craft and discovered a series of Master Classes taught by many well-known authors. There are many on the list of presenters, but I’ve followed Brown and Baldacci listening closely to their long list of modules. These widely popular writers shared their techniques and discussed their styles. I’ve taken their recommendations to heart, and, by the way, have complete sets of novels for each. I spend enough time reading research material, but it is refreshing to pick up the next Baldacci book and read for pleasure.

3. Let's discuss your book These Sacred Lands. Can you give us a synopsis for those that aren't familiar?

These Sacred Lands is the story of two young men and the impact “Manifest Destiny” has as thousands of settlers crash upon the land like a great wave. The various tribes have difficulty in understanding the white man’s thirst for land and its ownership. They have roamed freely for centuries and hold the Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, as sacred lands where the guiding spirits dwell.

Joshua Mackenzie is the son of a cavalryman (formerly of Hancock’s security detail) assigned to the Wyoming Territory after the Civil War; and the other, Shadow Hawk, is a young Lakota Sioux warrior and son of a Brule Council Member. The boys meet unexpectedly outside Fort Laramie, Wyoming where negotiations are underway leading to the 1868 treaty. Thousands of Indians have gathered as well as dignitaries from Washington and the Army. Historical figures of the period move into and out of the novel as they influence the story.

Their friendship develops, learning from one another. When Mackenzie leaves to attend West Point, Shadow Hawk continues his evolution as a true and respected warrior of the Lakota people. They both marry and start families, but Hawk’s wife dies in childbirth leaving the warrior with a young son.

Mackenzie returns as a cavalry lieutenant amid the developing Great Sioux War of the 1870s. The friends still find time to meet with the help of the local Indian Agent. As attacks increase and the Army pursues renegades neither man wishes to see the other across some deadly field, but each believe it is on the horizon. Shadow Hawk, like his cousin Crazy Horse, is opposed to life on a reservation and having the sacred lands settled in ever-increasing numbers. Shadow Hawk’s father, Lone Elk, wants to live in peace and is supportive of reservation life.

While Mackenzie is a professional soldier obligated to carry out a severe Indian policy, the renegade Indians believe one large victory will cause the white man and the Army to leave the sacred lands forever. The Rosebud Battle and the Little Big Horn follow, and Shadow Hawk begins to worry about the future and his young son’s future should Hawk not survive continued engagement with the Army. He decides on an unusual solution and convinces Lone Elk for support.

Mackenzie and Hawk finally meet on a battlefield in the Dakota territory.

4. The reviewer marvels at the historical accuracy. How much research went into the book?

I research a large amount of material from the Army History and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I spent a few days with their official reports and a large number of books with unit histories. Countless hours of library research and I added a number of historical readings to my personal library.

Like the battlefields in the Hancock novels, my desire to walk the land where history was made was a driving factor. My wife and I flew to Denver and drove to a number of historic sites and military posts in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. We visited places like Fort Laramie, WY and Fort Robinson, NE where we met Park Rangers or docents in each location spending hours talking through the history.

These Sacred Lands absolutely required a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Breathtaking in its beauty, the Black Hills provided the words I needed to describe villages, battle sites, and life of the Indian tribes. Its beauty is rivaled only by the Bighorn Mountains and the Powder River Region, all held sacred.

Along the way Forts Fetterman, Harney, and Sheridan in Wyoming were key stops. Local museums were on the list in each state and we visited with museum curators or subject matter experts who also recommended books and associated readings. I walked the ground at the Rosebud Battlefield and the Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) in Montana. The trip was over 8-9 days and each location added to the novel. Much easier to write about cavalry or Indians when you see where people lived, worked, fought and sometimes died.

5. How much of the book is real and how much is fiction?

Every move by the Indians and the military is factual and the key people associated with the event are real. Names Like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, George Crook and Phil Sheridan all lived and were present as captured in the book. The main characters are fictional but I’ve placed them in historical events. Battles took place at the time and location in the book; the Laramie Treaty meeting did take place in 1868 in Wyoming, and the move to reservations did happen in the 1860s-70s, continuing well past the novel’s ending in 1876.

