Chasm: A Novel Based on a True Story from the Civil War

Based on True Characters and Events: During the Civil War, North Carolina was a state with divided loyalties. There were no great battlefields in the Blue Ridge Mountains; no regiments lined up against unknown opponents. Here the fighting was up-close and personal. Torn from a little-known page in history, Chasm tells the story of four families shattered by war: the Pritchards, Moores, Coffeys, and above all, the Blalocks. When Keith Blalock, a Unionist, is forced to join the Confederate Army, his wife Malinda cuts her hair, dons Keith's clothes, and goes with him, posing as his kid brother, Sam. Soon they escape to Union lines and thus begins the Blalocks' harrowing ride through history-one that results in the devastation of their family and places Keith on trial for murder. (The "real" Keith and Malinda are featured on the Front Cover.) Was Keith Blalock a Robin Hood or a rogue elephant? The answer depends on where your feet were planted on the Mason-Dixon line. About the Author The author began her career as an investigative reporter. Her lust for literature, history and travel took her to Europe where she fell in love with Paris. And a Parisian. The couple married and lived for awhile in "The City of Lights," later settling in New England where they raised their four children. A descendant of one of the characters in Chasm, Dr. John Whitehead, the author became intrigued with the Blalock's story. Knowing that in order to be true to these people she would have to walk the paths they had walked, become immersed in the ways and mores of the mountains, she and her husband pulled up their New England roots and moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Chasm is the result of five years of research and writing. The author now makes her home in New England.