Sharman Burson Ramsey's Blog, page 34

Wilcox Historical Society Meeting January 12, 2013

Kathie Bennett, my publicist, called today with the fantastic news that Swimming with Serpents has been selected as the March bonus book for the Pulpwood Queens Book Club which numbers over 500 clubs throughout the country. What an honor! Thanks to Kathy Patrick, the founder of the Pulpwood Queens (http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/)! 
WakefieldThe Wilcox County Historical Society invited me to speak on Swimming with Serpents and my sister, Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing, hosted the event at Wakefield, the home she now owns that was once our grandparents' home. As you can see we had an overflow crowd spilling out into the halls and into the adjoining rooms. Wilcox Historical Society Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing and Sharman Burson Ramsey

 I think everyone enjoyed themselves at the event. I know I did! I discovered quite a few folks who are related to the Creek Indians who were inside Fort Mims at the time of the battle as well as the Red Sticks. The battle at Fort Mims is the pivotal event of my novel. Swimming with Serpents is based on the lives of those people who actually lived during that turbulent time and is told from the Native American perspective of the Creek War.
 This has been a busy month. On the 8th of January I had the privilege of addressing the Bay Point Women's Club at 30 Degree Blue on Panama City Beach. I really enjoyed the group of fifty to seventy women who meet monthly for lunch at different venues. Many shared how much they enjoyed learning more about southern history that is often overlooked and discovering how many historical sites there are to visit.

Next weekend we go to the Florida Chatauqua Assembly in DeFuniak Springs where Rosalind Carter will be the keynote speaker. I will be speaking on Saturday at 1:00 in the Library and hope to see old friends and make new ones there. (http://www.florida-chautauqua-center....)

South Carolina Book Tour and 12/12/12 Wedding

I guess one might say I have just completed my very first book tour. And it was fun! The inspiration was the wedding of one of my dearest friend's daughter who wanted a destination wedding. The bride and groom chose Charleston as the destination and 12/12/12 as the date. Magnolia Plantation set scene for a beautiful wedding and Catherine Buck Correll was a beautiful bride.

It was logical to set up a few book events. After spending one night with my husband's brother Bill and his wife, Joyce, we set off on our adventure. Spartanburg was first on our stop. The venue was the Hub City Bookshop (which has the unique feature of being both publisher and book seller. The shop serves many purposes: Writers Project, Publisher and Book Shop encouraging writers and artists, publishing andhttp://hubcity.org/bookshop/) promoting their work.

The interesting thing about this book tour thing is that you do not know who your audience will be until they appear. That night an English teacher offered extra credit to those who would go and "hear the author." The old English teacher came out in me and I thoroughly enjoyed my audience. A father who decided to come in rather than just wait in the car paid me an enormous compliment by saying he found my talk on the book extremely interesting and he bought his daughter the book. I got lots of questions about writing which pleased me no end. I asked them to let me know whether they thought the book appropriate for a young adult audience. My publisher had once considered marketing Swimming with Serpents as young adult because of the age of the hero and heroine.

Tuesday took us to Greenville and a luncheon event at Twigs hosted by Fiction Addiction and Jill Hendrix. Jill's father Jim McPherson is an author who has written a novel based on his ancestor Penelope who came to America as one of the early settlers of New Amsterdam. That novel has proved interesting to me because of the genealogical connections to my own ancestors (Newkirks and Slechts) who settled in New Amsterdam. Sitting at my table was an old Dothan connection, Cathy Roberts, who once lived in Dothan and served at one time as President of the Dothan Service League. Though she still has family in Dothan, Cathy and her husband have moved to Greenville where she has become a book blogger! http://bermudaonion.net/ is where you will find her.


Wednesday was wedding day so we took the day off from book events and just enjoyed Charleston. Charleston is understandably renowned for food. We started off at Toast (http://www.toastofcharleston.com/imag...) where I had the Eggs Meeting Street, fried green tomatoes topped with a crabcake, poached egg and covered with remoulade sauce. Fantastic!

