Susan Lohafer – författare

In the early days of the American Civil War, Harry thought it was just a quarrel among politicians -- until his young son ran away to join a guerilla raid against the Confederates. Within weeks, Harry himself was falsely accused of sabotage, tried in a rigged courtroom, and sentenced to hang for treason. Based on true events and the real life of Harrison Self, this is a tale of eastern Tennessee, where loyalty to the Union survived long after the state had seceded. At times evoking the diaries, humorous tales, and adventure narratives of the period, it is the story of a man for whom love of country was not a given, but the result of decisions forged under pressure. In the course of his war, he will lose a son, plumb a daughter''s love, and form a strange bond with the region''s most controversial figure, W. G. Brownlow. Unremarked by history, Harry experienced, firsthand, the serial betrayals and surprising loyalties of a bloody war on his doorstep. How he survived -- and what he became -- is a suspenseful and moving tale of a soul''s reformation.

The Belle of Sleepy Hollow contains nine tales, each tied to a classic American short story. The new stories are implicit critiques and interpretations of the old ones, but they are also tributes to some of the most beloved works in American literature. Referencing the same characters, settings, and events, these tales are situated within a time gap left by the original, or placed before or after the known story, or told from a different point of view. Each new story is a self-contained and artful work of fiction inspired by its source but offering a fresh perspective on the fictional world immortalized in the prior work. The style evokes, rather than imitates, the voice of the original. Beautifully illustrated with scenes from the stories, the collection pulls the reader back into the iconic story-worlds of authors as diverse as Poe and Chesnutt or Hawthorne and Chopin.