My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction, and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction. Available at: NewSouth Books: www.newsouthbooks.com/halley and Amazon.
Part of the family George Junkins left behind in Georgia when he took off west to Alabama in the 1800s.
I believe it was William Faulkner who said, “The past is never dead—it’s not even past.” Books like TRAPPED IN THE CROSSFIRE, by Gladys Hodge Sherrer, remind us of this truth. Sherrer’s book, soon to be published by Ardent Writer Press, portrays the events that made southerners who they are. Based on real people, the book follows a family through events leading up to the secession of the southern states, the Civil War, and all that followed. Sarah Hammett is the spunky daughter of a southern family that does not believe in Slavery. In fact, she and her family are engaged in helping runaway slaves escape their owners. The man she marries, Oliver Perry Williams, is also against slavery. Their beliefs cause friction with neighbors, and after several difficult years, she and her husband decide to move West—to Alabama. There they hope to escape from some of the inequalities of the plantation system and start a new life. Of course, they find that escape is easier to dream than to experience. When the Civil War begins, they suffer along with their neighbors, and after defeat, they suffer from reconstruction.
Using historical events and people, Sherrer, takes the reader back to another time—a time whose events still impact us today. Most people know a little about their own family history, perhaps where their great grandparents lived and maybe a few of the big events in their lives. Thanks to a genealogy enthusiast in my family, I know that my grandfather’s oldest brother took off west to Alabama in the later part of the 1800s. Thanks to Sherrer, I can better imagine what his journey was like. From the back-breaking farm labor, to the jolting wagons on the westward trek, to the heartbreak of losing a child, she makes the experience real. She also reminds us that family can outlast the worst hardships. Family can prevail.
TRAPPED IN THE CROSSFIRE calls for us to remember who we are and what we ought to be. This is a great book for history buffs and those who love adventure. It will be available soon on Amazon and in your local bookstores.
