iUniverse Blog

In Part 2 of this series of book development blog posts, iUniverse author J. Rivers Hodge let us know how his book was received and how he developed characters. Now in Part 3 he describes to iUniverse Blog the development of another main character.

The Civil War comes to Georgia

“Anne Southern is the most refined and beautiful woman in the South. Allen Southern is the bravest soldier of the Confederacy. Maggie Edge is the most devout Christian. Joe Edge is the best young man. Ruse Blackburn is the meanest villain ever to walk across the pages of a book, sharpening his skinning knife—slip, slap; slip, slap; slip; slap.

The story begins with a visit to Blackburn’s butcher shop. There, Ruse Blackburn is humiliated by a young woman he desires, and the humiliation eventually causes Ruse to commit a horrible crime that almost gets him hung.

But, Ruse is offered a “deal” by Anne Southern’s father-in-law, an odd character called Pop. Ruse is dispatched to Louisiana to become William T. Sherman’s aide when the war begins. As the story unfolds, the reader will realized that Pop has more to do with the war than meets the eye.

Ruse eventually becomes the tip of the sword that is General Sherman’s army: burning, raping, and murdering its way across Georgia.”

iUniverse discovers more troubles

“The mistress of Meridian Plantation, Anne Southern, awakes by a stream. She’s a complicated character: rich, beautiful, and vain. Life has always been easy for her. She had her father, and now her husband, Allen, to care for her. Her most difficult dealings are avoiding the clutches of the plantation manager, Red Garrett, and caring for her bedridden mother.

Circumstances change when she takes her family and household servants to Atlanta to wait out the war. Anne must deal with a society in decline and a diminishing food supply, not to mention the constant advances of Allen’s banker, Remus Peterson, plus, mutiny by her servants.

She must handle all these trials and more. When everything appears to be lost, Anne gives dearly for ten pounds of jerky to feed her brood on their return to Meridian Plantation. It’s there that she’s confronted by Ruse Blackburn and his skinning knife.

The rest is, well . . . it’s the story and we can’t tell anymore.”

iUniverse Publishing advises to stay tuned for the fourth and final stage of this self-publishing journey of The Legend of Anne Southern by award winning authors J. Rivers and Brenda Hodge.