Trace Edward Zaber is a Chicago-area writer, specializing in Civil War fiction. “Nothing,” he says, “and I mean nothing, stirs my soul more so than the Great American Conflict. It was a period when brother fought brother with brutal abandon—nearly unfathomable in our day and supposedly-civilized age—and Americans waged bloody war against one other. How many people today can actually imagine a grand city such as Atlanta burning to the ground?...the destruction of New York City being attempted?...the murder of a leader with insight such as Abraham Lincoln being executed? And not by an enemy’s hand, but stemming from acts of their own ancestors? Few, I’m certain. Many of us live day to day, taking for granted all that surrounds us, but ignorant to our tragic past—the gallons of blood shed to preserve this union of states as our forefathers had originally conceived. But, as the author Shelby Foote once said, ‘An understanding of this nation had to be based...on an understanding of the Civil War...It defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became; both good and bad...It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.’ I suppose that’s why I write Civil War fiction. A part of me is forever trying to comprehend what political and personal chaos could have driven Americans to such brutal acts. Although I highly doubt I will ever glean the whole truth, perchance I might gain a modicum of insight.”

Trace is currently writing his fifth novel, The Destruction Of Fontaine, while his first novel, Sins Of The Father, is available from Amber Quill Press and Amazon.com. On April 16, 2000, Sins of the Father won Word Weaving’s first-ever “Award For Literary Excellence,” and it was nominated for an EPPIE Award in the Best Historical Fiction category.

Amber Quill Press has also contracted Trace’s seven-part Civil War series The Culpeper Chronicles. The first book in the series, One Bitter And Deadly Harvest, is now available, and the second book in the series, Two Nations Under God, will be released in late 2002. Moreover, Trace’s Civil War short stories “Blood Brothers” and “The Collections Of Bethlehem” have garnered several awards and appear in the Historical Anthology Twilight Antiquity. Another of his historical tales, “Esprit De Corps,” (a reworked chapter from the aforementoned One Bitter And Deadly Harvest) appears as part of the award-winning Tales of the Spirit of Hope, Love, and Redemption Anthology.

Additionally, Trace moderates several writers’ critique groups, was a featured author at Barnes & Noble’s Writers’ Harvest 1997, and was the owner/editor of the award-winning Of Ages Past Magazine.

On the side—and much to the surprise of those who know him only by his prose—Trace is a rock ‘n’ roller who has just signed his fifth recording contract, this time as the lead vocalist with DSG (The Dave Shankle Group—“Dave Shankle” is the former award-winning guitarist and Guiness Book Of World Records guitarist with heavy-metal legends, MANOWAR). The first DSG album, Ashes To Ashes, is now available (Nuclear Blast/Magic Circle Music) throuout Europe and America.

And if that wasn’t enough, Trace is also the owner of By Thunder, which includes several authoring services—Thundergraph: Web Design, Graphics, & Webmastering; ThunderProse: Professional Editing Services; and ThunderArt, the division of By Thunder that creates award-winning cover art for both e-books and paperbacks. Currently, Trace is also the Editorial Director and Creative Director for Amber Quill Press. His cover art won the Spectrum Award for “Best Cover Art 2001” and consistently places in the Top 10 in various author/reader polls for both “Best Cover Artist” and for specific book covers.

You can email him at tezaber@msn.com.