For lunch we had the very best she crab soup ever at 82 across the street from the Mills House where we stayed.

Friday was Blue Bicycle night (http://blue bicyclebooks.com/) where we not only got to see Catherine Ford Fancher's daughter Crystal (only a year and a half away from completing medical school in Charleston) but we got to see old friends Bob and Frank Hardie and meet, for the first time,  Bob's wife, Gail. Bob spotted the note Crystal left about her cousin's (on the other side of the family) restaurant, Carter's Kitchen. Article in the Post and Courier:  (http://www.postandcourier.com/article...) The note caught Bob's eye because he lives in Mount Pleasant only blocks from the restaurant. So, we followed Bob and Gail to Carter's Kitchen and then followed Frank back in town where he lives with his wife (unfortunately busy that night) in a condo on the water. Retirement is looking good on these guys.

The book events have many benefits beyond the actual book sales. I enjoy people. We met lots of new people and rekindled old friendships. Couldn't have had a more successful week! 

Looking a lot like Christmas

Well, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today my daughter remembered the story I wrote about the Christmas Elf named Alliwishus. She asked if I had sent it off lately because she thinks it is a super story that others, outside our family, would enjoy as well. It is the story my mother told me about an elf she met on the battle field of France during WWII. She was a nurse on a hospital train on the way to the Battle of the Bulge. I told her I had sent it off to an agent and would continue sending it. It meant a lot to me that she remembered that story.

Alliwishus looks a lot like this elf sitting in our tree. That's where he listens to the prayers of those whom the Master has entrusted to his charge -- in the tree outside their bedroom windows.  That's what my mama told me.




We're having lots of fun with the grandchildren. George, our oldest grandson, thought he needed a tree.






I've been traveling a lot with a great schedule of events. Kathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary Agency has been my greatest asset -- my publicist.  While you always hope for a good crowd at your event, Kathie makes the point that getting your name and your book before the public is always a major reason for participating wherever you might go. At SIBA I was told of one author who attended an event where only 2 people showed up. He took them out for supper.

This is the lineup. If you're nearby, please come!












SIBA Panel by Invitation


Book Launch for Swimming with Serpents Speaker


Ladies Auxilliary St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club Speaker


Books Alive Local Authors Keynote


Public Radio Guest


PC Writers Guild Keynote


Supply Store U of A Auburn/Alabama Book Signing


Beach Library Bag Lunch Author event Keynote


Hub city Books Book Signing


Fiction Addiction Keynote


Blue Bicycle Book Signing


Something's Cookin' Book Signing


Bay Point Woman's Club Keynote


Wilcox County Historical Society Keynote


Panama City Genealogical society Keynote


Chatauqua Faculty Speaker


Litchfield Books Keynote


Alabama Historical Society Member


Southern Kentucky Festival Panel by Invitation


Daughters of the American Revolution Speaker


South Carolina Book Festival Panel by Invitation


Florida Historical society Member


Georgia historical Society Member


Historical Novel Society Panel by Invitation







NEST OF VIPERS IS RELEASED Events to be announced 

An Old Man's Prayer

Mattie Lee Martin taught me many things. She was my dearest friend for many years. She was my mentor and my teacher. I did not see the color of her skin. To me she was love.

So, when I became a teacher, I saw no difference between my black children and my white children. What I saw was many children who could not read. That motivated me to get into politics and run for the school board.

There I learned many things:

1. Don't stand for anything. You will be attacked on your stand no matter how well-meaning. (I stood for traditional phonics intensive reading instruction and against the newest fad of the time, whole language, which research told me was the cause of my students' reading problems. All children were affected, but particularly the black children (49% of 17 year old black males were illiterate and 60% of all students entering the community college had to take remedial reading).

How could reading be political? It is big business and many people had established their careers on this educational movement.

I was labeled a flat earther, accused of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and someone spread a rumor that I intended to make money off the program I proposed. It is those accusations (all untrue) that have made me NEVER believe the venom that comes out in political races. The opposition will stoop to anything to win. And good people don't have the same ruthlessness to fight back.

