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| J. J. Knights, Author BENJAMIN'S FIELD Trilogy |
J. J. Knights’ novel, the BENJAMIN'S FIELD Trilogy, tracks three generations of a family in the U.S. from WWI through
WWII. Knights has taken care to
assure historical accuracy and believes that fiction can help educate if
entertaining and accurate. Reviewers praise the “themes of loyalty, personal liberty as it relates to
society’s demands, religious prejudice, racism, intolerance, and the
overwhelming need for humans to forgive one another.”
A retired FBI Special Agent, Knights is currently working on
his next novel based on actual events occurring in the American Civil War. When
he’s not writing, he participates in Team Rubicon,
an organization that provides disaster relief services. He loves spending time
in Canada, volunteering his photography services, and beekeeping. And he enjoys
chasing his 18-month old granddaughter around.
Q:
In what genre would you place your BENJAMIN'S FIELD Trilogy? Literary fiction?
Historical fiction? Why?
The story is a saga covering three
generations from World War I to World War II and beyond.
My research was painstaking and involved not
only online sources, but actual books.
In addition to life’s lessons the story teaches, I want my characters to
bring the historical events that shaped the 20th century alive for
my readers.
We live in a much more permissive society
today than existed one hundred years ago.
Do young people today understand what it was like for an unwed mother
back then? How about for a child
born with a disability? What about
the effects of organized religion or the importance of fraternal societies?
Does anyone remember the Golden Age of
Aviation and how every child dreamt of becoming an aviator? Do today’s young people know what an
aviatrix is without looking it up on their smart phones?
Seven decades before 9/11 there was Pearl
Harbor. Like the attacks on 9/11,
Pearl Harbor galvanized the American people. Unlike 9/11, that galvanization wasn’t short-lived and
helped bring us to victory.
How many people know an organization of
civilian pilots sunk at least one German U-Boat during WWII or that such an
organization even existed?
Well-written and accurately researched
historical fiction has an important role to play in education.
Q:
Reviewers say about the trilogy that “once the plot catches you
it won't let you go” and that the series is “enormously entertaining and
instructive.” How do you manage to entertain and also instruct readers?
J.
J. Knights: To
instruct seriously and well, one must be a bit of an entertainer. If not, you will lose your audience, be
they university students, student pilots, or readers who can easily put your
book down and pick up someone else’s.
Imagine
sitting in church or some other place of worship, a university classroom or
some similar place. If the priest,
minister, rabbi, professor or
whomever simply stands there and drones on, you’ll fall asleep. On the other hand, if he or she moves
about in front of you and injects drama and humor into the sermon, they’ve got
you. We’ve all had boring
teachers.
In
the case of writing a story like BENJAMIN’S FIELD, I used intensely emotional scenes and drama tempered with
comic relief to keep the reader engaged, but not overwhelmed. Humor is necessary to relieve the
pressure created by the drama and emotion. You don’t want the reader to feel bludgeoned.
In
Book One, RESCUE, Benjamin, the protagonist, and the priest Templeman, have
issues to resolve, so I put them in a very emotional, soul-baring
encounter. The pressure builds
until Benjamin’s hired hand, Hiram, appears unexpectedly with a one-liner that
will cause the reader to smile or laugh.
The
reader must also be able to relate to what the character is experiencing. That’s why I put the characters in
highly charged situations that we’ve all experienced or at lease can
understand.
For
instance, throughout history, there have always been young men who terrified
their parents by saying, “The country is at war. I’m joining the army.” It’s
been said in different languages and accents, but it’s been said since humans
have walked the earth. My brother and I did it to my parents and my son did it
to my wife and I. Even if it hasn’t
happened to you, you can still relate to it.
This,
and much more, happens in the story.
Q: Your trilogy covers much of the 20th
century. What kind of historical research did you do? How important is
historical accuracy to credibility? Were you able to use history to support or
amplify your plot and themes?
J.
J. Knights: Since
BENJAMIN’S FIELD is a historical novel, I did a great deal of research. The Internet has made this chore much
easier and economical (no need to travel to distant libraries, etc.), so I did
much of the research online.
However, I also used real books.
Some I borrowed. Some I
purchased. Actually, I enjoyed the
research and found it very educational even if much of what I found didn’t make
it into the story.
I
also spoke with subject matter experts, among them priests, a Catholic sister,
an expert on canon law, a Freemason, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, a rabbi, a
representative of Shriners Hospitals for Children, and an expert on the history
of rail travel in western Pennsylvania.
