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Book Your Lunch with debut Southern author Sharman Burson Ramsey  

Greenville, SC, November 12, 2012 - Book Your Lunch with debut Southern author Sharman Burson Ramsey on Tuesday, December 11th, at Twigs Tempietto in Greenville. Tickets are $25 each and must be purchased in advance at http://www.bookyourlunch.com or by calling Fiction Addiction at 864-675-0540.

In Swimming With Serpents (Mercer University, hardcover, $26.00), Sharman Burson Ramsey gives us a novel of love, conflict, and redemption during the Creek War. "Swimming with Serpents 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

In Swimming With Serpents, we are  immediately drawn into the world of Cade and Gabriel Kincaid, twin boys who are half Creek Indian and half white.  Within the first few pages, the brothers are kidnapped as they race to get help for their mother who is about to die in childbirth. The villains of the piece are William Augustus Bowles, whose goal is to be Emperor of the Muscogee, and Savannah Jack, who wants to kill as many whites as possible. They want the boys' father's trading territory and total control of the Creek nation.

We also meet Lyssa Rendel, the daughter of Malee (the adopted daughter of Pushmataha, the greatest of all Choctaw chiefs) and Jake Rendel, a well-educated, well-to-do son of a prominent, blueblood family. Lyssa grows up as an outcast, rejected by white society, although greatly loved by her family. But in her solitude, her many gifts regarding nature and animals flourish. The moment Lyssa meets Cade Kincaid she knows - even if he doesn't - that he is her boy for life.  What neither of them can possibly foresee is that they will each travel separate roads filled with heartbreak and tragedy, until they eventually find their way back to each other. They will grow up in a time of war, savagery, and hatred that affects their lives and everyone around them.

Swimming with Serpents is a compelling tale of star-crossed love inspired by the author's own family history. 19th-century Southern history comes alive in her vivid debut novel, and will continue in the forthcoming sequel, A Nest of Vipers.

About the author:

Sharman Burson Ramsey, born in Dothan, Alabama, is the daughter of two World War II veterans, a doctor who served in the Philippines and a nurse who won a battle ribbon for her service at the Battle of the Bulge. Though Ramsey has degrees in Education and History and has taught middle school through university, it was genealogy that led her to write about the Creek War. She discovered that her fourth great-grandmother, Vashti Vann Jernigan, was Native American, the first cousin of Chief James Clement Vann of the Cherokee and the granddaughter of the Squirrel King of the Chickasaw in addition to being a descendant of the great Powhatan. She learned that her fourth great-grandfather, Benjamin Jernigan, was asked by Andrew Jackson, his neighbor in South Carolina, to move from Burnt Corn Springs to Fort Crawford (near the modern day town of Brewton, Alabama) to herd cattle there to supply his anticipated raid on the Spanish in Florida. That led to the writing of this novel and its sequel, Nest of Vipers, set against the backdrop of the First Seminole War.

Ramsey and her husband are both Wardlaw descendants.  The College of Education for the University of South Carolina is named for a Wardlaw, most likely a cousin. Their common ancestor, Revolutionary veteran Hugh Wardlaw, died in Rockbridge, Long Cane Creek, Abbeville S.C. In addition to Vanns, Wardlaws, Jernigans, their South Carolina ancestors include Reagan, Dowling, and Calhouns.

Ramsey received an MS in Education from Troy University and a BSE from the University of Alabama where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She is a member of the Alabama Historical Association, the Georgia Historical Society, Historical Novel Society, and the Wilcox County Alabama Historical Society. Ramsey is a former radio host, freelance writer, and adjunct professor who lives in Dothan, Alabama and Panama City, Florida, and writes about Southern culture, manners, etiquette, and genealogy on her website www.southern-style.com and sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com.