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Man of Determination
Season of Life follows a free Black farmer in the aftermath of the Civil War who returns home only to be drawn into military intelligence alongside a Union spy. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’ve always been fascinated by the American Civil War. It was such a convulsive rupture of the American Republic. At first that fascination was with the military aspects, but gradually expanded to other facets of the war such as military intelligence and espionage, which grew to almost an art on the Union side. The effects of the war on the civilian population were both terrible and fascinating — it was fought in towns and rural areas across the country, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Many people lost everything: homes, farms, property. War is a callous and uncaring consumer of people’s lives. The military aftereffects of battle at this time astonished me. This was an age when the medical arts were still in their infancy. Germ theory was only just beginning (Louis Pasteur only published his work on microorganisms in 1861, and Joseph Lister’s experiments with carbolic acid as a disinfectant in surgery only began in 1865, after the war had ended). Also shocking was the lack of forethought given to the treatment of the inevitable wounded organizationally, in a time when weapons like the rifled musket increased casualties exponentially. Civilian volunteers became common and vital after battles. Season of Life was my attempt to try to bring all these things together…with a surreal twist.
How much of Basil Biggs’s story is based on the historical figure, and where did your imagination take over?
Historical Fiction is usually, if not always, about filling in the gaps when primary evidence is spotty, incomplete, or sometimes almost non-existent. Basil Biggs was indeed a tenant farmer on the actual battlefield, whose home and farm were devastated by the battle. He lost almost everything, including stock, trampled and burned crops, and a pillaged home. He then went on to become instrumental in the reinterment of Union dead from hastily made graves across the battlefield to the new National Cemetery, a task he did with great respect for the dead. He also inherited the land where the final terrible fight on the third day of the battle occurred, Pickett’s Charge. All of this was recorded. In that slender folio of facts, I saw a man who would not be beaten down, a man of determination and courage and resolve who would do his best for his family, and for others. It is unlikely that he met John Babcock of the Bureau of Military Intelligence and was conscripted into espionage work. But not impossible. A man of his character and resolve could have risen to dangerous work like that. It is unlikely he would have met Cornelia Hancock at the field hospital at Camp Letterman, but also not impossible, given the nature of his task at re-burying men, and his obvious quality and care for others. And of course the entity of Wesley Culp was my creation, but a useful one to bring my main characters together.
Basil is constantly aware of the realities of race while navigating Union military circles. How important was it to portray those complexities honestly?
This was an age of great racism in the United States, and not only in the South. It permeated every aspect of the country (and one could say it still does today). Books like Leon F. Litwack’s North of Slavery were instrumental in giving me the tools to deal with this respectfully and honestly. It was clear that in the Federal Army there were many men who did not fight so much for the end of slavery as for the preservation of the Union. A Black man in the North could be free, but he was not equal. The caution, resolve, and courage it took to navigate that state is testimony to their quality. Racism is a persistent sin of humanity and one that needs to be addressed.
The ending leaves readers wondering whether Wesley Culp’s story extends far beyond this novel. Is there more you hope to explore in this world?
The Wesley Culp/Entity character was my observer. His interest in the three main characters is how I drew them together, and how I wanted to highlight the quality of the historical people they are based upon, to show my eternal respect for who they were. As such, I find him very useful and intriguing, and he will appear again, but in a different context and time.
Author Links: Website
Season of Life
Season of Life, by Jeff Janoda, is an absorbing work of Civil War historical fiction that begins in the raw aftermath of Gettysburg. Basil Biggs, a free Black farmer, returns home to find his land torn apart by battle and soon gets drawn into military intelligence work alongside Union spy John Babcock. What starts as a grounded story of survival develops into a historical adventure novel filled with espionage, dangerous travel, battlefield medicine, and a strange encounter with the dead Confederate soldier Wesley Culp. The book has a big canvas, but Basil’s practical concerns about his family, animals, livelihood, and freedom keep it personal.
Janoda gives the historical fiction a lived-in quality through physical details that make the war feel immediate. Roads are clogged with wounded men, homes become improvised hospitals, armies depend on rumors, and civilians are forced to make choices with little reliable information. The story also makes room for Cornelia Hancock, whose nursing work provides a compassionate view of the suffering left behind by military glory. Basil remains the strongest presence, though. He’s observant, stubborn, funny, and deeply conscious of how racism shapes every conversation, job, and moment of danger. His growing friendship with Babcock works because respect builds through shared experience rather than easy declarations.
The novel’s supernatural fiction elements add an eerie current without pulling the story away from its historical setting. Rosalie’s voice, the recurring crows, Wesley Culp’s impossible appearances, and the ancient being behind them turn the book into a blend of historical fantasy and supernatural thriller. That presence plays with fear, belief, memory, and human violence, which fits a landscape already haunted by thousands of deaths. The supernatural mystery becomes more prominent as the characters move behind Confederate lines, giving the middle and later sections the momentum of an espionage thriller while raising questions about whether help offered by a powerful being can ever be trusted.
What stayed with me most was the book’s interest in the lives growing around famous history. Generals and battles matter, but Season of Life focuses on farmers, nurses, scouts, teamsters, servants, wounded soldiers, and Black communities whose experiences are often pushed to the edges of Civil War stories. Its combination of Civil War fiction, historical adventure, supernatural fiction, and military espionage creates a distinctive reading experience with plenty of action and an emotional core. The epilogue gives Basil, Babcock, and Cornelia’s journeys satisfying historical weight, while the final note about Wesley Culp leaves the door open to a much older and stranger story.
A Heart That’s True
A Heart That’s True is a heartfelt historical adventure about two Lakota cousins, Joseph Cross and White Cloud, who are taken from Montana and sent to the Carlisle Indian School, where survival means holding onto memory, family, and spirit. The book opens with the weight of forced removal, but it also gives the reader a clear emotional anchor in Joseph’s bond with Big Black, a wolf-dog whose own journey mirrors Joseph’s need to remain wild in the truest sense. The line “The human spirit will never die in a heart that’s true” becomes the book’s steady pulse.
Mark Guillerman builds the story like a wide Western trail, moving between railroad depots, school grounds, snowy wilderness, and open prairie. The historical setting gives the book its shape, but the emotional story comes from the characters’ loyalties. Joseph and White Cloud aren’t just trying to get through Carlisle. They’re trying to remember who they are, and that gives even the quieter scenes a lot of feeling.
Big Black is one of the book’s strongest creations. He’s part animal, part legend, and part spiritual companion, and the novel treats him with real reverence. His battles with Clyde Baxter and Moondog Burrows bring danger and momentum, while his connection to Joseph gives the story a more mystical edge. When Joseph finally says, “I was with Big Black,” it feels simple, but it carries the weight of everything the book has been building toward.
The book also has a warm sense of found kindness. Sergeant McKenna, the Johannsen family, Charley, Jedidiah, and others help soften a world that often treats Joseph and White Cloud cruelly. Those moments matter because they don’t erase the pain of the story. Instead, they show how small acts of decency can become part of a person’s way home.
A Heart That’s True is a sincere and sweeping novel about endurance, identity, and the pull of home. It blends frontier adventure, boarding school history, animal legend, and coming-of-age drama into a story that’s easy to care about. What stays with you most is its belief that memory can protect a person, love can travel across great distances, and a true heart can find its way back. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical fiction that comes with palpable emotions and true heart.
Pages: 266 | ASIN : B0H17CFBW2
