John Danielski
AUTHOR

John Danielski

Historical novels should act like a bag of Cheetos: engaging the gene that demands you continue until you consume the whole damn thing.

John Danielski trained as a historian at the University of Minnesota, specializing in Tudor-Stuart England. After acquiring a suitable number of degrees, academic honors, and a Phi Beta Kappa Key, he taught history at the secondary and university levels. At one time, he worked as a weekly newspaper editor where he learned the thirty second rule: you have that long to grab your reader before the hunger for breakfast overpowers the hunger for news. That “engage immediately” philosophy is reflected in seven novels and a series of non-fiction articles that can be viewed at militaryhistorynow.com.

He learned the art of story-telling and character-building from historians long dead: Suetonius, Edward Gibbon, and Francis Parkman. He still consults Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Montcalm and Wolfe when a writing dry spell sets in. The works of journalist turned historian Bruce Catton, who won the 1955 Pulitzer for the magnificent A Stillness at Appomattox, guided his writing toward a more approachable, cinematic style. Catton also inspired him to infuse his work with the empathy that comes from seeing participants on both sides of a war as players in a grand tragedy.

R.F. Delderfield's " Too Few for Drums," taught him how to write small unit military actions. C.S Forester and Ian Fleming taught him how a strong central character could dominate a book as well as the importance of fast pacing. George Orwell admonished him that “sloppy writing encourages slovenly thinking” while Raymond Chandler supplied a maxim that has never failed. “If your narrative slows down, bring in a guy with a gun.” Or in the case of the Pennywhistle series, a sword.

Danielski agrees with E. L. Doctorow that, “while historians explain what happened, historical novelists tell us how it felt.” That translates to creating lively characters that think, act, and speak in harmony with the values, beliefs, and customs of the Napoleonic Era, not those of the 21st century. Ensuring accuracy demands thorough and painstaking research: two hours of scholarly investigation generally precede every hour of writing. An obscure bit of information frequently resolves a thorny plot problem and allows a novelist to explore a “could have been, should have been,” moment of history. “Sweating the small stuff” also gives the reader confidence that the author’s reserve of knowledge is wide and deep, even though, like an iceberg, only the tip is showing. Lord Chesterfield was right when he stated, “knowledge is like a pocket watch. You should never flourish it about but if someone asks you the time, you should be able to tell him.” Substituting uninformed conjecture for disciplined research results in products like the Bridgerton TV Series: costume-based fantasy masquerading as history.

Danielski has allied his scholarly training to practical experience. As an undergrad, he spent four summers portraying a US soldier of 1827 at Fort Snelling, the birthplace of Minnesota. He wore a black shako and blue tailcoat, demonstrated volley fire, and mastered the marching and maneuvering evolutions of Baron von Steuben’s Drill Manual, inspiring a lasting interest in musket-based warfare. He has fired originals or replicas of most of the weapons mentioned in his works with live rounds, six- and twelve-pound cannon included. The effect of a twelve-pound cannonball on an old Chevrolet four door must be seen to be believed.

While he detests gore porn, his battle scenes are gritty, detailed, and realistic. War is anything but glorious and only by knowing its true face can the reader understand that it is something to be avoided at all costs.

The Prime Directive of a good historical novelist should be to provide realistic escapism: high adventure with history smuggled in the back door. The author should give his reader the chance “to explore strange new worlds:” worlds as alien to the newcomer as those encountered by the crew of the USS Enterprise. Yet if the historical novelist does his job right, the dead live again, the obscure becomes understandable, and the past ceases to be prologue and becomes riveting reality. A novelist may count himself a success if at the end of one of his books, the reader utters three simple words. “I had fun.”
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