In 2009, I published my first book,
A Game That Forged Rivals: How Competition between Two New England High Schools Created One of the Greatest Traditions in Football
. In many ways the book was an accident, an outgrowth of the reenactment of the first football game between the Massachusetts high schools of Leominster and Fitchburg in 1894.
Football was a different affair in the nineteenth century and a program I was preparing that explained it all quickly turned into a book.
The book sold beyond my wildest imagination but that isn't the most surprising part of the story.
Many other books followed as if writing them was as natural as the passing New England seasons. Much of the intellectual fuel and energy has been generated by the synchronicity of a multitude of coincidences. I felt a calling, often rooted in giving a voice to past lives that increased my respect for how they met similar challenges that still face us today.
I have grown in my appreciation for human nature, surrounded by some incredible people, both living and deceased. These books have changed my life forever and it has always been my hope that sharing all that I have learned will elevate the reader too. Each time I invest in the message of what is good, I am rewarded in even greater ways. I hope this book opens many minds.