A PATHWAY TO PUBLISHING

When I was a kid I loathed reading.  Couldn’t understand how anyone could have the patience to read two hundred or a thousand pages of . . .  words.  My minimally schooled parents each bore the emblem of being readers—namely, excellent grammar and usage, and familiarity with a wide range of topics.  But I didn’t get it.  To me life was roaming the fields and woods with a rifle or fishing rod, playing baseball, or building model airplanes and radios.  I did whatever reading was required for school (almost nothing in those days), but basically books formed no part of life as I saw it.

Just out of my teens, I went away to a Catholic seminary to study for the priesthood, an endeavor that was to last a few years.  Once the path of deep learning was opened to me, I came to see what an ignoramus I was, and that the only way out was to embrace the printed word beyond what was required.  I eased into my new program with historical novels, was surprised to find them enjoyable, and soon moved into the Great Books series, in addition to other sources of literature, history, and science.  Beyond the required Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French, I started studying Spanish and German.  Later, upon giving up the seminary life, I tackled biology.

In the mid-1970s, chance threw this somewhat better educated humanist into a job in northern Virginia.  The job was unattractive, but northern Virginia history proved magnetic.  I was drawn to the story of Confederate partisan commander John Singleton Mosby.  I noted that his life—except for his service during the Civil War—had been neglected by biographers, and decided that I could be not only a reader but possibly even a writer.  Believing strongly in my ability to get a book published simply because, well, because it would be so good, I persevered through three years of research and two years of writing, and voilà—the first publisher to whom I submitted the Rebel manuscript (St. Martins Press) took it.  I thought this was normal.  It’s since been through a second publisher (Dacapo Press), and I’m proud to say it’s now with the University of Nebraska Press.

Success with this particular project bred a confident attitude toward writing, and has helped me to create, among life’s other tasks, a very modest string of publications of which I’m proud.  Along the way I’ve given many booktalks, the thought of which would have sent the 15-year-old I once was into a tizzy.  I’ve exchanged the rifle and fishing rod for the computer keyboard, but only sandwiched in among other duties.

What does all this signify?  Well, I think at least this:  if you’re open to learning, and to following some sort of dimly perceived spirit, unsuspected abilities can bubble to the surface, and you wind up in a place where you never expected to be.  Those unsuspected abilities, however, will not prove to be in the writing line if you haven’t become a reader first.

Kevin H. Siepel
Author of:
Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby
Joseph Bennett of Evans and the Growing of New York’s Niagara Frontier