Field Trip Feature

I write historicals, so of course, I’m always on the lookout for good resource materials. Imagine my surprise, and great pleasure, when I discovered a book showcasing more than 300 guns, rifles and pistols! It’s called Gun – A Visual History. From machine guns and grenade launchers, to wheellock pistols and Annie Oakley’s .22 caliber rifle, this 800-year visual history was, for me, like striking oil.

FUN FACT: Did you know that in most states, it is still legal for citizens to carry a concealed handgun, so long as they have a permit? In fact, they aren't required to have a permit from the state where they are traveling, if they have one from their home state. These are called reciprocal states--and it works like a driver's license. Click here to read more...

Back to my field trip. Perhaps I should explain why I was so excited to stumble on a book with “gun” in the title.

See, all of my books have some kind of action in them—whether historical or contemporary—but especially the historicals. I write scenes where the “smell of gunpowder” lingers in the air, or the “report of a pistol” splits the air. But until I browsed the pages of this book, I really wasn’t too sure what all of that meant, and I never had the courage to write with much confidence about the kind of weapons my characters carried.

No more!

Want to know when manual repeater rifles were used? Turn to page 176. Need information on the kind of weapon used by Israel’s Special Operations Unit (Mossad)? Find it on page 88. I could go on…but I won’t. This is a Field Trip Feature, after all. So, for today, I’d like to take you along with me to the gun range, where I fired a variety of weapons, but hit very few targets. :-)

And after you watch the video, I hope you’ll check out this book. It’s the perfect gift for anyone interested in firearms.