2. I was privileged to view the power of simple faith.

My husband and I both come from privileged homes. When I ventured into politics driven by what I had seen in my classes, we were told that white politicians were encouraged to go into the black community to attend the prayer breakfast that rotated from church to church. We did so and were warmly welcomed.

My husband and I are still moved by the prayer that morning.

An old white-haired gentleman, wearing a well-worn, shiny black suit, cane hanging on the back of his chair, folded his calloused hands and closed his cloudy eyes. "Lord," he said. "Thank you that I opened my eyes this morning. Thank you that I could see this beautiful world. Thank you that I could sit up. Thank you that I could put my feets to the floor. Thank you that I had shoes to put on my feets. Thank you that I could stand. Thank you that I have warm clothes to wear here to your house. Thank you that I have food to eat. And friends to eat it with. Thank you for Jesus. Amen."

Sometimes it is a good thing to be called to recall what is really important. That prayer puts everything into perspective.

By the way, I lost. But I still benefit from having run, because I will never forget the lesson taught me in that church.

John Wesley on Elections

It was All Saints Sunday at the Methodist church today. In the bulletin, Pastor Jim Sanders reminded us: "John Wesley wrote in his journal on Thursday, Oct. 6, 1774: I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against 3. And, to take care that their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."


I am afraid that as the result of some actions and words these days our Lord would say, "I never knew you," as the result of the venom and vituperation spewed by folks who call themselves by His name. I know the first thing I learned in my Presbyterian catechism was "God is Love." Sadly, that is something that seems sorely missing in politics today. Unfortunately, our political face is often the only witness some folks have of religion.

William Augustus Bowles

William Augustus Bowles
If I were to cast my novel, Swimming with Serpents, Alec Baldwin would play William Augustus Bowles. Bowles is a very good example of how we just do not know when we begin life how or where our lives will wind up. Bowles began his life in a home of privilege in Maryland. One of his descendants, Dale Cox, writes about him on his website: http://www.twoeggfla.com/billybowlegs....

Books Alive! Panama City

Undercurrents: Connect with authors at Books Alive! Contributed Photo By TONY SIMMONS | PanamaCity.com
Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 16:33 PM. PANAMACITY— Sharman Burson Ramsey will be a keynote speaker at the Books Alive! Local Authors event Saturday at the Bay County Public Library.
I have a friend in common with Sharman (her publicist, Kathie Bennett, daughter of Gerry and the late Barbara Clemons), but I was intrigued by her work because she also writes about the area my wife’s people are from — and actually knows something of the area’s genealogy.
“I’m always glad to find new connections and how they all fit together,” she said during a phone conversation this week.
“Connection” is a recurring theme. Her talk on Saturday, “Pit to Pinnacle: The Path to Publication,” will focus on the importance of networking for success in publishing.
“There’s a lot of pitfalls you can go through in the publishing process,” she said. “How you make connections and how you network are so critical to getting out there.”
Sharman credits some of her success to advice she got — including the name of an editor who was looking for her kind of book — by meeting Karen Spears Zacharias and other Books Alive authors.
“We all have our bucket list, and you want to get published so badly,” she said. “But then you get there and there’s another pinnacle you have to climb. … There is so much politics that goes on, even just marketing a book.”
Ramsey is a former radio host, freelance writer and adjunct professor who divides her time between Dothan, Ala., and Panama City. She writes about Southern culture, manners, etiquette and genealogy on her websites, Southern-Style.com and SharmanBursonRamsey.blogspot.com.
Newly released from Mercer University Press, “Swimming with Serpents” is the tale of star-crossed lovers of mixed Creek and Anglo heritage caught up in the massacre at Fort Mims, Ala., in 1813 and the Red-Stick wars. The sequel, “Nest of Vipers,” set during the First Seminole War, will be out next year.
Author Janis Owens, originally from Marianna and no stranger to these shores, called the new novel “a lush plunge into a forgotten corner of American history … a vivid, detailed story that reflects the passion and brutality of the day and gives insight to the nation we have become.”
Other local authors participating in Saturday’s event will include Anne Ake, Sherry Anderson, David Angier, Carole Bailey, François-Marie Bénard, Mark Boss, Bert-May Brady, Michael Brim, Jay Furr, Bruce Gamble, Michael Lister, Judy McCarthy, Nick May, Janet   Nicolet, Pamela Peterson, Christopher Scharping, Todd Vandermolen, Linda Williamson, Greg Wilson, Marlene Womack, the Gulf Coast Woman’s Club “Heritage of Bay County, Florida” and myself.Come out and see us, and make some connections.
Peace.

