Entirely by your whims! But if you need a little more structure, please check out the Context section for some tips on navigating. How you experience this journey is entirely up to you.

You can read more about its origins in the About section. I will add, however, that I originally started this project as a single novel called From Slaughter's Mountain. It quickly grew into a trilogy and then a cycle of novels. Though each novel had its own story arc, they all shared the same cast of characters. It got so that the story was so deeply enmeshed, it seemed that they worked together a lot better as one contiguous piece even though it would have made for a novel of obscene length ~ and that was never what I wanted.

Recreating this story as a serial, therefore, made sense in giving the project the room it needed to grow while also paying a sort of homage to the serial writers of the 19th century who are among my favorite writers (Dickens, Dumas, etc.). To take it one step further, my love of the graphic novel form led me to desire seeing it in a full-blown sequential art fashion. So in many ways, Reconstruction is dozens of potentially self-contained novel- and novella-length stories set to images with characters and themes that connect them toward an amalgamated ending.

I love research like flowers love the rain. Unfortunately, a comprehensive bibliography would be ridiculous to attempt to reproduce. I basically try to read everything I can get my hands on with regard to the Army of Northern Virginia, Civil War prisons (especially the Richmond tobacco warehouses and Andersonville), 19th Century medical practices (particularly orthopaedics and dentistry), Reconstruction-era policies, veteran's affairs, everyday life in Victorian America, and much more.

I also have a Good Reads account, which has a good many sources from my own collection. Feel free to friend me there (just send me a note so I know who you are!).

I'm eventually adding a research section to the website (including links to great online sources), but for now the Galleries are under construction. If you are looking for a particular kind of source for your own work, email me and I will be happy to try to help you out!

Okay, maybe not a million, but I would be very grateful to accept any amount to help keep this site running. As much as it's a labor of love, it's also costly to maintain. Donate to Here There Be Monsters Press by clicking the PayPal button below and feel free to send me an email so I can thank you!