The Story of the Creek Indian Family Saga Series

  

The Story of the Creek Indian Family Saga Series

Now republished with different names

ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER. BOOK 1 IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

"One Step Away from Forever" is a lush plunge into a forgotten corner of American history—the brutal Indian wars at the beginning of the eighteenth century," says Janis Owens, author of My Brother Michael. "Star crossed lovers share the page with the larger than life figures of history, creating a vivid, detailed story that reflects the passion and brutality of the day and gives insight to the nation we have become."

Cade Kincaid and Lyssa Rendel meet as children traveling with a pack train into Creek country—both are of mixed blood. Ten years later Lyssa manipulates a wedding based on a childhood promise. The two must then survive the Fort Mims massacre and ensuing Creek War to reunite.

Savannah Jack, the cruelest and most frightening of all the villains of the age, captures Lyssa, Pushmataha’s adopted daughter. Lyssa valiantly draws Savannah Jack from the glade where children she has rescued and nursed back to health are secluded after the murderous Red Stick attack and vicious depredations were committed on the nearly 500 inhabitants of a one-acre stockade built around the once-gracious plantation home of Samuel Mims.

Cade knows Savannah Jack well. He was himself captured by this bloodthirsty Creek years ago when he was associated with William Augustus Bowles who sought to set himself up as the emperor of the Creek nation upon the death of Alexander McGillivray.

The compelling stories of individuals caught up in the seismic forces of conflicting cultures conveys a human drama of war weaving a tale the theme of which is as applicable today as it was 200 years ago when this pivotal event occurred August 30, 1813. The voices of these forgotten people cry out to have their lives remembered.

"One Step Away from Forever" is an astonishing accomplishment, a debut novel of historical importance that is not only a riveting page-turner but also beautifully written. Keep your eye on Sharman Ramsey, an exciting new voice in Southern fiction. —Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls

FIND ME IF YOU CAN. BOOK 2 IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

Creek half-blood and survivor of the Creek Indian War, Joie Kincaid and the nemesis she rescued from certain death after the Massacre at Fort Mims are kidnapped from a tea room in London. Joie awakens with amnesia—after having been struck on the head—to find herself in the hold of a ship sailing to the pirate Gasparilla’s lair in Charlotte Harbour and bound to a man she finds strangely familiar.

To save himself and Joie, the preeminent scholar Godfrey Lewis Winkel is forced to take heroic action. As a story of passion unfolds between the two, Joie Kincaid must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to accept love she had never known. Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the Seminole War, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and a love neither could have imagined.

Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale of hope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny, and the British officers who seek to redeem a promise and forge an empire.

FIND ME IF YOU CAN continues the CREEK FAMILY SAGA  begun in ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER, a story of love, war, and redemption set against the Creek Indian War.

THE CHASE IS ON. BOOK 3 IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

With the introduction of the orphans rescued at Fort Mims in my novel, ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER, I set out to craft a story for each of them. Inspired by the events at Angola, I realized that Andro’s story must also involve Angola. 

Discovering a twin who had been raised in slavery brought the poignancy of a family ripped apart to combine with the raid on Angola by the Coweta Indians. Add to that the horror of any mother to have a child ripped from one’s arms and you have a human tragedy that could not help but touch any heart.

The pirate, Gasparilla, they say is legend. If that is true, why is there a Gasparilla Island, a Captiva Island, a Sanibel Island? So, Gaspar finds a place in this novel and in my imagination. Black Caesar is mentioned as an authentic participant in Haiti and pirate in the Gulf of Mexico. Creatures in the Okefenokee Swamp. So the legends say.

The twins, Andro and Cato, separated at the Massacre at Fort Mims, surmount a separation that includes both class and distance to reunite with their mother.  Andrew Jackson sanctions a raid on the Red Sticks and Seminoles that remain in Florida and to bring escaped slaves back to their owners. Slave traders and adventurers challenge the boys and the blind Sabrina Stapleton with whom Cato was captured but they have the help of their Seminole friends. Will they make it to Angola before it is destroyed and their mother must once again disappear to survive? And what about Peter McQueen? He is old and sick and tired of running. Will Jackson finally exact his revenge?

 

The Creek Family Saga began with my discovery that my fourth great grandmother was Native American. Vashti Vann married Benjamin Jernigan. Jernigan just happened to be a friend of Andrew Jackson's. 

