Friday, February 6, 2015

Christian Writer Dr. Uduak Afangideh

Christal Cooper 2,257 Words

The Scripted Interview With
Christian Writer Dr. Uduak Afangideh
On Her New Book Sister To Sister



*Dr. Uduak Afangideh is originally from Nigeria, where she graduated form high school.  She moved to America to attend Hardeman College in Henderson, Tennessee where she received her B.Sc in Biology and then to Tennessee State University where she received her Master’s degree in Biology.  Almost twenty years later she received her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from University of Calabar Nigeria.   She presently teaches biology at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, where she also resides with her husband and children and attends the local Church of Christ.


Were you reared in a Christian home?
Yes. My parents were among the first set of Nigerians converted American missionaries of the Church of Christ.  By the time they met and got married, they had both been Christians for a while- my dad was a trained preacher of the Church of Christ by the time any of their children were born.


Can you describe in great detail you finally making a commitment to the Trinity God?
I entered into a relationship with Him when I got baptized at 10 years old.  It was on a Sunday morning after the sermon and there was what is commonly called the altar call.  I had a strong conviction of my sinfulness and how lost I was without The Lord.  I felt an urgency to commit my life to Him and so, with tears streaming down my face I walked down the aisle into my father’s arms (who was the Preacher) and was baptized in a stream in Ikot Ekpene, Nigeria.  My walk with The Lord has only grown and deepened through the years.


What was your childhood like? 
I was born in Nigeria but spent the first 7 years of my life in two continents – Africa and America.  My parents moved to America when I was 4 years old and so I began preschool in Tennessee.  By the time I was 7 years old, we moved back to Nigeria and that is where I started 2nd grade and continued until I finished high school.  I was the 2nd of six children and was expected to do my part in taking care of my younger siblings since both my parents worked outside of the home.


What did you want to be as a child? 
I wanted to be a teacher.  Looking back now, I think it was because both my parents were teachers.  My mom was the first grade teacher of all her children and daddy was our high school principal.




Would you describe yourself as a writer?  And what was your first experience in writing?      
I would.  I enjoy writing and get so much energy from it.  The hours slip by once I begin writing.  My first experience was writing a ladies column for a Christian publication in Nigeria, The Pulpit Watch. 


Can you go into detail about your column The Pulpit Watch and do you have a webpage link for The Pulpit Watch?
The Pulpit Watch was a journal written specifically for preachers and preachers in training in Nigeria.  I approached the editor with the idea that there was a need for something for preachers wives and suggested a column titled “Likewise ye women”.  The idea was approved and I wrote the column for about 4 years.  My family’s move to the United States in 2008 made it harder for me to continue writing the column and it was taken over by another Christian sister in Nigeria.  Unfortunately I have been out of touch with them for the past 6 years.


Can you go into detail of what Today’s Girl:  The Physical, Spiritual, and Emotional Development of the Girl Child is about?
My first book was Today’s Girl, published in 2002.  It was written as my daughter was approaching puberty and I realized that there was not a whole lot of reading material out there on raising African girls.  Most of the material in the market where by American writers and it was hard for the African child and her mother to fully identify with some of the references in the books and to find it relevant to them.  The typical African mother does not talk to her daughter as intimately as I think she should and while part of the reason is cultural, I think a large part is just not knowing what to say and how.  Many of our daughters pick up information about themselves and their emerging sexuality from the wrong sources and so this book was my attempt to provide factual information in a sensitive manner for both mothers and their young daughters.  It was specifically written from the African woman’s point of view but definitely not just for African ladies.


How was the idea for SISTER TO SISTER book first conceived in your brain?
       I was teaching a Quarterly Bible class in my local congregation (Landmark Church of Christ in Montgomery Alabama) on women of the Bible.  Every time I prepared to teach the class, I would hear a whispering in my spirit “We have heard these stories since childhood that they are sounding more like fables”.  Initially, I would just agree with my spirit and move on.  Later I started hearing “living among us today are women who are facing fierce struggles and still standing strong”.  Again I would agree with my spirit, and keep on preparing my lessons.  One day, I heard “I want you to tell these women’s stories”.  I argued with the spirit’s voice in my mind, pointing out so many reasons why this was not a good idea- I was extremely busy at work, my family needed my undivided attention, I hadn’t been in the United States long enough to know these ladies, etc. etc.- but the idea had taken hold of me and it refused to let me go until I obeyed.


Can you give me a step-by-step process of how this book came into being from the moment it was first conceived in your brain until the final form in book form?
After I made the choice to walk in obedience, it was amazing how the Lord led me to the women in this book.  Some of their names were mentioned in totally unrelated conversations with others and some of the names were placed in my heart by the Spirit.  As soon as I felt led to someone, I sent them a letter telling them about the project and asking if they would prayerfully consider being part of it.  After they agreed, I would set up interviews with them.  This often meant travelling all over the place but it was definitely worth it.  After recording the interviews, I would use it to write a chapter and then send it back to the ladies for review and then I would incorporate their corrections/suggestions into the chapters.  Since I was also teaching full time at Faulkner, most of the work was done during the summer months and it took two years to complete writing the manuscript.  This was sent off for editing by an English major friend of mine, and it was only after this initial editing that I sent it off for publishing.  The publishing process took over 6 months as it went through manuscript critique, copy editing, book cover design etc.  Eventually, to the glory of God, the book form was ready by February 2014.


