Gulf Coast Writer’s Conference – Southern Expression – October 14 – 16, 2011

http://www.gcwriters.org/

Georgia Writer’s Association – Red Clay Conference – November 12, 2011

http://animoto.com/play/S3oNp4P1sxTT9UE7dIvplw

Ozark Writer’s League – May 18-20, 2012

Hanahatchee

by Trisha O’Keefe

represented by Jeanie Pantelakis

When another body is discovered as the latest catch by Charlie in the Hanahatchee River, an old and wanting-to-be-forgotten murder case is reopened.

Tanner was twelve when he discovered the Boyer family murdered in their home. He is now a determined newspaper reporter who will stop at nothing to nail the parties responsible and free the old black man scheduled for execution who was wrongfully accused of not only the Boyers’ murders but also a store clerk’s that happened at approximately the same time – 15 years before.

O’Keefe takes us back to the late 1930s in a rural southwestern Georgia town. Racism is flourishing with the KKK. True justice is overshadowed by corruption on every level of government. The desire to see truth prevail is upon the shoulders of one man.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/55381.Q_A_With_Ann_Hite

           Little is ever said of the injustices of the Native Americans. We know of The Trail of Tears and from movies about cowboys and Indians – even to the point of it being a game, as children, to kill them.  Fred Savage has opened my eyes to a new point of view: survival of the Indian nations during the Civil War. Atrocities never mentioned, mass murders, starvation, and ceaseless discrimination.

            Black Indian – Red Heart (White Justice) tells the story of an orphaned boy, Manteca Sage. He is the son of a runaway slave and an Indian woman. He is raised on the reservation by Miss Lillie, a white missionary lady, and grows up learning life’s lessons from perhaps the most subjugated people in the nation; the Santee Sioux Indians.

            Walk on the path of Manteca as he learns the truth. The whites will never be satisfied until they take possession of all the Indian lands. He becomes a warrior in a never ending battle for justice on behalf of his Indian people. The details that lead up to the infamous Indian war of 1862 and the largest mass execution in US history are brought out in this very believable tale of survival.

Check out the below link for Carol O’Dell’s latest interview. She is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8LHy-Cjto

http://carolineleavittville.blogspot.com/2011/09/ann-hite-on-fictional-community-of.html

http://internetreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/2011/09/ghost-on-black-mountain.html

Surfmen

Chip Marshall opens our eyes to the humble beginnings of the first Coast Guard, The Lifesaving Service of 1878. This historical fiction is based on well-researched facts he has compiled through his years of experience as a fisherman, a farmer, a hunting guide, a butcher and a cook; living and working among the characters in his books – common men and women with scarred, callous stitched hands. He is member of the US Lifesaving Service Heritage Association, North Carolina Watermen United, and the Maryland Watermen Association.

When the story opens, you are on a ship with a very young Thomas Hooper and his parents heading to Maryland in 1848, when they encounter a major gale off the coast of North Carolina coast – Diamond Shoals, one of the most dangerous points on the east coast. As life unfolds for us all, his tragedy sets the stage for the rest of his life; being saved so he can save others. Twenty years later he is chosen to do just that as the Keeper of the Cape Hatteras Station.

This is one fantastic read. Marshall allows us to feel the emotions of the times; during the raw healing period just after the Civil War. He also shows us the depth of courage it takes to defy the ocean’s fury; men forsaking their own safety and welfare to save those shipwrecked. The ocean will forever be bigger and stronger, but the honor and integrity of the human heart never gives up.