History of Conecuh: p. 50

"Fort Crawford, now in Escambia county, was one of the points earliest settled in Conecuh . It derived its name from an officer in Jackson's command. Benjamin Jernagan seems to have been the first to pitch his tent in this region. He settled within two and a half miles of where Fort Crawford subsequently stood, and on the west side of Burnt Corn Creek, within three-quarters of a mile of the present site of Brewton. This was in the latter part of 1816, or early 1817. Not more than two or three settlements had been made in the county at that time. Soon after Mr. Jernigan came here, he was jointed by James Thomson, Benjamin Brewton, R.J. Cook, Lofton and Loddy Cotten. At this time the fort was occupied by the Seventh Georgia Regiment . General Jackson was in the habit of visiting the home of Benjamin Jernigan--father of the venerable William Jernigan, now a resident of Pollard . Mr. Jernigan had removed with his family from Burnt Corn Springs for the purpose of herding cattle for Jackson's army. From the direction of Pensacola, Jackson sent the Jernigan family supplies by the Conecuh River, and many were the annoyances to which the boatmen were subjected by the Indians firing upon them from the thickets along the banks. The army quartered at this point received their supplies from Montgomery Hill, on the Alabama river. They were hauled in wagons across the Escambias to Fort Crawford, where for a time all the citizens of this section went to procure bred. The erection of the fort was commenced in 1817. Prior to this time only temporary earthworks had been thrown up. No Indian settlements were then near; but now and then prowling bands would pass through the country, ostensibly on hunting excursions. They usually encamped about the heads of streams,and built temporary shelters of pine and cypress bark. Sometimes they would linger at such points a week together, and then pass onward. In the winter of 1817, tracts of swampland were cleared of the trees and rank cane, which were burned in the following spring, and the soil planted in corn. Though unprotected by fences, these cleared spots yielded immense crops. The following year an effort was made to fence with the tall cane, but failed.

I wondered what life was like with my ancestor being the niece of Chief James Vann of the Cherokee, and the granddaughter of the Squirrel King of the Chickasaw, written of  in Edward Cashin's book, Guardians of the Valley. They moved into Creek country right after the Creek Indian War. What was life like for my ancestors who would have been considered half-breed? I needed to know how Native Americans lived in that area of the country--west Alabama near the Florida Border. In the process I read a book about an authentic family who straddled both worlds--FIVE DOLLARS A SCALP. Having done my research with no telling now many history books I gathered, it was time to turn this knowledge into historical fiction, a genre I had always loved, and make this era come alive for others. This is a Time Forgotten and a story discarded or what Paul Harvey would call "the rest of the story."

I wrote my first novel and friend and publicist, Kathie Bennett of Magic Time, said, "You can write." Who doesn't want to hear that? You write something and someone who knows something about writing gives you a bit of validation. But when I went to sell the books originally published as "Swimming with Serpents" and "In Pursuit," they did not sell. Why? 

At events and book fairs where I spoke, Kathie said I wound up being a history teacher rather than "telling a story" as my friend, Cassandra King told me her husband, Pat Conroy, told her was the secret to a successful book (and speaker at an event). 

Time passed. My husband, an attorney, a "just the facts ma'am" kind of guy who never read my books, passed away. I took another look at my books and decided the bookseller in Pawley's Island was right when he said, "A female potential purchaser will pick up the book, see the snake on the cover, and put it quickly back on the shelf. The cover did not tell the story. 

More time passed and I decided to open an ETSY store just because I saw them on YouTube, my newest sedentary activity (two hip replacements and one knee replacement--another knee coming soon) and thought, you know, that might be fun. So I opened one and discovered CANVA and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and designed my own cover. I had to buy the books that university press had in their warehouse, but I got my rights back on my novels. Having already published the third in the series through CREATESPACE (KDP with Amazon) I had experience. 

Fictional characters interact with true historical people in true historical situations. Seldom told and as with The Chase Is On--hidden. Perhaps it is too painful. A Black History Story that needs to come out of the shadows. 

Also, the books may be considered PG (parental guidance, in some instances).  I have republished them as Teen and Young Adult. Having discussed this with a retired teacher friend of mine whose opinion I respect, Paulette Clardy, she thinks they are entirely appropriate and great history! Also, my own thirteen year old Granddaughter is taken with the story and her friends want to get the book as soon as possible. They will, of course, get the two books as soon as I can get them to them. 

SEE ALSO: THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE CREEK INDIAN SAGA

https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-process-of-writing-creek-indian.html

Now, look at the covers. Which one tells a story? Lessons learned.