How did you determine what women’s stories to present in this book? 
I felt a strong leading of the Holy Spirit in this area.  I would wake up with names of ladies strongly placed on my heart and I would contact them.  Some of the women’s names were mentioned in conversation and I would feel the Spirit telling me “she has a story”.  The funny thing was that there were two women that I knew and just felt that their stories belonged in the book, but because it was my idea, when I approached them, they were not ready to tell their stories and I would feel a chastisement for trying to make those decisions on my own.


How long did it take for you to complete this book?
It took me about two years to complete the writing of the book and about another six months to get it published.


Can you describe your experience of getting the book published?
It was a great experience.  At one point I was approached by a few publishers and had to trust the Lord that I was making the right decision of who to go with.  At one point I felt that the doors to getting it published were closing and I had to seek the counsel of my preacher and others whom I trust.  I think I learned to depend on the Lord’s guidance and leading a lot during this process.


You describe and use SISTER TO SISTER as a Bible study.  What kinds of books do you personally use as a Bible study that have helped you in your faith?
Oh, I am constantly reading.  I have been through so many great devotional books that it would be hard to recall all of them.  In the past 6 month alone, I have studied from Priscilla Shirer’s One In A Million and Discerning The Voice of God; Joanna Weaver’s Having A Mary Spirit; Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy and I am presently using Tony Evans Kingdom Woman for my personal Bible Study.






You state in the preface, “I believe that every woman today has a story to tell.”  Yet your story is not in this book. What is your story and how would it appear if it were in this book?
My story is one of a lady who has been on a wild ride with her Lord and Savior, one who has enjoyed God’s abundant grace through the trenches of life and has found out that God is faithful. 


What does it mean to be a Christian?  What must one do in order to become a Christian?
A Christian is one who confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior, not just verbally, but by their actions.  They place Him first above all else and seek to please Him in all they do, think and say.  To become a Christian, one must repent of their sins, confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, put Him on in the water of baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and rise to walk in newness of life. (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3; Gal. 3:27)
  



What is your daily routine like – especially when it applies to your spiritual growth as a Christian? 
A typical day begins for me at 4:50a.m. when I wake up, jump in the shower (to make sure I am awake) and by 5:00a.m. I am ready for my one hour uninterrupted time with the Lord.  This makes sense if you know that I am not a morning person, but it was impressed upon me about 6 years ago that I needed my time with the Lord (at least an hour in the morning) to be able to make it through my day.  At 6:00 my family wakes up and we have a 30 minute daily devotional.  This has evolved through the years from my husband and I using this time to teach our kids and instill family values to them to what it is now, where each family member is in charge of family devotions one day each week.  The person in charge chooses the songs we sing, leads in an opening prayer, shares a message from God’s word, leads in a discussion of the message and then prays or calls on another family member to pray.  This has become such a special time in our family.  After morning devotions, we disperse and get ready for our day.  At work, I intentionally carve out time to read the word.  Most often I do this as soon as I get into my office (before I turn the computer on) but sometimes, I do it during lunch break or any other break that I get.  Our day always ends with another 30 minutes of family devotional around 8-8:30 and then I have a 30 minute personal devotional time before I go to bed.  I have found out that the only way for me to stay grounded and focused is to intentionally carve out uninterrupted time to spend in God’s presence every day, without fail.



What are your favorite scripture verses and why?
Oh there are so many, depending on what is going on in the present.  Right now, some of them are Proverbs 3:5-6:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path” – I love that reminder that if surrender to Him and hand over all to Him, He will direct my paths.”


An old time favorite is Jeremiah 29:11:  “For I know the thoughts I think of you, says the Lord, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you an expected end” – Again the fact that God has great thoughts and plans for me, is enough to wake me up in the morning with joy in my heart.”


Another old time favorite is Romans 8:28:  “For all things work together for good to those that love Him and those who have been called according to His purpose” – This makes it easy for me to accept all circumstances knowing without a doubt, that even what seems bad to me will work out for my good.”


Photograph Description And Copyright Information

Photo 1
Uduak Afangideh
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 2
Jacket cover of Sister To Sister:  Inspiring Stories of How An Extraordinary God Transforms Ordinary Women Today

Photo 3
Uduak and her husband P.T.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 4
Present day map of Nigeria
Public Domain

Photo 5
"Wade In The Water" Postcard of a river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th Century.
Public Domain

Photo 6
A Mother's Prayer 
Attributed to Sidney Carter 
Copyright granted by Sidney Carter 




Photo 7a
Uduak’s mother Affiong Okon Mkpong (Eka Ini)
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 7b
Uduak's father Obong Mkpong
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh 

Photo 8
Uduak Agangideh singing a copy of Sister To Sister
Copyright granted by Uduak Agangideh

Photo 9
People of Nigeria
Attributed to Uduak Afangideh
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 10
Uduak Afangideh in her earlier years;  her daughter Salem today.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 11
Uduak and her children Salm, Isreal, and Elias at the pulpit of their local church.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 12
Photos of Sister-To-Sister launch party
March 16, 2014
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 13
Copy of the invitation to the Sister-To-Sister launch party.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 14
Jacket cover of Sister To Sister amongst other devotional and Bible study books.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 15
Uduak Afangideh
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 16
Jacket cover of One In A Million by Priscilla Shirer

