iUniverse talks with the authors of The Legend of Anne Southern 3

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.”

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