A Twist of Tobacco

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Photo taken on my first ever Genealogy Research Excursion in July of 2000. Darrell and I went to Knoxville for a Brabson family reunion (my mother's side of th e family), but stopped in Nashville to meet these two wonderful gentlemen. Knox Ownby on the left is William Peyton Winstead is on the right. The irony and fun fact is these two attended the same church and had known each other for years. Although not kin to each other they were both kin to me. Darrell and I walked into the JoJo's where we had arranged to meet and the place was empty. We spotted two men sitting in a sunny corner booth and Darrell and I just looked at each other and headed that direction. The resembled two of my uncles and as the afternoon progressed the familiarity increased. Their personalities were the same also. It was Love at first sight. Bill left us in 2011 and Knox's health is failing but I am forever thankful that I knew both of these fine gentlemen.

I met with a distant cousin yesterday who had some interesting information for me.  (Incidentally I had a couple of surprises for me.)  First but not least in the info was a transcription of The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaire, Confederate Soldiers compiled by Gustaus W. Dyer and John Trotwood.  They sent the questionnaire to both Confederate and Union soldier and compiled the study around 1920. I found the questions condescending and the answers very enlightening. (misspellings are as originally written) These excerpt were from the form filled out by Samuel Mortimer Ownby, Woodbury, TN. State your full name.   Samuel Mortimore Ownby. State your age.   76 In what state and county were you born.?   Tenn. Marshall Co Were you confederate or federal soldier? Confederate Name of your company: Company I Reg 14 nixon's Cavlary What was the occupation of your father? Farming Give full name of your father.   Ely Cr...

When you are one of many at a convention, Sales show or multi book signing you want something to grab the casual lookers attention. But ... it also needs to relate to your product. In my case, these days that product is my book series "A Twist of Tobacco"  . Last week I spent four days at the Sons of Confederate Veterans National Reunion and knew that I would be competing for the attention of the attendees. There were antique arms dealers, reenactment clothing dealers, and more books about the civil war than you could shake a stick at. I really needed something to draw attention to my fact based historical novel. Here's what I came up with.... Of course the eye catcher is the red white and blue quilt which was made by my great-grandmother who is also featured in my book series. Then people notice the display board. It contains photos of my ancestors; newspaper clipping of thre brothers who fought for the confederacy in the Civil War; The United Daughters of the C...

During the 2016 SCV National Reunion held in Richardson, Tx last week, I offered a drawing for a free copy of "Heaven's Promise-A Final Twist" which is scheduled to be released in November. The drawing was held at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. DRUM ROLL PLEASE............... And  The  Winner is Roy D. King  of  Rogersville, Tennessee

Exciting news........ or at least for me it is exciting. As I was getting ready for the Sons of Confederate Reunion last week I wanted a table covering that was indicative of the Civil War era. I dug through my old family quilts to see if there was anything that would work. I saw this red, white and blue that satisfied my needs. It was from my fathers family, on which the " A Twist of Tobacco " series is based. All of the years I have assumed my grandmother made the quilt. She married in 1913 and died in 1959.   It looked really nice and distinguished my display from others. As I sat there for 4 days I became fascinated by the blue print. Now, I have bought and sold vintage and antique fabrics for more than 15 years but I just couldn't place any of these prints. I took these photos while I was sitting there and posted them to one of my vintage and antique chat boards and can you imagine my surprise when they told me this is a 1860-1880 ...

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Each writer has a different process to get words on a page. Some type directly into a word processor, some write in long hand and some dictate into a machine. There are even a few who still use a typewriter. I start in longhand, then type and print, then read aloud and make notes and adjustments, then print again.   RINSE and REPEAT. From the soon to be launched A Vow Unbroken, here is an example of a 3rd rewrite and the longhand edits and hopefully (but no promises) the final draft.