Photo 17
Jacket cover of Discerning The Voice Of God by Priscilla Shirer

Photo 18
Jacket cover of Having A Mary Spirit by Joanna Weaver

Photo 19
Jacket covert of Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy

Photo 20
Jacket cover of Kingdom Woman by Tony Evans

Photo 21
Uduak and her husband P.T.
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 22
Illustration of Acts 2:38
Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 23
Illustration of Romans 6:3
Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 24
Illustration of Galatians 3:27
Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 25
Afangideh Family Photo
Copyright granted by Uduak Afangideh

Photo 26
Photograph illustrating Proverbs 3:5-6
Copyright by Christal Rice Cooper

Photo 27
Photograph illustrating Jeremiah 29:11
Modeled by Janlyn Diggs
Copyright by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs

Photo 28
Photograph illustrating Romans 8:28
Copyright by Christal Rice Cooper 

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Best Selling Author Dean King On His Writing Life And The Hatfield & McCoy Feud

Christal Cooper                             
*2,778 Words   4,176 Words (with excerpt)



The Writing Life of Dean King, and 
The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys: The True Story

       Dean King’s The Feud:  The Hatfields & McCoys: The True Story, published in May 2013 by Little Brown and Company (http://www.littlebrown.com), has been a critical and commercial success: A winner of the Library of Virginia 2014 People’s Choice Award for Nonfiction,  “Critics Choice for the year 2013” —Richmond Times-Dispatch, andAmazon.com Top 10 History Book of May 2013.



       The Feud (http://www.amazon.com/Feud-Hatfields-McCoys-True-Story-ebook/dp/B008TUOA3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421533644&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Feud) is now reaching to audiences of the movie and documentary arena: King is the chief storyteller of History Channel’s two-hour special documentary The Hatfields and The McCoys, that accompanied the mini-series, narrated by Kevin Costner; and a producer of the 2013 reality show The Hatfields & McCoys: White Lightning.


       King learned about the Hatfields & the McCoys as a child when he looked at newspaper cartoons about the feuding families and read Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.




       King’s childhood memories are very different from the memories of the Hatfields and the McCoys he writes about in The Feud, the most famous family feud in all of history (perhaps including Shakespeare’s feuding families Montague and Capulet.)



       “I don’t typically closely identify with the characters in my work. They are wholly separate people from me, real people. I would love to have hunted bear with Devil Anse, listened to Wall tell a tale by the fire, had a drink of ’shine with Johnse, or shared a dance with Nancy McCoy. I enjoyed getting to know all of them through the stories we have and reimagining them while writing my account.”









       Dean King’s, 52, first memories are:  exploring the bomb shelter at the house he lived in as a kid; being the patient in the game of Doctor he played with older neighborhood girls; playing in the neighborhood alley in his Red Rover with the guys who lived across the street; wrestling with his dog Max; and attending kindergarten at the Westhampton Public School, where he wrote his first book Boo Boo the Bear.



       “The wonderful teachers helped me turn it into a real book.  We stretched burlap across cardboard to make the covers and we sewed a binding for it.  I’ll never forget how hard my father laughed when he read it.  The main character tells the reader at the end that he disappeared and was never seen again.”
       The characters never seen again are similar to the true-life characters of The Feud:  some of whom were brutally murdered.



       As a young child King would visit the Belmont Branch Library in Richmond, Virginia, and read about all kinds of true-life characters, from the violent Genghis Kahn to the angel of the battlefield Clara Barton. 







       “Deeply seated in my soul is the musty smell of those red-covered biographies that I pulled out of the stacks at the library, where my mother used to take me to get books to keep me occupied in the summer.”
       It wasn’t until he attended St. Christopher’s School (http://www.stchristophers.com/about) that he faced challenges that would help him become the adventure history writer he is today.
       “I had great English teachers there, namely George Squires, who liked the conciseness of my writing and gave me higher grades for it than the “brains” in the class, which at that age is incredibly inspiring, and Ron Smith (https://www.facebook.com/ron.smith.5891004?fref=ts), who is the current Virginia Poet Laureate. Ron is now the writer in residence at the school, but back then he was a plain old teacher and football coach. He played college football and was physically imposing, as well as an intellectually rigorous guy. He showed us that writing and a deep interest in literature wasn’t for sissies. He also gave me the lowest grade I scored in high school, not long after I tore the tendon off a bone in my finger and had to dictate my term paper to my mother, because I couldn’t write. Ron showed me that there are no excuses in life. He is still a friend. 





       So is Andy Smith, one of my history teachers and my lacrosse coach. Andy has traveled with me to Ireland and China on research trips. He has always provided great counsel and friendship.” 



       King attended University of North Carolina (http://www.northcarolina.edu) where he majored in English while playing varsity lacrosse on an NCAA Championship team. 
He was also a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece (the university’s oldest and highest honorary society) and the Order of the Grail-Valkyries, for contributing to the life of the university community.
The most important thing that happened to King while attending the University of North Carolina is meeting his wife Jessica, the first one to critique and edit his work.



       His first published work was during his University of North Carolina days, where he was editor of the undergraduate literary magazine Cellar Door (http://cellardoor-unc.tumblr.com/about) and involved in some arts planning on campus. 
“In terms of becoming a professional writer, I was very practical. I had no idea how to get published, or how to write for that matter. I just knew I wanted to do it. So I thought, heck, anyone can do a Q&A interview, right? We were having a festival, so I interviewed some of the visiting artists, among them William Wegman, the famous photographer (http://www.wegmanworld.com), and Greer Lankton, a transsexual sculptor (https://www.facebook.com/GreerLanktonArchivesMuseum?fref=photo). I published these in the Carolina Quarterly (http://thecarolinaquarterly.com). I then sent them to Andy Warhol’s magazine, Interview (http://www.interviewmagazine.com). The next thing I knew I had a freelance editorial job at the coolest place in New York City.”  


