"The Middle Ages is probably my favorite time period in history to study, especially the early part that most historians consider the Dark Ages, right after the Roman Empire up until the English conquest in 1066 -- I've always enjoyed that part of history," he said.
Now, the 44-year-old Libuse resident has written and published his first historical fiction novel, titled "Hawk's Conquest."
An autograph session is set for 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Gunter branch library on Highway 28 East outside Pineville, Louisiana.
Hogan also plans to read from "Hawk's Conquest," his first book in a projected trilogy.
His publisher, Marble Press of New York, calls it "a tale set in the tumultuous times of the 8th to 10th centuries, when hordes of Vikings swarmed from their Scandinavian homeland to prey on an unprepared and unprotected world."
"I've always had a desire to write something set in those times, so I just took the opportunity to do it over the past few years," he said in a telephone interview Monday, Nov. 14.
Hogan teaches 6th grade literature and reading at Buckeye, where he is also assistant football coach and soccer coach for the high school.
He's also been involved in Buckeye's medieval festival the past 10 years, which includes a field trip to Medieval Times in Dallas, Texas, and works closely with the Society for Creative Anachronism, Hogan added.
"Hawk's Conquest" fits within the historical fiction genre, he said, noting the work numbered 700 manuscript pages but the published book itself comes in at 400 pages.
With the story already outlined in his head, Hogan gathered research for his novel for two years to ensure historical accuracy.
"You'll see a lot of names straight out of Irish annals of Irish kings or Viking warlords that we don't know much about," he said.
Hogan said he tried his best to keep the integrity of "what little we do know about these historical characters," while still telling a good story about fictional characters interacting with the historical characters.
Hogan had begun work on a medieval fantasy when his first novel in "The Hawks of Ireland" trilogy was accepted for publication and is now concentrating on continuing the trilogy.
"Hawk's Conquest" is published by Marble Press of New York, a small publishing company, and has been out for three weeks, he said.
Hogan's first unofficial autograph session happened when his sister and his mom talked him into attending Kent Plantation House's Sugar Day Festival on Nov. 12, he said.
"It was just a last-minute, impromptu deal, but I did wind up selling several of the novels there and signed quite a few autographs," Hogan said.
"So it was an unexpected surprise and a very pleasant surprise to be able to find a crowd there," he said.
"Hawk's Conquest" tells the story of a character named "Haukr," as it is rendered in the Danish old Norse language, Hogan said, which means "Hawk," also a symbol for the character.
"The trilogy is going to take place over three generations -- him, his son and then his grandson," Hogan said.
The time period is around 850 A.D., when the Vikings invaded England, and pits the pagan Vikings against the early Christian Irish, telling how the Viking invaders were eventually assimilated.
Hogan said he likes the novels of Bernard Cornwell and David Gemmell, along with teaching the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Both the early Irish and Vikings were war-based societies, so the reader can expect a lot of battles and fighting but there is a love story between the main character and an Irish lass.
"There is a little bit of romance in the story, so it's not just a bunch of, you know, Vikings lopping off each others' heads with battle axes -- there's a little more to it than that," Hogan said with a chuckle, adding, "a little more depth to it than that."
The book features a strong religious faith theme since the pagan beliefs of the Vikings, with their war-like religion with Thor and Odin, clashes head to head with the new-found Christianity prevalent in Ireland at the time, he said.
For more information on how to obtain his books, Hogan can be contacted by email at hogan.4@live.com.
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