The inspiration for David Healey's historical fiction comes from growing up on a Maryland farm in a town that Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry camped in - and fought over - on the way to the Battle of Gettysburg. A graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Md., he landed his first newspaper job when he was 20 and has now been an editor and columnist at a daily newspaper in Maryland for more than 10 years. "Sharpshooter" is his first novel and he is currently working on a second historical thriller set during the Civil War.