    



After receiving his B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from UNC, King traveled outside of the United States for the first time.
“Among other things, I roamed from Copenhagen to Lisbon to Mikonos, pitched hay in Bordeaux, painted a house near Avignon, worked as a room service boy in London, and walked across Northern England. The experience opened my eyes in many ways.”
His first major hike—the Coast to Coast Walk, 190 miles across England, from Robin Hood’s Bay to St. Bee’s Head—was inviting to King, since he was otherwise stuck at a job as a sales clerk in the Bond Street tube station in London.




       “This was the spring of 1986, when the PLO bombed the El Al offices near my tube station. That morning, my store manager showed the proverbial British stiff upper lip, and I was at my station straightening ties on the rack as bomb sweepers were combing the tube station for explosives. A walk in the English countryside sounded like a splendid idea. We walked for ten days in the pouring rain, across the heather covered North York Moors, the hilly Yorkshire Dales and the historic Lake District. It was life changing.”







He then attended New York University (http://www.nyu.edu), where he wrote poetry and his first fiction piece.  He received his Master’s In English and studied novel writing with John A Williams (http://aalbc.com/authors/johna.htm), Gloria Naylor (http://aalbc.com/authors/gloria.htm), and E. L. Doctorow (http://www.eldoctorow.com).  







During his New York University days he was the free-lance editor and writer at Andy Warhol’s Interview, Esquire (http://www.esquire.com), Art & Antiques (http://www.artandantiquesmag.com), Connoisseur (http://www.connoisseur-magazine.com), the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com), Travel & Leisure (http://www.travelandleisure.com/toc), and American Express Publishing (http://www.amexpubcustommedia.com).  He was a founding editor of Southern Farmer’s Almanac (http://www.almanac.com) and Bubba Magazine; a contributing editor of Men’s Journal (http://www.mensjournal.com); director of book publishing for National Review (http://www.nationalreview.com); editor of the Heart of Oak Sea Classics series (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=188612), published by Henry Holt; and wrote a series of inn-to-inn walks for Mid-Atlantic County Magazine.  He currently contributes to Outside (http://www.outsideonline.com), Garden & Gun (http://subscribe.gardenandgun.com/Garden-and-Gun/Magazine), and Virginia Living (http://www.virginialiving.com).  



“Basically, I kept putting myself in harm’s way, taking on challenges that I was hardly prepared for but somehow got the job done. My first feature story was about Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill for Connoisseur, then a big-time NYC arts and culture magazine. A very kindly editor, Matthew Gurewitsch (http://www.beyondcriticism.com), whom I met through my Interview boss, told me that my story needed a lot of work. He said he could edit it, but instead, he wanted me to. He basically sat down with me and patiently walked me through the process, helping me to understand what I needed to do to get better. That doesn’t always happen in New York City.” 



He always found time to expand his experiences and education by reading voraciously, usually Southern realism novels:  William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy (http://www.cormacmccarthy.com)  (https://www.facebook.com/CormacMcCarthyAuthor), Breece D.J. Pancake (https://www.facebook.com/breece.pancake), Daniel Woodrell (http://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Woodrell/e/B000APB2WA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1421529054&sr=8-2-ent), and Tim Gautreaux (http://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Woodrell/e/B000APB2WA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1421529054&sr=8-2-ent) are favorites. 











His other influences include the epic series by J.R.R. Tolkien (http://www.tolkiensociety.org), Patrick O’Brian’s 21-novel Aubrey-Maturin series (http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Author.aspx?id=4929), Hillary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell Novels (http://hilary-mantel.com), and George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones (http://www.georgerrmartin.com) (https://www.facebook.com/georgerrmartinofficial/timelin)









The prolific King wrote and edited nine books throughout the 1990s and early 2000s: The Penny Pincher’s Almanac Handbook for Modern Frugality (1992); A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales (1995); Paper Clips to Printers: The Cost-Cutting Sourcebook for Your Home Office (1996); Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts From the Age of Nelson (1997); Cancer Combat:  Survivors Share Their Guerrilla Tactics to Help You Win the Fight of Your Life (1998); Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed (2000); Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian (2000); Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival (2004); and Unbound:  a True Story of War, Love, and Survival (2010).



















It wasn’t until 2008, while he was writing Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival, that he thought of writing about the Hatfield and McCoy Feud.



“My brother-in-law Morgan Entrekin and John F Kennedy Jr., when head of the popular political magazine George, had come up with the idea of a new retelling of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, based on Kennedy’s fascination with the feud and how these two families appeared to be living outside the law for so long. Their plan never worked out, but Morgan maintained an interest in the story. Knowing that I have family roots in West Virginia, he suggested I take the subject on.”







       King started looking into it and soon knew there was a new and more truthful story to be told, and started conducting research for the book.



He, accompanied by Hatfield family members, took numerous trips via ATVs and horseback, to the areas where the feud battles occurred along the Tug River in portions of Kentucky and West Virginia.





“I tried to find a route to ride on horseback from Matewan, West Virginia, to Pikeville, Kentucky, which would have been the journey that Randall McCoy took when he rode there for help after his three sons were taken by the Hatfields. But a large highway has been blasted through the area and the route is no longer traversable.” 



