Does this book have a special meaning to you?
Once in a Blood Moon has a special meaning to me because it
was inspired by the life of my ancestor: John Fowler was born in 1799 in North
Carolina. When he was a little boy, his mother and father moved his family
consisting of two brothers and three sisters to South Carolina. His father took
ill shortly afterward and died. The mother took the three girls back to North
Carolina, but the boys were indentured on separate plantations. The following
is from a biographical account writing by W.T. Dugan, printed in the Emporia
Kansas Gazette in 1906:
“The third boy (John Fowler, my ancestor) was placed side by
side with his dark skinned human brother chattel. He was treated as a common slave….
“He made friends and confidants of his dark skinned fellow
laborers…plans were laid, schemes thought up and many whispered conferences in
the darkness of the night were held for his freedom that he might rejoin his
mother.”
When I read this account, I wanted to write a novel to honor
the courage and compassion of the slaves who helped a white boy to escape the slave quarters. It
was obvious to me that the protagonist of the story would be a slave. And so, I
crafted Alexandra Degambia.
After fifteen years of research, writing, and rewriting, my
historical fiction novel, Once in a Blood Moon, became a reality.
Where do you get your storylines?
My storylines are generated by challenging circumstances
that require a courageous protagonist who dares to step out of his/her comfort
zone to help bring about a positive change. For example: One of my stage plays, To Destroy You is No
Loss is based on the life of a Cambodian teenager who used her intelligence and
compassion to survive imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge; my screenplay, Five
Minutes to Midnight, tells the story of Elissa Montanti, sometimes referred to
as “The Saint of Staten Island” because she has often risked her life to help
children injured by war (Shock and Awe) or natural disaster (Haiti Earthquake).
Was this book easier or more difficult to write than others?
Why?
Once is a Blood Moon was the most challenging work I have
ever written because of the deep research required to bring this historical
fiction novel to life:
Source Material
Diction used in Once in a Blood Moon by African Americans
and Caucasians, is derived from original sources including journals and the
Slave Narratives.
Bagdon, Robert Joseph. “Musical Life in Charleston, South
Carolina from 1732 to 1776 as Recorded in Colonial Sources.: Ph.D. diss.,
University of Miami, 1978.
Banat, Gabriel. The Chevalier de Saint Georges. (New York:
Pendragon Press (2006).
Baum, Robert M. Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion
and Society in Precolonial Senegambia, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Berlin, Ira, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the
Antebellum South (New York: Vintage Books, 1974).
Bland Jr., Sterling Lacater. African American Slave
Narratives. Westport,Connecticut; London: South Carolina Press, 2001.
Blassingame, John W. Slave Testimony. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 2003.
Brockington, Lee G. Plantation Between the Waters.
Charleston S.C.: The History Press, 2006.
Dugan, W.T. The Story of a White Slave. Emporia, Kansas: The
Emporia Gazette, 1901.
Green, Harlan & Harry Hutchins Jr. (2004) Slave Badges
and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, S.C. 1783-1865. Jefferson, North
Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc, 2004.
Horton, James Oliver & Lois E. Horton. Slavery and the
Making of America. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2005.
Katz, William Loren. Black Indians. New York, NY: Aladdin
Paperbacks, January 3, 2012.
Koger, Larry. Black Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in
South Carolina. University of South
Carolina: South Carolina Press, 1995.
Lause, Mark A. “Borderland Visions: Maroons and Outliers in
Early American History”: Monthly Review, Vol. 54. No. 4., 2002.
Linford, Scott V. “Stories of Differentiation and
Association: Narrative Identity and the Jola Ekonting.” Yearbook for Traditonal
Music, January 1, 2016.
Littlefield, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves. Urbana and Chicago,
Illinois: University of Illinois Press,
1981.
Lockley, Timothy James. Maroon Communities in South
Carolina. Columbia, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press,
2011.
Maillard, Kevin Noble. “Slaves in the Family: Testamentary
Freedom and Interracial Deviance” College of Law Faculty—Scholarship. 76.
http://surface.syr.edu/lawpub/76., 2012.
Milanich, Jerald. First Encounters Spanish Exploration in
the Caribbean and the United States: 1492-1570, 1989.
Myers, Amrita Chakrabarti. Forging Freedom: Black Women and
the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The
University of North Carolina Press, August 1, 2014.
Reynolds, Rita. Wealthy Free Women of Color in Charleston,
South Carolina during Slavery, A dissertation: Graduate School of the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2007.
Stoudemire, Sterling. Dictionary of North Carolina
Biography, The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
Dr. Robert Baum (an interview, May, 2016, Dartmouth College)
Associate Professor of Religion and African Studies: Dartmouth College.
Dr. Lee C. Brockington (an interview, July 2004 in
Georgetown, S.C.), researcher and writer for the Belle W. Baruch Foundation at
the Hobcaw Barony of Georgetown County, South Carolina. Ms. Brockington is a
graduate of Columbia College, Instructor at the Coastal Carolina University.
Her research regularly appears in newspapers and magazines and on educational
television.
Dr. Emory S. Campbell (an interview, July 2004, Sullivan’s
Island, S.C.), a native of Hilton Head Island, S.C., Dr. Campbell has been
immersed in Gullah traditions and customs all of his life. He is considered to
be one of the nation’s foremost experts on Gullah culture and the history of
rice cultivation in the United States.
The storyline dictates the genre I write in. Included in my writing credits are a
newspaper column (weekly for five years); reframed fairy tales; a science
fiction fantasy novel; and bio-pic screenplays.
Was there any specific circumstance that made you want to be
a writer?
I read Little Women when I was nine years old. I felt a
soul-connection with Jo, and knew from the moment a finished the book that I
wanted to be a writer.
Thank you for hosting!
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