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Number Three in the Creek Family Saga

Released February 9, 2018
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On to Angola




Mint Julep Mysteries Trilogy



Mint Julep Mysteries are set on Waverly Plantation in Cox, County, Alabama.




Creme de Cassis and Murder

Creme de Cassis and Murder is the first of the Mint Julep Mysteries. It is set on Waverly, a plantation in Cox County, Alabama, and introduces a multicultural community unique to the region.
Two newly widowed sisters, Dabney Palmer Rankin and, New Orleans cardiologist, Dr. Sophia Palmer Ransom use their grandparents' plantation to get a show on the Dishing It Network. Problem is they cannot cook!
The two sisters get caught up in the mystery of the deaths of the adoptive parents of long lost, newly found cousin Julio Estevez. From Waverly to New Orleans the sisters step out of their comfort zone and set out to solve a mystery and protect family.
Add to the mix Dabney's confusion over the romantic pursuit by the anesthesiologist for her colonoscopy who shows up in New Orleans.
This first in the series lays the foundation for the rest of the novels in the Mint Julep Mysteries.

To really know Julio's story you must read all three novels.
Mint Juleps and Murder cover
In Mint Juleps and Murder, two formerly estranged, newly widowed sisters, Dabney Palmer Rankin and Dr. Sophia Palmer Ransom, turn their grandparents' plantation home into an international celebrity with the award winning Partying on the Plantation, a cooking show on the Dishing It Network. Though some compare the two sisters to Lucy and Ethel somehow the show captures the attention of the American public and Dabney acquires an arch enemy out to kill her. Could it be one of her admirers in the Five O'Clock Somewhere Mint Julep Hour?




Mayana, Muscadine and Murder
Past lives and present loves.
Mayans, Muscadine and Murder is the third in the Mint Juleps Mysteries series featuring sisters, Dabney Palmer Rankin and Dr. Sophia Palmer Ransom, stars of the Dishing It Network (DIN) award winning show, Partying on the Plantation. Caught up in a mystery that spans a millennia, Dabney finds her first love and wonders is he friend or foe, must once again survive a kidnapping and rescue Julio, and solve a mystery of a missing child and a dead woman in the Victory Garden across from Ruby T's Roadhouse.

To really know Julio's story you must read all three novels.
                                                   



 Historical Novels published by Mercer University Press
Swimming with Serpents Number One in the Creek Family Saga

In Pursuit: A Novel
Number Two in the Creek Family Saga

Creek half-blood and survivor of the Creek Indian War, Joie Kincaid and the nemesis she rescued from certain death after the Massacre at Fort Mims are kidnapped from a tea room in London. Joie awakens with amnesia—after having been struck on the head—to find herself in the hold of a ship sailing to the pirate Gasparilla’s lair in Charlotte Harbour and bound to a man she finds strangely familiar. To save himself and Joie, the preeminent scholar Godfrey Lewis Winkel is forced to take heroic action. As a story of passion unfolds between the two, Joie Kincaid must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to accept love she had never known. Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the Seminole War, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and a love neither could have imagined. Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale of hope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny, and the British officers who seek to redeem a promise and forge an empire. In Pursuit continues the family saga begun in SWIMMING WITH SERPENTS, a story of love, war, and redemption set against the Creek Indian War. This title in available in e-book format from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Swimming with Serpents released by Mercer University Press in the Fall of 2012 and the sequel, InPursuit in 2013.

Ramsey  researched Swimming with Serpents for about 15 years before actually sitting down to write the novel. 

Lyssa Rendel in Swimming with Serpents gets swept up in the Creek Indian War, a critical event in history. She must use her wits to survive during one of the most challenging times of ourountry. This book is timely in that the 200th anniversary of the Creek Indian War will occurred August 30, 2013.

Swimming with Serpents is a fast paced historical romance that follows the dramatic histories of Cade Kincaid and Lysistrata Rendel and the Fort Mims Massacre of August 30, 1813 when nearly five hundred American lives were lost in this initial engagement of the Red Stick War. Swimming with Serpents incorporates drama, sexual tension and great feeling for the true human tragedy of the day.

I

 

Sharman Burson Ramsey


Sharman Burson Ramsey
also writes mysteries as Sharman Jean Burson

Sharman Burson Ramsey is the author of Swimming with Serpents and In Pursuit, historical novels inspired by the discovery of her own Native American Heritage.

Mint Juleps Mysteries is a mystery series inspired by her grandfather's plantation featured on this website.
A native of Dothan, Alabama, Ramsey earned a B.S.E. in Education and History from the University of Alabama (1972) (Roll Tide!) where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She earned her M.S.E. at Troy Universty, an honor History graduate.