He also committed numerous hours of research on every factual piece of information he could find from libraries, courthouses, newspapers (though sometimes wildly inaccurate), family letters and diaries, other documents, and conducted extensive interviews. 



     One of the things King learned was that the Hatfield-McCoy feud was not the only family feud occurring at that time; there were other feuds, but what made the Hatfield-McCoy feud different and legendary was how personal it was.



“It derived from the Civil War, when many depredations occurred. Before that the two families had lived together peacefully in the Tug River Valley for several generations. During the war, the border they lived on saw brutal raiding back and forth. Because both sides knew each other, they would bitterly resent the violence and blame each other for it. This and the fact that the families would still be living near each other after the war would create a volatile and fascinating scenario in which the feud played out.”



King faced many challenges while writing The Feud; two of which were to be a good historian and knowing when to stop writing; but the greatest challenge was separating fact from fiction.



       “There is no way to separate all of the myth from fact, which might be part of the reason why we are so intrigued by the story. There is still a lot of mystery and historical spin around the events. The families did not want to get prosecuted for their transgressions, so secrecy and misdirection were implicit. Many parts of the families would not talk about the feud for generations after it occurred.”



       There is one fact – the events of 9/11 played an important role in ending the Hatfield-McCoy Feud: in 2003, both families signed an official peace treaty for the sole purpose that if America was attacked, both families would unify to fight for their country side by side, unlike what happened in the Civil War.





       “This treaty reflected more than a century of mostly peaceful relations since the heat of the feud. Now, in a discussion of any given issue regarding the history of the feud, you are likely to hear a good deal of disagreement and some very pointed words.”



       King heard pointed words from members of the Cline family who were upset by the portrayal of Perry Cline, the cousin of Randolph “Randall” McCoy (portrayed by Bill Paxton), in the History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner as William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield and Robert Vibert as Perry Cline.















       “They thought Perry Cline got a fair shake in my book, which was gratifying.  I was happy that the family could find peace in the pages of my account after being so upset by the unfair treatment in the mini-series.  I knocked off the last two paragraphs of one chapter of the hardcover edition and added four new ones to the paperback, based on new information sent to me by the Cline family.”




       The brothers Perry and Jake Cline were involved in the timber business too, and it brought them nose-to-nose with Devil Anse. It was not a harmonious relationship. The Clines were brothers-in-law of the murdered Harmon McCoy and first cousins of Charlie Mounts and Asbury and Flem Hurley, all also killed in the war.  It was their slave Mose—charged with looking after them by their dying father—who had put a price on Devil Anse's head and who died for it.
       According to the Clines, since as early as 1861, Devil Anse had been logging on land along Grapevine Creek that belonged to them. Conversely, Devil Anse claimed a right to the land based on an alleged survey by Big Eph and even started building cabins there. In 1869 the two brothers and Devil Anse met at the mouth of Grapevine Creek to try to settle their differences. Perry leaned toward selling their property to Devil Anse, but Jake stalked off from the meeting grumbling that Devil Anse was trying to take their inheritance "by the muzzle of a gun."
       A few years later, Perry and Devil Anse agreed to a trade, resolving matters, or so they thought. In return for his tracts along Grapevine Creek and the Tug—prime property including his family's Old Home Place, where Peter and Rich Jake were buried—Perry would receive land across the border in Pike County. Devil Anse immediately moved into the Clines' ancestral house, but the trade was not recorded because in the meantime he filed a lawsuit against the two brothers. He had been surveying his new holdings when he came across them timbering a piece of land that he wrongly claimed belonged to the Cline parcel that he now owned.
       After five years and a court-ordered survey, the trade was finally registered in the spring of 1877, but the trespassing and illegal timbering dispute persisted. Devil Anse became the official owner of Perry Cline's inherited land but would continue to pursue his suit against the brothers until 1889. By then feud hostilities—fueled in part by Perry Cline's dogged efforts—would have forced Devil Anse to flee the Tug River Valley. 8

       Presently King resides in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Jessica, and four daughters.  When not in their Richmond home, the family of six is usually vacationing in Europe.



“Jessica and I like to take our daughters on three-to-five-day inn-to-inn walks in Europe. Jessica plans them out using maps to piece together trails through beautiful countryside to small towns.”
       He is presently contributing editor and back-page columnist for Virginia Living magazine, a TV producer, an inspirational speaker, an Advisory Board Member for the James River Writers (http://www.jamesriverwriters.org), and a founder and champion of the Virginia Literary Festival (http://www.literaryva.com); and when, not writing, King gives speeches on his books.



       “I really enjoy it. Some of the highlights have been: the National Conference of State Supreme Court Chief Justices
 last summer at the Greenbrier, a TED talk at TEDxCharlottesville, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-29Tz1R3cY, the US-China Peoples’ Friendship Association National Convention
, the eight-day California Literary Society/Northern Trust Tour, 
the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans, the 
Huntington Library in Pasadena, the 
Mark Twain House in Hartford, the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, 
the Army Navy Club in Washington, DC, where I gave the Nelson Toast, the Burns Society of Atlanta, and at the Richmond Jr. League Book & Author Dinner, one of the oldest, biggest, and best book and author dinners in the United States.”



