Sean Kevin Gabhann first became interested in American Civil War history during the centennial celebration and he owns an extensive library of primary and secondary material related to Civil War. Shortly before retiring, Gabhann became aware of the works of Bernard Cornwell. These excellent stories triggered a long-postponed desire first inspired by the Hornblower novels of C.S. Forrester to write adventure novels about the lives of common people during the Civil War. He especially wants to write about campaigns in the West because of a fascination with the careers of U.S Grant and W.T. Sherman.

Sean reports, “My approach to writing historical fiction is to begin with a framework of the historical timeline and local geography derived from primary and secondary sources and then fit the plot within the framework. Then I edit for character development, followed by historical setting. Finally, I edit for the reading experience: reorganizing chapters and scenes to enhance the flow before turning the manuscript over to my reading circle and to the beta readers. Accordingly, each manuscript undergoes at least five edits or revisions.”

Sean Kevin Gabhann was born in Philadelphia and grew up in nearby Pennsauken, New Jersey. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent the next several years in the Navy, including seven and a half years serving in the Western Pacific. He saw combat with Coastal Forces, Vietnam in 1971-73 and was afloat with Seventh Fleet during the final evacuation in April 1975. He completed graduate studies in Applied Sciences at the University of California San Diego followed by a twenty-five year civil service career in the defense acquisition community. Several anecdotes from his career have made their way his books.

Sean enjoys living in San Diego, California with his wife Lourdes.

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Books by Sean Gabhann

The Shiloh Trilogy: