Bill Watson's next novel?

[Fenian]

I'm looking forward to this being published.Any projected date? Bud Scully 13th NJ and 69th NY

[bill watson]

It got put on the back burner when I got promoted at work and now have a job drawing on many of the same personal resources that go into writing a novel, including imagination, creativity and the ability to immerse myself in a sea of facts and arrange them in (hopefully) interesting ways. And we are undergoing turmoil here at home because the local school board is taking our property for a school expansion, so we have an unexpected move forced upon us. I look forward to the invention of "the longer day."

However: Orphan Jesse Ludlam ran away from home after his sinister and conniving aunt took over the family shipyard and tried to get him out of the way and off to a private school; they all think he drowned. He has survived the Peninsula and Second Manassas with the 7th NJVI and just beat the bejesus out of a cowardly soldier who made unwelcome advances toward his girl, who figured out where he'd gone and turned up as a laundress hired by the army. Now they've got decisions to make -- because after all, the kid's family ran a small shipyard. He's all about boats, with some really advanced ideas. Heck, if it hadn't been for his improvised pontoon-bridge ferry, the Second New Jersey Brigade might still be waiting to offload on the Peninsula. What's he doing in the Army?



Sometimes I'm pretty sure nobody can have as much fun reading these as I do writing them and yes, this one is a good read for anyone but I'm taking extra steps to make it attractive to teen-agers. I'll get back to it soon, promise. Got the ISBN and everything else, it's a question of carving out time.

[Fenian]

Bill, Wish you the best with the School Board.Based on Brother William I know this is well worth the wait. Bud Scully 13th NJ and 69th NY