The Story Behind The Shards of Lafayette
Somehow, I got my hands on a copy of the personal diaries of Lieutenant Colonel Georges Thenault. It’s difficult to say what drew me into the pages, but I don’t doubt that somewhere inside of me a boyhood fascination with Charles Schultz’s Snoopy going wing to wing with the Red Baron lives on.
Thenault was the captain of a volunteer fighter squadron in WWI called the Lafayette Escadrille at a time when they didn’t even know to call them fighter squadrons yet. A group of American guys left their Ivy League educations to go and help France in its war against Germany. Many of them started as ambulance drivers, but somehow they ended up in airplanes. Thenault, a French officer, was assigned captain of this group, who wanted to name themselves the American Escadrille, but due to the United States’ neutrality, couldn’t do so without invoking the German ire and threatening relations between France and Uncle Sam.
Instead, they conjured up a name from the memory of the Marquis de Lafayette, a similarly young guy who gave up similarly great wealth to come and volunteer for the American Revolutionary War.
I found reading Thenault’s firsthand account of managing this rowdy group of young men nothing short of magical, as I did the rudimentary and clumsy exploration of motorized flight, something that had been discovered by mankind only a decade earlier.
The Lafayette Escadrille captured my attention as firmly as it captured international attention during WWI. I wanted to explore the human magic that drove so many pilots like them to take to the skies and risk everything for the great game of combat aviation.
But beyond that, the bonds of friendship and love between fellow pilots, even when they were on opposite sides of the war, are so strong that they still have emotional power today.
So, I set out to tell a story about a young man who wanted glory as a combat pilot and his best friend, a woman known for her magical aviation repairs.
I wrote the novel while in isolation during COVID, and I wanted to see how far friendship could stretch, to examine how important it really is to the human experience, by placing it under enormous, arcane pressure.
I also wanted to represent WWI in a way that is often neglected. I’ve had many readers refer to Drops of Glass as a “cozy war story,” and I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m proud of the moniker. It means that I was able to represent the human experience in the war out of the trenches in a meaningful way. Hopefully, those who read it can remember that the men and women who fought between 1914 and 1918 were more than lice-covered trench rats.
They are what we are built upon.
Title: The Shards of Lafayette: Book One: Drops of Glass
Author: Kenneth A. Baldwin
Publication Date: December 18, 2024
Pages: 380
Genre: Historical Fantasy
1918. France. Reports of unexplained rogue attacks have come in from both sides of the Western Front.
When Marcus Dewar is tasked with investigating the aerial bombardments, it’s not because of his aviation record. To make a name for himself, he will have to escort his best friend, a woman named Jane Turner known for her witchlike repairs on damaged aircraft, through some of the war’s most dangerous battle zones.
But when they learn the rogue pilots seek out arcane devices filled with magic powerful enough to alter the war, it will take more than some hedgewitch tactics and smart flying to return with their lives.
And in a conflict that values human life so little, that’s the least they have to lose.
The Shards of Lafayette: Drops of Glass Book 1 is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Drops-Glass-Magic-Shards-Lafayette-ebook/dp/B0C42B144X .
Before he started writing novels, Kenny paid his way through law school by writing, performing, and teaching humor. You can still catch him on stage or in corners of the Internet that feature sketch and improv comedy. Now, he lives nestled under the Wasatch Mountains with his wonderful wife, sons, and Golden Retriever.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ www.kennethabaldwin.com
X ➜ http://www.x.com/kennethabaldwin
Facebook ➜ www.facebook.com/kennethabaldwin
Goodreads ➜ www.goodreads.com/kennethabaldwin