Books Alive! Local:
What: Morning presentations and afternoon book signings by 24 local authors; free admission, open to the public Where: Bay County Public Library Meeting Room, 898 W. 11th St. in Panama City When: 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday Schedule: 10 a.m. presentation by Sharman Burson Ramsey; 11 a.m. presentation by François-Marie Bénard; noon to 1 p.m. lunch on your own; 1-3 p.m. book sales and signings Details: 522-2120 or bmead@nwrls.com

St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club Ladies Auxilliary

October 11, 2012

The St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club Ladies Auxilliary invited me to talk on the history leading up to Swimming with Serpents. My dear friend Kathy Swigler, an old friend from our DHS cheerleader days, came as my guest. We enjoyed visiting with June Sapp and Charmian Cretney while we waited for the food to be served and the time to arrive for the program to begin.


JoAn Gramling and June Brackin were early arrivals. James and I were scrambling to make sure the projector for the Power Point presentation worked. We had to exchange the blue cable from the projector to the computer and finally it all came together. I always arrive early to get the feel of a place and to make sure I know how to operate the equipment. I was VERY glad I did this morning.


Marty Gerde watched as I inscribed Kathy's book.

It's been a long time since our DHS cheerleader days. Lots of bucket wishes fullfilled in the meantime.

Totally unbiased review by my Dothan High School English teacher

Tommy Adkins Butterfly on FlowerI want to share with you the totally unbiased review of my novel by my Dothan High School English teacher, Julie Wauthena Nall Knowles.



My dear Sharman,            Thank you.  I listened as you read--I was overwhelmed--had difficulty  trying not to cry!            Good readers like you almost always do well in English and history classes. You have amassed a veritable ton of historical research for Swimming with Serpents.  I love the title and its alliteration; I've known quite a few "serpents."  This is a well-done work--of course you can write--I am incredibly proud of my student.            I've read only a few chapters.  The "Prologue" is good writing. You effectively "catch the reader's attention" . . . sentences flow into a great hook with a "tease" to turn the page.   --You've chosen the right tone and point-of-view: third-person omniscient limited to Snow Bird; third person focused on Cade.  --How many revisions had these few pages?  Hemingway said he rewrote the last sentence of "F to A" thirty-odd times (I think)--why? "To get it right."  The snowy bird of the first paragraph connects to the death of Snowbird as the white bird watches.  And--that owl!  In literature, an owl's hoot (as you know) = trouble, + owl, Athena's bird, the goddess of war.  Yes!  You've a recognizable analogue, too: The creator of the "Dr. Quinn" TV series had to bump off her "Snow Bird," Cloud Dancing's wife, in dramatizing the plight of the Cheyenne and--to have Cloud Dancing available to fall in love with the white, lady-newspaper editor.  Surely that connection will be made by readers.            Oh, I notice all sorts of "stuff"--even "Beauty" and "Beast"! --My "Starlight," named for one of Almanzo Wilder's horses, died on my birthday when Durwood and I were in Louisville.  --You've set a conflict between the twins: at first, Gabe is "killed"--will he become a "sacrificial" character?  Also, Gabri-el: -el = God.  Will he become a spiritual leader?  In a few pages, your narrator had me laughing!  --Any English paper making me laugh earned its "A" then-and-there.              Swimming with Serpents is simply superb.  (Allow me an alliteration!)  It should win some category of an award.  Congratulations!Love,jwnk,your English teacher!