I even took advantage of my own family genealogist and put my great,
great grandfather, a Canadian sea captain, in the story, though I changed his
role and place in the historical timeline. I thanked all of them in the Acknowledgements.
I
was very careful to make the story as historically accurate as possible, but
sometimes I had to tweak history for the sake of the story. For example, In Book Two ASCENT I have
Jeremy Kyner, the protagonist, attending the 1932 Cleveland Air Show. The airshow took place in August of
that year. I moved it to September
for reasons explained in the Afterward.
How
important is historical accuracy to credibility? I suppose this is subjective, but I’d say it’s very
important. Why should someone take
what I’m saying seriously if I can’t get the facts right? For instance, I wanted to refer to
actual newspaper headlines and stories in Book One RESCUE. I have Benjamin Kyner, the protagonist,
reading that America had declared war against Germany in the April 6, 1917
edition of the old Pittsburgh Press. I was able to quote the paper exactly
thanks to the assistance I received from the Hillman Library at the University
of Pittsburgh. The staff put me on to an online source for digitized newspapers
going back to the 19th century.
Depicting
historical events accurately was very instrumental in amplifying the plot and
themes. A main theme in BENJAMIN’S FIELD is overcoming prejudice and intolerance. In the previous paragraph, I spoke about using actual
headlines from real newspapers from the period. So, in the same issue of The
Pittsburgh Press, we see Benjamin’s son, Francis, reading glorified
front-page reports of courageous aviators. A bit later, Hiram Bolt, Benjamin’s African American hired
hand, picks up the paper and notices that stories about Black military units
are buried in the back pages.
So,
yes, history is very important to the themes in the story.
Q:
Who do you intend to read the trilogy? Young adults? All ages? What do you want
them to walk away with?
J.
J. Knights: I
consider BENJAMIN’S FIELD to be in the Young Adult genre, though I believe it
would be both entertaining and valuable for older readers, as well.
As
to why, here’s an excerpt from the Forward by retired astronaut Jay Apt:
Especially useful to young readers, but valuable to
us all, are the story’s lessons about this journey: our greatest achievements
are for others, not ourselves; overcoming difficulties makes us stronger;
disappointments can be blessings in disguise; help can come from unexpected
sources; sometimes one door must close so another can open; it’s futile to
blame the universe or a higher being for pain that’s inflicted by our fellow
human beings.
Q:
Reviewers are pleased that you were able to integrate themes such as “loyalty,
personal liberty as it relates to society’s demands, religious prejudice,
racism, intolerance, and the overwhelming need for humans to forgive one
another.” Did you intend to leave readers with some messages? Or did you write
purely for their entertainment?
J.
J. Knights: Authors
write for different reasons, of course.
Richard Bach, author of Jonathan
Livingston Seagull, once said that he doesn’t feel the need to write
constantly, but only when an idea insists on getting out of his head and onto
paper.
That’s
the way I felt about BENJAMIN’S FIELD. The story was in my head begging to
get out.
I
didn’t write it merely for the sake of putting words on a computer screen. I
certainly didn’t write it for the money!
I wrote the story because I truly believed it has socially redeeming
value. I wrote it because I think
the themes and lessons presented in the story can be helpful to young people,
especially those who may feel marginalized for whatever reason.
I
should explain that while aviation plays a strong supporting role in the story,
it’s not what the trilogy is about.
My goal was to use aviation and flying as sort of a philosophical
metaphor. Jeremy Kyner is being
held down by society, but uses aviation to lift himself up and eventually find
final emancipation. I hope the
reader sees this. Also, we use
airplanes to take us places. That’s
how I use them in the story; to take the reader on a journey. To underscore these concepts, I don’t
use the words ‘airplane’ or ‘aircraft’ anywhere in the story. That was a challenging feat to
accomplish.
Q: How helpful was your career as an FBI
agent in creating your plot or characters?
J.
J. Knights: As far as I can determine, I did not draw on
my experiences in the FBI to write BENJAMIN’S FIELD. That being said, the characters in a work of fiction
are born in the imagination of the author. Since we are the sum or our experiences, it’s inevitable
that we’ll draw on our experiences and the people we’ve known to create the
personalities that populate our stories.
For instance, there’s a bit of my father in
Benjamin. Although he had no
religion and often ridiculed it, as is the case with Benjamin, one of my father’s
best friends was a Catholic priest.
As for the priest, some part of him is alive in the story’s Fr. James
Templeman.