      
       In 1776, some Hatfields, along with the Bromfield family, were living by the New River near Big Stony Creek.  One night, unbeknownst to each other, a Bromfield and a Hatfield both went to the same salt lick.  One – though it is not known which – took the other for a bear moving in the brush and shot him dead.
       In the years to come, as neighbor turned against neighbor, not every killing would be so accidental.
       Of the four sons of Joseph Hatfield’s son Eph (known as “Eph of All”), three – Joseph, George, and Jeremiah – lived on the Kentucky side of the Tug, mostly in Pike County.  Only one, Valentine, Devil Anse’s grandfather, settled on the West Virginia side.  Eph of All’s four sons would sire more than fifty children, and brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins would move across the Tug with ease – on foot where it was shallow.
       Likewise, the McCoys, who had reached Kentucky by 1804, lived on both sides of the Tug and came and went as they pleased.  The families were on good terms with each other and were intermarried on both sides of the river.  In fact, Tug Valley dwellers in general were so intertwined that in 1849, they petitioned to move the Virginia-Kentucky state line so that the entire valley would lie within Virginia.  “The present line,” they noted, “divides neighborhoods, friends and relations.”  Among the signers were more than a dozen McCoys and Hatfields, families linked together by business and politics, in addition to marriage.
       This same year, Randall and Sarah McCoy, fell in love and married.  They were first cousins descended from William McCoy, who in 1804, having been awarded two hundred acres of land in Virginia (now part of Kentucky) for service in the Revolutionary War, had settled in the Tug Valley.  Four of his ten sons eventually continued west, but the others and two daughters had planted the McCoy seed on both sides of the river.  Like John Knox, the dogmatic founder of Scottish Presbyterianism, the Scots-Irish McCoys had strong traits.  They were austere, like their forebears, who had lived in turf huts in the Scottish Lowlands, hardened to discomfort, and adept at survival.  While they might accept a friendly hand from a neighbor they could repay, they turned their backs on charity.  They would starve before they would beg.
       One thing you did not do was cross a McCoy. The family had a fierce streak beyond most.  “The McCoys had a reputation for being hospitable to strangers,” Jim McCoy, a nephew of Randall, the family patriarch during the feud, would later say, “but a person better look out if he ever stole anything from them.”  As an example, Jim cited his cousin Leland, who had a prized plum tree in his backyard.  “Once every day for a week, he found plums missing from that tree,” Jim recounted.  “Finally he decided he was gonna fix whoever it was who was taking those plums. So, he put poison on the tree.”  The fruit was never stolen again.  The thief died.
       By 1850, William’s son Sam had become wealthy, owning 1,500 acres of prime land.  Living outside Stringtown, Kentucky, he and his wife, Elizabeth, reared eighteen children, including Sarah, better known as Sally.  Sam’s younger brother Dan was less fortunate.  Unsuccessful in business, he was considered quarrelsome and shiftless by his neighbors.  He and his wife, Peggy, moved their children (there would be thirteen in all) including Randall, their fourth child, born in 1825, to Logan County, Virginia, when Randall was a boy.  But Dan could not make a go of it there either.  To help pay for their farm, Peggy raised and sold hogs; she also sold a snakebitten horse that she had rescued.  When Dan lost the farm in a lawsuit after he had been timbering on their neighbor’s property she decided that she would be better off without him and took the then-unusual step of divorcing him.  
       Cousins Randall and Sally started out in Logan County but after a while moved across the river to Pike County, where they set out to build a life and a family on property given to them by her father.
      
       Despite the generations of harmony, the warm feelings that united the two sides of the Tug evaporated in the spring of 1861 when Virginia seceded from the Union.  The Big Sandy River and the Tug Fork became part of the Confederacy’s western border and a fault line in the division among the states.  On one bank was Kentucky, which stayed neutral but would go Union the next year.  On the other was a portion of Virginia that would become part of West Virginia and a Union state in1863, although many of its people would remain fiercely Confederate.  Mixed sentiments persisted on both sides of the river, but it was a decisive border, cutting families like a saber.  Almost all of the Hatfields and McCoys on the Virginia side of the river stood with the Confederacy, and almost all of the Hatfields and McCoys on the Kentucky side went with the Union.  Randall McCoy was an exception.  His Virginia ties ran deep.  He chose the Confederacy. 
       By the fall of 1861, when Union colonel and future president James A Garfield maneuvered his Eighteenth Brigade into the Kentucky side of the Tug Valley to secure strategic troves of salt, iron ore, timber, and coal, the larger conflict had rent the social fabric of this section of the Appalachians.  Here, in the nation’s oldest mountains, amid some of its most convoluted and confounding terrain, the war was personal and ignited rampant raiding and feuding.  The families on either side knew the enemy, and more than any patriotic feeling, their own honor was at stake, because in these parts a man simply did not allow another man to tell him what to do or take anything from him.  Here, where most people lived hand to mouth, his family’s survival was at stake.
       The men who lived in these mountains had learned to fight from the Indians and had honed their craft of wilderness warfare – defending, tracking, ambushing, killing – and used it against them, until they had secured the place for themselves.  They had a shoot-first, ask-questions-later mentality.  They wrestled and fought for fun. Now they turned their sights on each other, and they exceled at the bloodletting.   
       Shocked by the bitter, remorseless killing, Garfield described his mission as rooting out the “infernal devil that has made this valley a home of fiends and converted this war into a black hole in which to murder any man that any soldier from envy, lust, or revenge hated.”  Yet not even the future president, who earned a promotion to brigadier general for briefly securing the region that winter, could gain a real grip on the place.
       Serving under Garfield in the Big Sandy Valley was a prophetic man who, seeing longtime neighbors stalking and killing one another “among the interminable hills,” understood the place on a deep level.  “Long after the war is closed, men will bear here the old grudge toward each other,” Ohio captain Charles Henry observed; “the bitter gall of hatred will still course their veins, the feudal flames will be yet unquenched.
       “A simple declaration of peace,” he declared, “will never do.”
       As Garfield occupied the rebellious valley, the men along Peter Creek in Pike County, Kentucky, organized a Union home guard.  Among its members was Randall McCoy’s strapping six-foot-three brother Asa Harmon McCoy, called Harmon, who was thirty-three years old when he signed up in February 1862.  Tight-lipped, with curly dark brown hair and a broad handsome face, Harmon left two slaves behind to take care of his farm and his family:  his wife, Martha, better known as Patty, and their four children.  Patty was the daughter of a wealthy landowner named Jacob Cline (whose father gave Peter Creek its name) and her brother, also Peter, joined the same company as Harmon.  Peter Creek, emboldened by Garfield’s presence, was quickly becoming a Union stronghold.
       Just four days after enlisting, Harmon found himself in a skirmish.  He took a bullet in the chest.  Without much delay, word went out that it was Devil Anse Hatfield, a crack shot, who had wounded him.
Excerpt from The Feud The Hatfields & McCoys the True Story by Dean King
Pages 20 – 24
Copyright granted by Dean King




