Jack W. Lewis

Readers' Favorite Book Award 2018

I'm happy to announce that my first novel, Storm Coming, won the Readers' Favorite Finalist Book Award in the "Christian - Historical Fiction" category for 2018. I submitted the book in early 2017 for review by Readers' Favorite, which is a major international readers and book award website, and was surprised and delighted when the book received five 5-star reviews. Then when the 4- and 5-star reviews also rolled in from Amazon, I decided to submit the book to Readers' Favorite 2018 Book Award competition, in three categories. The competition gets stiff when you have so many authors and the award rules allow submittals from the big-6 book publishers as well as small and independent publishers.

I really did not expect to win anything. My wife Carol, a contributing editor of the book, insisted I submit to the "Christian - Historical Fiction" category because the book reflects a Christian viewpoint of the Civil War period through the eyes of the two main characters and the moral conflicts they face. These two main characters were real-life people. The challenge to me was to get into their heads and try to bring to life this Methodist Episcopal minister and a 21-year-old farmer as they try to cope with problems during a time of crisis, when our country almost fell apart and they felt compelled to go to war to try to help hold it together.

Click here to view a slideshow presentation. This past June I made a book signing tour in West Virginia to help celebrate their 155th aniversary of Statehood. The presentation is titled "Birth Pains of a State" and was based on the research I did before writing Storm Coming. The presentation is 42 minutes long. I've posted it on YouTube in five parts. The first part is a 5-minute introduction to this inspiring subject, prepared by my wife Carol Lewis and narrated by her.

Also notice in the right column above the book cover image is a link to the book trailer video I created for Storm Coming. Please send me any comments you might have on both of these videos.

I am now writing Volume 2 of the exploits of Alexander J. Swaney. Working title: Riding with Buford. I am hoping to release that volume in early January 2019. I'll keep you posted.

I mentioned in my last update to this column that AJ served in the Union cavalry from 1861 to 1864 and was an orderly for General John Buford, famous for choosing and holding the high ground at Gettysburg on the first day of the 3-day battle that most historians believe was the turning point of the Civil War.

I started my research for Volume 2 by reading the three books by Shelby Foote (each about 1400 pages long). I suspect most people interested in the Civil War believe the 3-day battle at Gettysburg was the turning point in the war. Now I am not so sure. On July 4th, the day following the retreat of Lee's Army from Gettysburg, the battle for Vicksburg was won by US Grant. Unlike at Gettysburg, where Lee's Army escaped to Virginia with the remainder intact, all 30,000 men of Lt. Gen. Pemberton's Confederate army surrendered. The Vicksburg victory led to Lincoln recalling Grant to the east where Grant would finally have Lee's entire Confederate Army surrender. So which battle was the turning point of the war? I think Vicksburg. I'll post more interesting details on this subject on my blog.