Query letter for Partyin' on the Plantation

  It is quite possible that this is the worst query letter ever written. I may well have broken every rule. I would love to hear from those who have written successful query letters and those who just might have an opinion on the book I am querying. I will try to develop a tough skin about this and learn from your critique. I Googled agents who like Southern Fiction and those that are accepting new authors for my list of potential agents. Suggestions?



Dear Ms. _____:I would appreciate your considering representing me as my literary agent.Partyin’ on the Plantation so intrigued my friend Cassandra King Conroy that she offered to take me to New York to go door to door to publishing houses until we found someone who was as taken with the novel as she was. Swimming with Serpents, just released, historical fiction based on the Creek Indian War, was taken by Mercer University Press about then and we set that trip aside.Synopsis of Partyin’ on the Plantation Picture two Southern sisters long estranged. Then the death of Dr. Sophia Palmer Ransom’s husband brings sister Dabney Palmer Rankin to their grandfather’s plantation, now owned by Sophia, a successful New Orleans cardiologist, and the two re-establish the bonds of their childhood. For the moment. Long enough to finagle their way onto the Dish It Network and become stars with their very own show, Partyin’ on the Plantation -- though they cannot cook!Their show captures the imagination of the nation with their array of famous guest cooks, the interaction of the multicultural cast of Soul Sisters, Dabney’s quirky sense of humor, and their ingenious ideas for entertaining on the plantation. Eventually their grandmother’s garden gets replanted with a little help from the Master Gardeners in the area, inspiring individual Victory Gardens that the sisters visit and award prizes. Who knew that the Saks Fifth Avenue quality gentlemen attracted by the Mint Juleps served at the Five O-Clock Somewhere soiree presided over by the two sisters would make Dabney (now a geriatric sex symbol on the verge of having her very first novel published with Fabio on the cover!) the target of a homicidal maniac.Plan for a series based on Partyin’ on the PlantationPartyin’ on the Plantation is semi-Southern Gothic contemporary women’s fiction of 89,794 words humorously geared toward the post-menopausal demographic inspired by my grandfather’s plantation house in Wilcox County, Alabama. Like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County there are many tales to be told about folks in Palmer County, Alabama. I plan a series of mysteries based on these characters to evolve from their visits to local gardens (similar to the British mysteries Rosemary and Thyme), culinary activities (Dabney pays well for Grandma’s recipes, helping those in need while meeting lots of interesting folks living and dead), Dabney’s son’s online sporting goods store, Adam Afield, and hunting business, and Dabney’s genealogy hobby.Recommendations by well-known authors "I was hooked from the first scene, one of the most intriguing, and funniest, I've ever read. With this rollicking novel, Sharman Ramsey shines as THE bright new star in Southern fiction.” Cassandra King, author of The Sunday Wife and Same Sweet Girls

“Sharman Ramsey writes with the full-frontal charm of a women so in love with her culture that she makes you love it more. Partyin' on the Plantation celebrates all that is wonderful in the South, past, present and future: food, friends, and family, with a spice of intrigue, a dash of history, and many pauses for laughter.” Janis OwensI have already begun the sequel to this novel which has become a parallel plot using the situation developed in Partyin’ on the Plantation to interweave with a paranormal vision of a past life that leads to an adventure in the Mayan ruins of El Waka Peru, Guatemala, where a young man’s life lies in the balance.BioI am the author of two historical novels, Swimming with Serpents, published by Mercer University Press (2012) with a contract on the sequel, Nest of Vipers, to be published by Mercer in 2013. I am a genealogist whose discovery of my Native American heritage inspired those novels. As the result of those novels, I have become a member of the faculty of the Chatauqua Assembly in DeFuniak Springs and was recently on a panel at the Southern Independent Booksellers Association.I have degrees in Education and History from the University of Alabama and Troy University, have served as an adjunct professor and am a former radio talk show host. My website Southern-style.com focuses on genealogy, Southern recipes, history, the Southern Monet Garden, culture, manners and etiquette and has 6000 to 8000 visitors a month.My publicist is Kathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary Agency.I appreciate your consideration.


At this point different agents request pages from the novel.