Michael J. Varhola is an American author, editor, journalist, U.S. Army veteran, and publisher whose Writer's Digest title Everyday Life During the Civil War (1999) became one of the most-used period reference books for historical novelists and reenactors. He earned his degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, after studies in Denver and Paris, and is the founder and publisher of Skirmisher Publishing LLC, a tabletop game development company.
Everyday Life During the Civil War (later expanded and reissued as Life in Civil War America) is a working reference for any writer setting a story between 1861 and 1865. It covers Northern and Southern economy and currency, town and country daily life, wages, prices, diet and the war's effect on food, popular entertainment, clothing, sanitation, vices and amusements, period dialect and slang, the architecture of homes and public buildings, the structure and daily life of the Union and Confederate armies and navies from enlistment through rank, drill, dress, and duties, weapons and gear, and the demographics of the era. The reissued edition added new chapters on education and religion. The book includes timelines, period photographs and illustrations, glossaries, and an annotated bibliography for further research.
His other historical and military nonfiction includes Fire and Ice: The Korean War, 1950 to 1953 (Savas Publishing, 2000), 1950 Facts About the Korean War, D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944 (2001), and Shipwrecks and Lost Treasure of the Great Lakes (2007). He has also written the paranormal travel titles Ghosthunting Virginia (2008) and Ghosthunting Maryland (2009), the regional true-crime book Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State (2011), and contributed to The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference. His fiction includes the sword-and-sandal novel Swords of Kos: Necropolis (2012).
He is the founder of Living History magazine, webmaster of Living History Online, Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine, and KoreanWar.net, and has served as senior editor for a Middle East newswire based in Washington, D.C. He is a U.S. Army veteran who served with the 1st Infantry Division (Forward) in Stuttgart, Germany during the Cold War, and with the 3rd Armored Division during Desert Storm. He lives in Virginia outside Washington, D.C.
