Red Clay, Blood River by William J. Everett of Waynesville, NC

Waynesville, NC author William Johnson Everett has published eight books and numerous articles on social ethics and religion. He taught for over thirty years in Germany, India and South Africa as well as in the United States.

For his novel, Red Clay, Blood River, he has drawn on the simultaneous occurrence, in 1838, of our own “Trail of Tears” and South Africa’s legendary “Great Trek” to tell a sweeping saga of love and conflict in the midst of migration, invasion, slavery, and exploitation.

The story, told by Earth, braids together the lives of an African slave, the settlers of Appalachia and South Africa, and three contemporary young people struggling with this fragmented heritage of courage and pain.

Everett has joined with actress Barbara Bates Smith to cast parts of his story into dramatic readings that introduce us to the power and lyricism of Earth’s voice and the character of these remarkable people.

Smith and Everett have drawn standing room only crowds to these performances.
For more about the book, readers can visit http://www.redclaybloodriver.com/.