James Landers

As a published historian (The Weekly War: Newsmagazines and Vietnam; The Improbable First Century of Cosmopolitan Magazine —each available at about 2,000 libraries), I am fascinated by America’s tumultuous past. Because a credible historian should be constrained by verifiable facts and not indulge in opinionated conjecture, I decided to try fiction. I regard my fiction as “interpretive” history. My first novel, Vanguard In The Gilded Age, focused on the political awakening of middle-class Americans reacting to the economic and political dominance of the rich. My second novel, Resurrection Militia, dealt with contemporary political extremism inflamed by Fringe Media. A third novel, Forbidden Temple, is an historical mystery thriller set in northeast Thailand during the last years of the Vietnam War, which serves as a backdrop not the focus. Forbidden Temple should be ready for publication by December. My life experience has included Vietnam War duty, a lengthy career with newspapers, and sixteen years as a professor teaching aspects of media communications. Happily married for forty-plus years, my fiction entertains and informs.