Margaret Anne is a multi-perspective journey through society, spirituality, and history, following the life of a powerful and determined woman during the American Civil War and her quest for redemption and unity. What inspired you to write this story?

My writing has strong spiritual undertones that come from my faith in God. In today’s society, many stories are created with this notion of things being black and white in terms of deciphering right from wrong. While that is ultimately true, understanding the circumstances that influence a person’s intentions is never that easy. To keep things brief, I would say that there were three primary reasons why I wrote Margaret Anne in the way that I did: The first is simply that the story and its messages were in my head and bursting to be told; the second is that I hoped to use the story to convey the hidden prevalence of our Divine Creator in the world around us; and the third is that I was always fascinated by the societal underpinnings that surrounded the Civil War and the political motives behind that trying time in American history.

Margaret Anne’s life is set against the backdrop of the American Civil War. What were some challenges you felt were important to developing her character?

Margaret Anne is an amazing woman. I hope that I will come across another like her when the time comes to write my next novel. In modern terms, the closest description I can provide for her essence is that she was “touched.” For much of her life, she could see things beyond the scope of our customary human senses. She could also heal people and read their emotions. While I found it to be an exciting challenge to convey the behavior of a spiritual being of a slightly higher order, it was often difficult to keep her in the realms where the darkness is pitted against the light and away from making her plight strictly the result of her skin color and the taboo nature of her existence at that time in our country’s past.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

The biggest theme for me was coming to terms with the fact that racial and ethnic division is generally something that belongs to the seedier realms of humanity and beyond. People are never born to hate or exclude, so the question for me has always been: where did those traits that defined the colonial age come from, and how were they nurtured so successfully? As an American born in the post-Nixon Shock Era, I was always fascinated by those cultures that esteemed the ability of selfless leaders to provide for their people before themselves. While I thank God every day for what remains of my freedom and my ability to write stories of this nature, the amount of idolatry and indifference to the importance of community and our fellow man that has been programmed into the American psyche is almost beyond belief. Self-reliance has become a thing of the past in the era of big government, big banks, and big corporations. That is why I like to revisit and write about simpler times and see where those traditions began to evolve because you are able to incorporate a romantic angle that fits with the historic pageantry, chivalry, and proper decorum of the pre-industrialized world.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I wrote a series of books called Redemption prior to writing Margaret Anne. Those books are a continuation of Margaret Anne’s story. The writings cover the history of the Basseterre family and the final resolution of things left undone by Margaret Anne’s predicament. The original manuscripts are available presently, but I will be publishing the revised and edited versions over the coming year. I published those volumes early for my mother, who passed away while helping me organize and revise the story from the onset. The first book in the Redemption series is titled Angel Ascending and will be available sometime this spring. The other three books are titled Convergence, Reckoning, and Watchword. They will not be too far behind.

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