ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MEET JAMES

James P. Derr (Jim) is a self-described “history buff” and a family oriented person. With this passion, he embarked on the exploration of his family’s origins. After a rewarding career in the aerospace industry, he decided to put his energies towards writing. Jim credits his wife and daughters with his outlook on life and retrospective insight into the realities of the past. In addition to minor magazine articles, his trio of books is his first serious dive into writing which has been his goal for decades.

A Widow’s Due, his first book, is a completely different work than where he started decades earlier. Originally an artifact-based novel about his great-great grandfather’s service in the Civil War, the story transformed into what is today…an homage to a great-great grandmother, who faced struggles as a veteran widow in an era not so forgiving as it is today. She would become the focus of an inspiring story of a woman, struggling to survive and provide for herself, and her children after the loss of a husband. What had always been the long-lost shameful family secret, became a source of pride in a woman a century before her time.

Jim's second book I Take My Pen In Hand is the collection of letters from Civil War Union Army soldier John W. Derr, 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Jim adds context and narration of the meaning of these letters that have been translated from a mixture of English and Pennsylvania German. The book serves as a support guide for his first book.

In the third and final book of his three book Letters Series, he explores the short life of his great-great grandfather and his tragic, yet beautiful story. A Horribly Beautiful Life, delves into the transformation of a man bored with his life who sought adventure and ultimately paid a price for it.