As a young child, Michael Williams, Jr., heard stories told by family members of those who lived decades before him, stories that would stick in the mind of this curious and imaginative young boy growing up in Telfair County. Learning about historical events and the roles his ancestors played captivated his mind and made him curious to hear more. He became an avid reader of books written by Georgia author Brainard Cheney. These novels are about the very events Williams had heard about as a child, events like the Georgia Squatters War in Telfair County. As a literature major in college, he decided to write his master’s thesis on this rare author.
While working on his thesis thoughts of having his paper published gave birth. Little did Williams know that the thought would give way to reality 14 years later with Rivers, Rogues, & Timbermen in the novels of Brainard Cheney.
“I feel my book would appeal to anyone interested in the novels of Brainard Cheney or Southern literature in general from this time period, but I think it has some historical value as well,” shared Williams.
The first time author hopes that the book will appeal to South Georgia locals and hopefully introduce them to Brainard Cheney’s novels. Williams feels that those from Dodge and Telfair counties will take a particular interest since several of the books are set in those areas and involve real historical events from those communities.
When he’s not writing books, Williams serves as the Department Chair for Arts and Sciences and English Instructor at Ben Hill-Irwin campus of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College. Williams feels that his experience writing the book can help him speak to his students about the writing process in general: revision, editing, sentence structure, citations.
“Editing is something that keeps you refreshed with grammar and style issues because you encounter just about every obscure grammatical rule there is. You sometimes have to make hard decisions about consistency and the grey areas in grammar and mechanics,” says Williams.
He also feels this experience has helped him in teaching literature. While he doesn’t teach Brainard Cheney in his literature classes, he does apply the same tools of analysis he used in writing the book in his classroom.
Williams encourages anyone who has a desire to pen their own novel to simply sit down and write it. It requires discipline, which Williams claims he lacks.
“I’m not a prolific author, obviously. I’ve written one book in 14 years, but I wrote most of it in about 18 months,” shared Williams. “But during those 18 months, I was highly disciplined.”
He also suggests that you first have to select a subject which interests you, and you have to set aside time each day to work on it without exception. Editing and revising comes later. It did take some time to find the right publisher for his book. Through that process, he learned that you should never give up.
Williams’ book was published by MM John Welda Bookhouse in Eastman, Georgia. It is available on his publisher’s website, www.lightwood.com, as well as www.amazon.com.
Time will tell if Williams’ book will fall into the hands of another curious, history loving little boy and if history will repeat itself as the story continues.
– Submitted copy