So, a psychologist might be able to dig out
how my FBI career may have influenced my writing of the story, but I really can’t.
Q:
Does the approach of heroes vs villains apply to your story? Or are your
characters mostly a mix of heroic and not-so-heroic behavior? –flawed but
well-intentioned?
J.
J. Knights: There are villains, both without and within.
Since we’re all flawed, so are the characters
in the story, both major and minor.
Both Benjamin Kyner, the protagonist in RESCUE, and his grandson Jeremy,
the protagonist in ASCENT and EMANCIPATION, are definitely flawed, but in
different ways. We follow them through their stories to learn how they overcome
their flaws. Other characters, such as Fr. James Templeton, Randy Bridgewater
and Phil Anders have glaring flaws, which are critical to helping Benjamin and
Jeremy overcome theirs.
Yet, there are also real ‘external’ villains
in the story, such as Jeremy’s eighth grade teacher, Regina Vilis (translate
the Latin!) and the U-Boat commander in Emancipation. Why villains without and
within? Evil is necessary. Without overcoming evil, we cannot find
the good in ourselves and each other.
Q:
How helpful was the use of humor to developing your characters or telling their
story?
J.
J. Knights: As I discussed earlier, humor is necessary
as comic relief for the reader.
There are several very intensely emotional scenes in the story, and I
don’t want the reader to feel as though I’m beating them up. Also, I want the characters to be as
real to the reader as they are to me.
Most people like to laugh.
So do the characters in BENJAMIN’S FIELD.
Q;
What’s next? Will you continue to write novels?
J.
J. Knights: I’m
currently working on another historical novel based on actual events during the
American Civil War. I was inspired
by my many visits to the Gettysburg National Battlefield in eastern
Pennsylvania as well as my close association with Canada. How are the two connected? Stay tuned.
Q:
Tell us about J. J. Knights. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
J.
J. Knights: I recently joined a veterans’ service
organization called Team Rubicon that provides disaster relief services both
domestically and abroad. As a matter of fact, just prior to writing this, I
spent several days in Wisconsin participating in a joint disaster response
exercise with Team Rubicon and the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
I’m an avid amateur photographer and perform
a lot of ‘pro bono’ shoots for different organizations. Very recently I was asked to cover the
2016 annual convention of the National Association of Priest Pilots in
Pittsburgh. As their name implies,
NAPP is a group of priests who own or fly general aviation airplanes, often in
support of their ministries.
I spend a good deal of time in Canada where I
maintain a rental cottage (Northern Knights Sea View Cottage) on Canada’s
smallest and most beautiful province, Prince Edward Island. Coincidentally, PEI
was home to Benjamin Kyner’s wife, Delinah. Delinah’s character was inspired by a real French Canadian
woman of the same name I knew as a child on PEI.
I have to mention that I have the fun of
chasing around my 18-month old granddaughter, Lillian Noelle, and, as I mention
on the back of my books, I’m also a beekeeper.
About
J. J. Knights
J. J. Knights is a retired FBI Special Agent. His assignments
included violent crimes and fugitives, property crimes, civil rights
investigations, and foreign counterintelligence. He was a surveillance pilot,
SWAT sniper, media representative, and worked in the FBI's technical
investigations program. Knights also volunteered as a Civil Air Patrol pilot,
squadron commander and public information officer. He is an emeritus member of
the Imperial Public Relations Committee of Shriners International and Shriners
Hospitals for Children. A native of New England, Knights resides in
southwestern Pennsylvania with his wife and honeybees. He has authored several
published articles on law enforcement recruiting. Benjamin's Field is his first
novel.
Book One:
RESCUE
Forward by retired NASA astronaut Jay Apt, PhD, veteran of four space shuttle missions.
Forward by retired NASA astronaut Jay Apt, PhD, veteran of four space shuttle missions.
Benjamin’s Field: Rescue’ has been awarded a five-star review by the literary site ‘Reader’s Favorite’ (readersfavorite.com).
Benjamin’s
Field follows a rural farm family over the course of sixty years from the
viewpoint of the youngest member, Jeremy Kyner. Beginning with America’s entry
into World War I, Jeremy and his family are followed through war, peace,
triumph, tragedy, heartbreak, and final happiness as the reader examines the
role of family loyalty versus individual need, personal liberty and how it
relates to society’s demands, religious prejudice, racism, intolerance, the
role of charity, and the overwhelming need for humans to forgive one another.
