Justin Quarles
All About Me
By day, Justin Quarles owns and operates a landscaping company in southeast Louisiana, where summer temperatures routinely flirt with the unimaginable. By night—and on those rare weekends when the heat loosens its grip—he turns to the world of fantasy writing, steadily crafting the stories that have lived with him since childhood. He and his wife share their home with their beloved “grey ghost,” the couple’s much-adored fur baby.
Justin’s love for storytelling began in second grade, when he wrote and illustrated his first book, The Troll King, as part of an after-school tutoring program. Handwritten and hand-drawn in the early 1990s, the book found its way onto the school library shelf—an experience that left a lasting imprint on his imagination and solidified a lifelong devotion to all things fantastical.
Much has changed in the decades since that first creation, but writing has remained his constant. Through the shifting seasons of work, school, friendship, and marriage, he has continued to build worlds on the page, inspired by the masters of science fiction and fantasy who first ignited his vision. Influences such as George R. R. Martin, R. A. Salvatore, Tad Williams, J. K. Rowling, and Robert Jordan have shaped his creative compass and fueled the stories he now brings to life.
My HP Books
book synopsis
In early May 1863, as the American Civil War raged on into a third year of fighting, the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia clashed at Chancellorsville, Virginia. The battle is a triumph for the Confederacy. Part of that triumph can be attributed to General Stonewall Jackson's survival of the battle, thanks in part to one of his former officers who had escaped from Union captivity and was in the right place at the right time.
Even with the triumph at Chancellorsville, the Confederacy was slowly losing the war and had to radically rethink its strategy, or it would not survive. President Jefferson Davis, a good man but a micromanager to his core, had to be willing to listen to the advice and counsel of his cabinet and his top Generals, such as Robert E. Lee.
Union forces captured Johan Lutze at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Through guile, grit, and fluency in German, the young officer from Louisiana escaped captivity and returned to the Army of Northern Virginia just in time for Chancellorsville. He heroically helps save General Jackson's life in the battle. As the godson of President Davis, Johan finds that many in Richmond, including Davis himself, are willing to listen to his ideas. However, some of Johan’s ideas are met with much more warmth than others. In contrast, other ideas of Johan’s are met with outright hostility.
With Vicksburg besieged on the Mississippi River and General Lee’s army in Virginia facing a unique opportunity, Davis decided to authorize an invasion of the North and to send a new general and reinforcements to attempt to relieve Vicksburg. Much of Davis’s decision-making comes down to a convincing presentation Johan gives to the top leadership of the Confederate war effort.
Johan soon finds himself promoted to the staff of General PGT Beauregard, one of the earliest Southern heroes of the war. Beauregard, famous for not seeing eye to eye with President Davis, puts in motion a plan to make one final attempt to relieve Vicksburg. He hopes to catch General Grant and his Union army flatfooted and avenge his defeat at the Battle of Shiloh from the previous year.
Paul Lutze Jr., Johan’s older brother, had been severely wounded at Shilo and lost the lower part of his leg. Recovered and fitted with a prosthetic leg, Paul is recruited into the Confederate Secret Service. He soon finds himself traveling with General Joseph Johnston and helping to form a new Corps for General Lee in the Carolinas. Could this Fourth Corps for General Lee be the difference in achieving victory on Northern soil?
Jacques Lutze is the youngest of the Lutze brothers. Being 16 years old, the loss of their mother to yellow fever and their father at the Battle of Shiloh affected Jacques much deeper than Paul Jr. or Johan. Being an expert shot, Jacques walked and rode a train from Mobile all the way to Virginia just so he could be in the famed Louisiana Tigers Brigade and kill more Yankees, especially Yankee officers.
Several other POV characters are featured in the book, each offering a distinct perspective on individuals or groups profoundly impacted by the war. All of these story arcs and points of view intersect and intertwine to provide us with as complete a picture as possible of the war's development from 1863 forward. There will be fighting from Pennsylvania to Louisiana. Political intrigue will cross the Atlantic and find a willing audience in both British and French governments. And back in North America, south of Texas, a new Mexican Empire will closely await the outcomes of pivotal battles between the Union and Confederacy.
The stakes are high for the Confederacy in the Summer of 1863, and the Lutze brothers will be at the forefront of whatever is to happen, be it triumph or tragedy.
