The First Raven Mocker

Like Michener and Hailey?

Someone recently said that my Cherokee Chronicles series is, “as if James A. Michener and Arthur Hailey teamed up to write the Cherokee’s story.” If that is true, then I am extraordinarily honored because I am a great fan of both authors. Arthur Hailey’s comment, “I am a storyteller and anything else is incidental,” is something I can totally identify with. I am particularly proud to be compared to Arthur Hailey, because I am trying to expose the Cherokee culture through story in the same way that he exposed the inside workings of a hotel through story, or a bank in his book, Moneychangers, or the airline industry in Airport. This description: “fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history,” was written about Michener’s novels, but could also be used to describe the Cherokee Chronicles. In the 7-book series, I have taken a fictional Cherokee family starting in mythological times with each following generation in a different point in time all the way through contact with the Europeans, interaction with the newly formed United States, and ending with their relocation from the eastern homeland to Oklahoma. So, I am quite honored and pleased to be compared to Michener and Hailey.