While
still in manuscript form, Benjamin’s Field, Book One RESCUE, was advanced to
the “Best Sellers Chart” of the peer review website YouWriteOn.com. In Book One
RESCUE a widowed farmer suffers an unspeakable loss during World War I.
Burdened with grief, he learns from his nemesis, a dogmatic Catholic priest,
that his son’s fiance has given birth to their crippled child. Unable to cope
with the child’s deformity and confounded by his illegitimate birth, the farmer
is battered by those closest to him with accusations of cruelty and intolerance
until he finally reveals his true feelings and the reasons underlying his
apparent bigotry.
Set
in a historical context, BENJAMIN’S FIELD is a compelling story about human
dignity overcoming adversity, prejudice, and hatred. Interwoven with lighter
moments, this dramatic and moving tale will take the reader on an emotional and
sometimes humorous journey.
Book Two:
ASCENT
In
Book Two ASCENT Jeremy Kyner, now a teenaged boy, becomes the focus of his
teacher’s animosity because of his infirmity. With the help of two dedicated
school friends and an unconventional Jewish blacksmith, he takes to the sky,
defeating his teacher’s plans to institutionalize him and forcing her to
divulge her own, dark, secret.
BENJAMIN’S
FIELD is a historical novel about human dignity overcoming adversity,
prejudice, and hatred. Interwoven with lighter moments, this dramatic and
moving story will take the reader on a journey of inner exploration.
Book Three:
EMANCIPATION
Book
Three EMANCIPATION opens as America is on the cusp of World War II. Jeremy
Kyner, now a man, is barred from military service at a time when America is
almost defenseless against marauding German submarines. Finally joining a group
of volunteer civilian pilots that represents the country’s best hope to counter
the Germans, Jeremy confronts a deadly enemy from an unexpected quarter and is
offered a chance of achieving final emancipation.
BENJAMIN’S
FIELD is a historical novel about human dignity overcoming adversity,
prejudice, and hatred. Interwoven with lighter moments, this dramatic and
moving novel will take the reader on a journey of inner exploration.
Excerpt
“Ben, what in blazes is going on?” asked Hiram. “Is that what I
think it is? I never saw one
before.”
“It sure looks like a flyin’ machine,” Benjamin answered. “I’m as
surprised as you, but I’m gettin’ mighty damned mad that some fool just
scattered my cows and knocked me into the dirt.”
Hiram doffed his hat and wiped his forehead.
“Why is that thing buzzin’ around here?” he asked.
“Hiram, you know as much as I do. But if I get my hands on him, whoever is in that thing’ll
wish he hadn’t come here to show off.
Damned idiot.”
Together, they watched as the machine flew east parallel to the
field. Then suddenly, just as they
began to think it would continue on and leave them in peace, the strange craft
turned left again and began to drop from the sky. As it neared the end of the
field, it turned again, lowering its nose and aligning itself with the field.
Just as it appeared to the two men that it would again scream over them, the
tempo of the engine’s roar slowed.
The machine neared the ground and leveled off a few feet above the
grass. The cows, now scattered, were no longer a danger to the flying machine.
Benjamin and Hiram stared slack-jawed as the boxy kite-looking
thing approached them. The roar of
its engine dropped to a murmur and its wheels touched the grass. It bounced
along the rough field, wings wobbling, toward the two gawking spectators.
Benjamin, alternately amazed and then angry at what he was seeing,
began to allow his anger to hold sway.
Resentment was welling up inside him as if it had a life of its own;
resentment at this intruder who surprised him; resentment at having to hurl
himself to the ground like a frightened fawn; resentment at having no control
over what was happening on his own land.
Hiram, sensing Benjamin’s coiling anger, looked down at his fists.
He placed his hand on Benjamin’s shoulder and said, “Ben, let’s take it easy.
We don’t know what’s goin’ on here.
It could be he’s in trouble.”
The quivering, cloth-wrapped machine trundled to a stop a few feet
from Benjamin and Hiram. The long, slowly swinging wooden propeller emitted
loud clicks at longer and longer
intervals as it finally swung to a stop and puffed out one last gasp of
blue-white smoke from the exhaust pipes on the top of the cowling. The machine
had two wings, one above the other, just like in the newspaper photographs.
Under the top wing, Benjamin could see two leather-encased heads protruding
from the machine’s body. One was a
few feet behind the other. Both wore goggles that gave them bug-like
appearances. For the second time
that day, Benjamin was speechless as the bug figure in front lifted his goggles
to his forehead, waved at him and with a big smile said, “Hi, Pa!”
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