'We Need to Heal'

A lot of them are self-admitted. I think the Republicans have made it clear they are going to challenge minorities who are registered voters and newly registered voters in a number of precincts and voting places. What they claim is that they're trying to fight corruption, but it's obviously intimidating.

Does this remind you of an earlier time in our history?

I don't remember any time in my lifetime when there was this much antagonism and as sharp a division between the political parties or the supporters of the two candidates as there is now. I don't [think] it's ever been this way. And I don't think there's ever been this sharp a partisan division in the Congress, although obviously during slavery times, the abolitionists and those from the pro-slave states were filled with vituperation. But it didn't carry over to all the ancillary bills on which they were voting. Now almost everything that comes up in Washington, there's a direct and sharp and sometimes antagonistic partisan division. That's a new development, and I think it carries over from the negative advertising that has now become a standard ploy in getting elected--a very effective ploy I might add.

You embarked on writing "The Hornet's Nest" because some of your relatives were involved. Tell me how you got interested in this.

I wanted to write a novel for a good while and I decided the Revolutionary War was the most sadly neglected war. As a history buff, I knew that the history of the Revolutionary War was sadly distorted--written more or less by Northeastern authors and historians. You might recall from your history teacher that we had a few skirmishes up towards Canada and around Boston, and Paul Revere rode a horse in the middle of the night and George Washington crossed the Delaware in a snowstorm. As a matter of fact, almost all the battles that shaped the Revolutionary War were fought in the South beginning in St. Augustine, Fla., where the British had a strong base, and up through Savannah and then south to North Carolina and southern Virginia where Cornwall was finally defeated. That's the historical part I wanted to tell. My ancestors came over to this country in the early 1600s, settled mostly around Pennsylvania and New Jersey and moved south from there--some to Virginia, some to North Carolina--and I wrote about the ones in North Carolina as fictional characters. And then they moved from there down to northeast Georgia, where they became Quakers. So that's my secret ancestor--I didn't identify him in the book. I enjoyed the research and the writing.

What advice would you give to whoever emerges the victor of this year's presidential election?