Photograph Description And Copyright Information

Photograph 1
Dean King at the Hatfield Cemetery in Sarah Ann, West Virginia.
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Photograph 2
Jacket cover of The Feud:  The Hatfields & McCoys:  the True Story
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Photograph 3
Web logo for Little Brown and Company
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Photograph 4
Title clip from The Hatfields & McCoys:  White Lightning

Photograph 5
Cartoon depicting The Hatfield & McCoy Feud.
Attributed to Victor Ashe and Charles R Daniel Jr
Published by The University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville
In 1930
Public Domain

Photograph 6
Mark Twain in 1895
Attributed to Napoleon Sarong (1821-1896)
Public Domain

Photograph 7
First edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Photograph 8
William Shakespeare in the Chandos Portrait (from its owner James Brydges 1st Duke of Chandos.
1610
Oil on Canvas
Public Domain

Photograph 9
The Quarrel Between Capulets and Montagues
Drawing depicted Act One Scene One from Romeo And Juliet
1873
Attributed to Sir John Gilbert
Public Domain

Photograph 10
Devil Anse (January 6, 1862 – April 19, 1922)
Public Domain

Photograph 11
Valentine Wall Hatfield
Public Domain

Photograph 12
Johnse Hatfield
From the Coleman Hatfield Collection
Public Domain

Photograph 13
Nancy McCoy
Courtesy of Boyd Phillips
Public Domain

Photograph 14
Self-portrait of Dean King at a baseball came, cropped.
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Photograph 15
Patriarchs (left) Devil Anse and (right) Randall McCoy
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Photograph 16
Belmont Branch Library in Richmond Virginia
Website photo
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Photograph 17
Taizu, better known as Genghis Khan. Portrait cropped out of a page from an album depicting several Yuan emperors (Yuandjai di banshenxiang), now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei (inv. nr. zhonghua 000324). Original size is 47 cm wide and 59.4 cm high. Paint and ink on silk.
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Photograph 18
Clara Barton (1821-1912), founder of the American Red Cross
Attributed to J.E. Purdy from Boston
Library of Congress
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Photograph 19
Ron Smith and Dean King at the book singing at Exxon
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Photograph 20
Exxon marque
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Photograph 21
Andy Smith in 2009 in China during a research trip for Dean King’s book Unbound
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Photograph 22
Jessica and Dean King
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Photograph 23
William Wegman
Photograph attributed to Roy Adkins
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Photograph 24
Greek Lankton’s Facebook page photo
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Photograph 25
Andy Warhol
From 1966 to 1977
Attributed to Jack Mitchell
CCASA 4.0 International

Photograph 26
Robin Hood’s Bay
Photograph taken on May 28, 2009
Attributed to Tolkien from Scarborough United Kingdom
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Photograph 27
Cliffs of Bees North Head
Attributed to Dougsism
CCASA 3.0

Photograph 28
Oxford Street entrance to Bond Street tub station and west one shopping center
Photograph taken on June 16, 2008
Attributed to Suni106092
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Photograph 29
View of North York Moors
GNU Free Documentation License

Photograph 30
Green upland pastures separated by dry-stone walls and grazed by sheep and cattle.
A karstic landscape in North Yorkshire, UK
The underlying rock is principally limestone.

