And the end of the Colonial Rebellion — An excerpt from Restive Souls, an upcoming novel about the rise of a great African empire in South Carolina’s Low Country. Background: George Washington has been captured after his spy, John Honeyman (a real-life character), betrays him. The narrator is Honeyman’s friend, a freed Haitian slave named Guillaume Diderot. The…

A journey to an alternative world where slaves were freed after the Revolutionary War — I’ve begun the process of querying agents for my new novel, Restive Souls, a novel set in an alternative world where slaves are emancipated after a failed Revolutionary War and a great African empire rises on the North American East Coast. Perhaps you are even one of those agents. If…

A mysterious stranger approaches the Creek town of Pakanahuil — 1838 Hasse Ola Oak-fus-ka-Har-jo can see through the trees. Surrounded by a man-sized fort, he is perched atop a massive black oak that stretches well above other types of trees that should be taller than the oak tree acting as their sentinel. Its mightiest branch extends from a sprawling network of…

And the rise of a great African nation on the East Coast — Well, actually, I didn’t just sit and write it today. It has taken me two years of research and writing to invent a world in which the British defeat the colonials in the Revolutionary War and emancipate the slaves in 1778. The result is a novel called Restive Souls. I’ve…

But there’s only one way to read it — I don’t know about you, but I hate being asked to subscribe to newsletters. Especially by those annoying website pop-ups. But in order to encourage people to download and read this sneak peek into Restive Souls, guess what I did? I made it available exclusively to readers of my newsletter. …

Fiction for a Broken Country — When I went to sleep last night, everything was normal. When I woke up, everything was different. Everything was Black. But not like, hip hop Black, really. Just, well, Black. Black culture, everywhere. With lots of Native American culture mixed in. And people referred to Native Americans as First Settlers. …

In “The Trial of Summary James”, Joshua Gibson’s Major League status was never in doubt — In my novella, The Trial of Summary James, a bat with Josh Gibson’s signature plays a prominent role, sadly, in the death of the character that triggers the trial on which the title of the novella is based. So I thought it was cool that Major League baseball conferred Major…

The alternative history behind Restive Souls (subject to change) — This is the timeline for the Restive Souls series. It is a work in progress and is subject to change as the novel and/or series develops. Let’s see if you history buffs can notice when the changes begin! Book One of the trilogy is centered around John Honeyman and the…

These are the congregations that play key roles in the “Restive Souls” timeline. — Major congregations within the Restive Souls timeline as of this writing: Notes *Note: The Carolina Union Constitution requires all congregations to be Christian, but this rule is routinely ignored for Jewish congregations, as well as a number of…