The Sioux and Cheyenne pushed back heavily against the Army in 1876 where the Rosebud, Little Big Horn and other smaller fights took place. Conversely, the tough Government policy to force the Indians back to the reservations and the Army tactic of destroying winter villages and leaving the people with no hope but to return to the reservation was in effect.

The interaction of the characters, dialogue and in a few instances the personal stories of settlers being attacked by bands of Indians were fictitious but allowed me to develop the Mackenzie character as an Army officer. Equally important were the women in the main characters’ lives. They were imagined but how they lived was researched fully. Wouldn’t do to have ladies dressed in the wrong period attire. Equally so, in order to have Hawk’s wife deliver her son as a true Lakota woman the method of delivery from hut construction to placing the baby in a stream immediately thereafter had to be accurate.

I loved the balance.

6. There is a lot of military history in the book. Do you come from a military background? If so, how much did that influence the story?

I spent 28 years on active duty with the US Army. The study of military history comes naturally to most soldiers and is mandatory at most military schools throughout one’s career. It has allowed me to ask deeper questions about organizations, equipment, uniforms and tactics all required reading for me as I write the novel. Even if elements are later found to be unnecessary and add nothing for the reader, it enhanced my understanding of the period.

7. The character development was another positive feature, according to the review. How did you make the characters so realistic?

That’s a tough one. Write with emotion. I owe a lot to the Sarasota Writing Group to which I belong. The members are great with comments and recommendations when I read scenes or chapters. Many members have published extensively and others are just starting their journey as authors. If they feel the emotion of the characters, they will let you know.

I spent many hours picturing the characters in each setting and would write scenes thinking of dialogue, how they might feel and how they may relate to one another. My father was an Army officer and I grew up on military posts spending a lot of time around soldiers. Much of my father and I are in the Mackenzie characters. My dad and I would always discuss military life.

When I searched for the right cover art for These Sacred Lands there were scores of pictures depicting Lakota Indians, cavalrymen, of Indian maidens and Irish girls. I selected a number of these and then settled on one for each character imagining how they would come to life in every scene. The pictures stayed in front of me as I wrote the story.

8. What's in the works for you now?

The series I am a Soldier, First and Always continues with Tremaine. It is the story of an orphaned Lakota boy whose warrior father entrusts the future care of his son to his longtime friend, a US Cavalry officer. I look for its release in May 2023. |

I like to end with fun questions.

9. What one fictional character would you most want to meet and why?


I would want to meet the elder Jedidiah Mackenzie.

Joshua’s father was a New England sailor (a whaler), cavalryman, Civil War and Indian war veteran, and Medal of Honor winner. He had served in the cavalry as security for Winfield Hancock on many Civil War battlefields. Served under Phil Sheridan and was well respected by his soldiers and loved deeply by his family.

He is largely responsible for the man Joshua eventually became.

10. What was your favorite age growing up?

Wow! I’ve been here seven decades and that’s a long history. Still, I feel pre-teens must be the most favorite.

Gangs of kids playing in the street, baseball games that last all day with the neighborhood boys, and someone’s Mom calling them in for dinner because the fathers were home from work.

11. What book started your interest in reading?

I read assigned books in school, but I must credit The Lieutenants by W.E.B. Griffin as the novel that built a fire for reading. Part of the Brotherhood of War series, Griffin’s Lieutenants was the first of a nine-book set. Loved all of them as they followed the main characters through a career.

12. What is one thing that can instantly make your day better?

My wife’s smile. No matter what is happening, she brightens my day by walking into the room. We found one another late in life and continue to hang on to each other tightly.
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
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Post by Jeanetta Delridge »

28 years active duty is an achievement and then becoming an author using experienced from life. Things truly endured is enlightening. Great interview.
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