“The Day the World Trembled,” a recent book authored by Leon ‘Lee’ Levin was recently named a finalist in the 2013 National Indie Excellence Award contest. Although the book did not win in its category of Military Fiction, it was one of three finalists chosen.
The National Indie Excellence Awards was first started seven years ago to enhance the readership and award the best of the self-published books. These awards are “open to all English language books that are available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors,” as stated on the National Indie Excellence Book Awards website: www.indieexcellence.com.
“I was quite pleased to learn that the book was a finalist in the competition,” said Levin, “particularly since it is national and there are thousands of entrants. The panel of judges is quite professional, and I’m delighted that my book made the final cut.”
Levin, the author of three books, has been working on “The Day the World Trembled” for 60 years!
“After doing voluminous research, I wrote the first draft when I was in my 20s,” said Levin. “I tried to get it published and got nowhere. Deservedly. It really was quite bad. I set the project aside, but couldn’t let it go since the story was so compelling. Every decade or so I went back to it, rewrote it, revised it, re-researched it.”
Based on fact, the book is historical fiction about the battle of Hannibal and his brother, Hasdrubal: Carthage against Rome. The outcome of this battle impacted Western civilization.
Levin has been focusing his writings on historical fiction. His previous two books were also in this genre: “The Messiah of Septemania” and “King Tut’s Private Eye.”
“Historical fiction, written and researched properly, has compelling interest for the reader since the tale is not merely the author’s imagination, but the story of what human beings did at times of exceptional difficulty and stress,” Levin said. “The trick is to believably bring those characters to life, since typically history tells what happened but gives little insight into the personalities of the protagonists.”
It was learning how to write historical fiction that allowed him to finish the book that had haunted his imagination for so long.
“I was learning how to turn history into fiction, while still maintaining total integrity about factual accuracy,” Levin said. “It looks like now I finally have it right. ‘The Day the World Trembled’ has received very fine reviews.”
The book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and bookstores.