Sometimes the best Historical novels are the ones that are close to the truth but not the whole truth. When I begin to research a person or topic I often discover little know information and speculation that is more interesting than the actual facts. This is what makes a Historical Fictional novel great. The OTHER information that no one knew about. Take Anne of Cleves the 4th wife of King Henry VIII of England. The stories about Anne being a German Princess and not being beautiful were more about the lies Henry told his male companions that the real story. When Anne of Cleves met King Henry it was when he had the stupid idea to surprise her and not inform her who he was. His advances she thought were a stranger trying to rape her. King Henry was a dirty old man in his 40’s with poor health and weighing around 300 fat pounds. He had a leg wound that would not heal for two years and had not produced an heir to the throne in many years. History suggests that he was impotent by the time he married Anne, yet he blamed their problems on her. I wrote the story from her viewpoint showing how ugly and digesting he really was in bed. He was just an old man looking for a young bride.

In Autumn Winds Over Okinawa 1945, I told the story of my father Chief Petty Officer Ken Mead who served on the USS Antietam CV-36 aircraft carrier in WWII. He and three other sailors were stranded on Okinawa at the end of the war. Two major typhoons hit the island while they were their killing hundreds of people and sinking over 100 ships each time. My father survived but lost his teeth to jungle rot and carried a skin disease that there was no cure for all his life. He seldom talked about Okinawa when  I was a boy, but once in a while he would talk about the snipers on Okinawa and the conditions he had to endure for two months while the rest of the World went about it’s business. The story is based around a lot of truths and the fill in between stories is the fiction I had to create to present a full view of Okinawa on Aug. 31, 1945 until Oct. 14, 1945.

In my book Jesua and John, I researched the Dead Sea scrolls to discover the Essenes may well have considered Jesus and or John the Baptist the Righteous Teacher they prayed for to return to them and to take the world of peace and the coming of the Messiah to the Jewish world at that time in AD 30.  It is no accident that Jesus Sermon on the Mount and many Essene prayers were almost the same. The use of Baptism was a daily routine by the Essenes. No wonder John decided to focus his ministry around the use of Baptism to remove sins. Jesus was a great healer and the New Testament tells of 36 miracles he performed, many of them healing and raising from the dead. The New Testament never gives credit or alludes to how Jesus learned about medicine and healing. It didn’t just jump into his head. He had to have years of specialized training by no other than the Essenes who had the Book of Healing and many years of collecting drugs from traders around the world. The truth and fiction intertwine in this novel. Read it and you will see what I mean. Enjoy.