I posted constructive criticism of a work on Authors Den recently. It was a ghost story about a “lost battalion” at Gettysburg. Well I’ve never heard of a lost battalion and I’ve read a ton of ghost stories about that place and done a lot of research on that battle. The following is the review:
"The lack of research in this piece is apalling. What battalion? Name them. I've never heard of any battalion that just went missing at Gettysburg. If that had happened in reality, then it would be as big a story at the Lost Colony and Amelia Earhart. If you want to write a good ghost story fictional or nonfictional(even if it happend to you personally), it must be backed up with historical research and have facts included that are traceable for your readers or the story falls flat."
When I read this guy’s story it said that it was told to him by a friend, after I posted my comments the intro changed “no friend” suddenly it’s a fictional piece. Well, I didn’t imagine the friend part because I read it aloud to my husband. I got dissed by a bunch of “authors,” who obviously didn’t even read past the first sentence of the review because one stated that she “believed in ghosts,” like I don’t. Excuse me, I’m only a clairvoyant whose been published numerous times in FATE Magazine and will be in two volumes of Haunted Encounters as soon as the second volume is released. I’ll bet he changed the opening of his story when he looked at my page after I posted. One of the “authors” even called me a bastard indirectly.
There were two lost battalions one American as portrayed in the above movie and one British known as The Vanished Battalion. The Americans weren’t lost for long because a carrier pigeon reached our lines informing the main force of where the battalion was located. The pigeon was awarded a medal. They didn’t find the Brits in Turkey until like the 1980’s. There was a program shown about them on PBS. They were the 1st. Battalion of the 5th Norfolks otherwise known as the Sandringham Pals. The battalion was made up of servants of the Queen of England. Here’s a link about them: http://user.glo.be/~snelders/sand.htm When I think of a lost battalion, I think of these guys because their fate was unknown for so long.
And yeah, I left out the second P in appalling and it was pointed out to me, funny the person didn’t catch the other grammatical errors in my post that I caught after I reread it.
I was ticked off when I made that post. I don’t like pseudo history and as a re-enactor and a former history teacher I run into it all the time. The fact that it was initially claimed that told to the author by a friend to me said “it actually happened” and the fact that there isn’t a battalion that just disappeared without a trace meant that his friend had distorted history and that the author did absolutely no research to confirm it. Then to have that portion edited after I made my comments I’m assuming to make me look stupid. Diss me all you want, but I did my homework! I researched Gettysburg the first time as a child back in the 70’s because my regiment was almost lost in that battle, lost meaning that they were nearly annihilated. I wanted to know what happened to them and how it happened. They were the 5th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment also known as the Huron Rangers Riflemen from Port Huron, MI. There is a monument to them on the battlefield.
Authors Den is supposed to be a forum for intellectual discussion through the comments. No one can improve if they don’t know what they are doing wrong. The moral of story is don’t post constructive criticism at Authors Den and for you authors do your research don’t go off half-cocked. As my father always told me, “Authenticity is the name of the game!” You write a story that has history in it even if its historical fiction or alternative history the basis for the story and the surrounding facts should be accurate. Then you insert your fictional characters or your history changing speculation.