Photograph 31
Wide 12 segment panoramic view of Derwent Water as viewed from the northern shore of Keswick.
Attributed to David Iliff
CC-BY-SA 3.0

Photograph 32
John A. Williams
July 3, 1962
Attributed to Carl Van Vechten
Library of Congress Prints and Photographic Division
Public Domain

Photograph 33
Gloria Naylor in August of 2007
Attributed to David Shankbone
GNU Free Documentation License

Photograph 34
E.L. Doctorow
August 18, 2008
Attributed to Mark Sobzcak
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Photograph 35
Ben Miller and Dean King
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Photograph 36
Matthew Gurewitsch web photo
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Photograph 37
William Faulkner
1954
Attributed to Carl Van Vechten
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Photograph 38
Cormac McCarthy
Facebook Photograph
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Photograph 39
Breece D.H. Pancake
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Photograph 40
Daniel Woodrell
Facebook Photograph – cropped
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Photograph 41
Tim Gautreaux
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Photograph 42
Tolkien was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers in July 1915. He trained with the 13th (Reserve) Battalion on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, for eleven months. He was transferred to the 11th (Service) Battalion with the British Expeditionary Force, arriving in France on 4 June 1916.
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Photograph 43
Patrick O’Brian
June 13, 2011
Attributed to Julio Nayan
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Photograph 44
Hillary Mantel
Facebook Web Photo
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Photograph 45
George R R Martin’s amazon.com biography photo
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Photograph 46
Jacket cover of The Penny Pincher’s Almanac Handbook for Modern Frugality

Photograph 47
Jacket cover of A Sea of Words:  A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O’Brian’s Seafaring Tales

Photograph 48
Jacket cover of Paper Clips to Printers:  The Cost-Cutting Sourcebook for Your Home Office

Photograph 49
Jacket cover of Every Man Will Do His Duty:  An Anthology of Firsthand Account From the Age of Nelson

Photograph 50
Jacket cover of Cancer Combat:  Survivors Share Their Guerrilla Tactics to Help You Win the Fight of Your Life

Photograph 51
Jacket cover of Patrick O’Brian:  A Life Revealed

Photograph 52
Jacket cover of Harbors and High Seas:  An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian.

Photograph 53
Jacket cover of Skeletons on the Zahara:  A True Story of Survival

Photograph 54
Jacket cover of Unbound:  a True Story of War, Love, and Survival

Photograph 55
Another jacket cover of Unbound:  A True Story of War, Love, and Survival 

Photograph 56
Morgan Entrekin
May 2012
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Photograph 57
John F. Kennedy Jr. greets invited guests at the HBO and Imagine Entertainment premiere held at Kennedy. (Photo credit NASA/KSC)
1998
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Photograph 58
The first issue of George Magazine
October/November 1995
On the cover – Model Cindy Crawford depicted as President George Washington.
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Photograph 59
Dean King holding the Hatfield Guns.
Copyright granted by Dean King

Photograph 60
Dean King, far left, clearing a Hatfield trail while ATVing in West Virginia.
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Photograph 61
Map of events and places of The Hatfield-McCoy Feud along the Tug Valley
Copyright granted by Dean King

Photograph 62
Randall McCoy
Public Domain

Photograph 63
The photograph shows the following members of the Hatfield-Clan:
Top row, from left to right:
Rosa Lee Hatfield (daughter of Anderson), Detroit 'Troy' Hatfield (son of Anderson), Betty Hatfield (Caldwell) (daughter of Anderson), Elias Hatfield (son of Anderson), Tom Chafin (nephew of William Anderson), Joe D. Hatfield (son of William Anderson), Ock Damron, Shephard Hatfield (son of Cap), Levicy Emma Hatfield (daughter of Cap), and Bill Border (store clerk).
Second row, from left to right:
Mrs. Mary Hensley-Simpkins-Howes (daughter of Anderson) with daughter Vici Simpkins, William Anderson 'Devil Anse' Hatfield, Levicy Chafin Hatfield (wife of Anderson), Nancy Elizabeth Hatfield (wife of Cap) with son Robert Elliott Hatfield, Louise Hatfield (daughter of Cap), Cap Hatfield, and Coleman Hatfield (son of Cap)
Front row, from left to right:
Tennyson 'Tennis' Hatfield (son of Anderson), Levicy Hatfield (daughter of Johnse), Willis Hatfield (son of Anderson), and 'Watch' or 'Yellow Watch' ('Devil Anse's' coon and bear dog)
The picture was taken in 1897
Public Domain

Photograph 64
Marker sign explaining the Hatfield & McCoy Feud
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Photograph 65
Double jacket cover of The Feud:  The True Story of the Hatfields & The McCoys

Photograph 66
Dean King doing research for The Feud at the Pike County Court House  P.Engelhorn
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Photograph 67
A section of the floodwall along the Tug Fork in Matewan, West Virginia, constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, depicts the Hatfield–McCoy feud.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library
March 10, 1999
Public Domain

Photograph 68 and 69
Image of the Hatfield & McCoy Peace Treaty signed in 2003
Attributed to the Hatfield & McCoy Facebook page
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Photograph 70
Dean King’s clip on the History Channel’s documentary of the Feud.
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Photograph 71
Perry Cline
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Photograph 72
Randall McCoy
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Photograph 73
Bill Paxton speaking at the 2014 WonderCon, for "Edge of Tomorrow", at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. Photo by Gage Skidmore, taken on April 19, 2014
Gage Skidmore.
CCA 2.0 Generic

Photograph 74
DVD cover of the History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys
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Photograph 75
Kevin Costner
GDC Graphics
Toronto International Film Festival 2014
September 8, 2014
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Photograph 76
Devil Anse Hatfield
Public Domain

Photograph 77
Photo clip from the History Chanel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys depicting actor Robert Vibert as Perry Cline
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Photograph 78
Jacket cover of The Feud:  The True Story of the Hatfields & McCoys

Photograph 79
Dean King Family photo
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Photograph 80
Dean King giving a lecture at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg
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Photograph 81
Jacket cover of The Feud:  The True Story of the Hatfields & McCoys