She is a genealogist, Master Gardener, former radio talk show host, teacher, adjunct professor, freelance writer, short story writer, contributor to literary and lifestyle magazines, church and karaoke singer and webmaster for Southern-style.

Married to her best friend's brother's best friend, she is the mother of three grown children (Cecily, Drew and Brooke) and a grandmother of five (Lily, Megan, George, Sam, and Molly). When they returned from college to their hometown of Dothan, Alabama, she and her husband moved back to their old neighborhood. They live in the home her husband's parents built that he moved into at four. He finished law school after their marriage and practiced law with his father while she assumed the traditional role of wife, mother and homemaker with a secret life of writing. Her husband and children always knew when she was on a binge because the fans briskly moved the burned food scented air out the open doors and windows.

When Joel retired from the practice of law, the Ramsey decided to make Panama City their home.
 

History finds its way into everything Ramsey writes. Genetic Memory brings the past into the present in the Mint Julep Mysteries. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society and Southern Independent Booksellers Association.


 

For interviews and speaking events:
ON TO ANGOLA
SWIMMING WITH SERPENTS
IN PURSUIT

Southern Culture: A look at Southern Women’s Humor
Southern Culture: Peculiarities of Manners and Etiquette
Planting a Southern Monet Garden
Planning and Producing a Southern Wedding that doesn’t break the bank
Pirates in the Gulf in the early 1800s
The novels, Swimming with Serpents and In Pursuit,
Wakefield Plantation: history and cookbook
Climate Change and the First Seminole War
World Events and Historical Fiction
Writing Historical Fiction,
Cooking Southern

Or contact Sharman directly at sharmanramsey@gmail.com
MILEAGE AND HOUSING COSTS PLUS SPEAKER'S FEE
CAN BE WAIVED FOR LOCAL ENGAGEMENTS





Wakefield Plantation History and Cookbook
  

Wakefield Plantation: history and recipes of one Southern family with a primer to Southern manners and etiquette is a personal view of a Steamboat Gothic home built in 1832 featured in books, magazines and on websites. This is an intimate look at the family who calls Wakefield home.  The home is now owned by one of the authors, Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing, and her husband, Col. Thomas Rushing. Wakefield is located in Furman, Wilcox County, Alabama.

Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing

Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing and her husband Col. Thomas Rushing are the current owners of Wakefield Plantation. She practices cardiology with Cardiology Associates at Dothan Specialty Clinic. She attended Sophie Newcomb College, where she was a member of Phi Mu social sorority, numerous professional organizations and received her medical degree at Tulane Medical School where she also did her fellowship in Internal Medicine and an Internship in Cardiovascular Disease.

Alliwishus cover

The story of the Elf and the World War II Nurse at the Battle of the Bulge as told by Jean Bronson Gillis Burson to her daughter Sharman. Jean's personal pictures are included.
In Pursuit is the first sequel to Swimming with Serpents. Godfrey Lewis Winkel and Joie Kincaid get kidnapped by the pirate Gasparilla and are caught up in the tumultuous time of the First Seminole War.

Mint Juleps and Murder is the first of a planned series of mysteries I call my Plantation Mysteries. Dabney, Sophie, Faye Lynne, Miss Ruby, Florence, Police Chief Carrow Dee Gunther, Bernice, Estrellita, Julio and the rest of the fictional Waverly contingent will embark on many new adventures/misadventures in the series of books ahead. 
Articles related to the Write Life
Organizing a Book Festival
Holly McClure of Sullivan Maxx is now the literary agent for Mint Juleps and Murder
Manuscript Preparation
You Are Your Own Best Publicist
Schedule of Events
 
 
History Main Page

ON TO ANGOLA

Swimming with Serpents

In Pursuit

Shawnee recommended reading list

South Carolina and Fort Mims

People

Places

Maps of South Carolina Districts and Federal Road Route

Map of Southern Alabama during 1813-14

Family Trees of Major characters of Swimming with Serpents

Bibliography of Indian Culture and History

Writing the Southern Scene

Media Page


Writing Historical Fiction Swimming with Serpents

Reading Guide for Swimming with Serpents

Reading Guide for In Pursuit

Flyer for Mint Julep Mysteries and Wakefield Plantation: history and cookbook

Brochure for books by Sharman Burson Ramsey

Swimming with Serpents and In Pursuit are now available through Independent Book Stores everywhere, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, KOBO and Books A Million.
The Mint Julep Mysteries and Wakefield Plantation: history and cookbook are also available through Amazon, Ingram and NASCORP, Baker and Taylor, Barnes and Noble, and Independent Book Stores.

Visit an Independent Bookstore


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