Fame & Fortune: Author Jeff Shaara 'Gods and Generals' author expands his father's legacy
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Bankrate: Did you grow up learning his craft at his elbow?

Shaara: No. In fact, some review said I had helped him finish "The Killer Angels." That's absolutely not true; I had nothing to do with "The Killer Angels." The reason I'm sort of adamant about that is I take no credit for that book. That would be awfully obnoxious of me to sort of glean some of the credit for what that book is. That was his masterpiece. In fact, it's the reason I will not write an introduction to the book, because it's his book.

Bankrate: Were you a history buff as a kid?

Shaara: No. The way they teach history in school, it's all memorization: names, dates, places, facts and figures. No student ever wants to go out of the history class with that textbook under his arm and ever open that book again. That's a disastrous way of teaching, so it's really nice to learn that my books are being used. No, I was reading Vonnegut, right? All the socially relevant stuff.

Bankrate: In the introduction to "The Rising Tide," you list categorically the theaters of World War II you don't write about. Why?

Shaara: Because my editor and I sat down and figured it out and if I were to do A, B, C and D, it would take eight books, and they don't want eight books. As it is, there are going to be four books, three in Europe and finish the war in the Pacific. Then maybe after that, go to Korea.

Bankrate: Will it always be war for you?

Shaara: If I do Korea, if I get that far, that's probably it, because Vietnam and further forward I won't do because it's too political, and I'm not political. I don't have a message or an agenda to beat you over the head with. So likely Korea would be the last stop. But it's not the war; it's the people. Where do we most find ourselves in a situation where we have to rise to the occasion? Where are heroes made? They're not made on Wall Street. It's that thing, that ingredient, that crisis where if you make the wrong decision, the world will change, and maybe for the worse. It draws me because it's a good story, because if they don't accomplish those things, history changes.