CRAIG SAVOYE

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                       ORIGIN STORY

 

         In chapter 8 of my previous historical novel Addison True, Addy is a spy for Grant at Vicksburg. I thought the chapter worked very well; in particular, the interweaving of history and fiction. A real-life union spy was operating during the siege and to some extent I had Addison ‘occupy’ the agent’s story and then embellish it. 

         I finally got around to reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton in 2019. Hamilton’s role in the Battle of Brooklyn was minor, if not negligible (he was an artillery captain, but his New York regiment was stationed on Manhattan during the battle), so the clash warranted only a few pages in Chernow’s book. 

         But something about the strategic importance of the battle coupled with the lengthy lead up to it (basically the entire summer of 1776) made me think it might be ripe for a spy story. I would be less than honest, however, if I did not also mention the marketing angle. The timing of the battle (1776, rather than any subsequent year until the war’s conclusion in 1783) lent itself to a novel that could be tied to the 2026 semiquincentennial. 

         From that seed I developed a conceptual framework I was quite happy with in the fall of 2023, began work in earnest on the book in December 2023, and finished it in mid-December 2025. 

 

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