As part of Innovative Online Book Tours, we are featuring CD Harper, a historical fiction writer with a long career as a writer. He also has a background in theatre which warms my soul! Learn more about this unique writer and read an excerpt from Covenant!
Author, CD Harper is pleased to announce his book, Covenant. This
work is a historical fiction novel set during slavery and the Civil War and
looks at the relationship of the slave master and his slave love. The story
also delves into the impact of slavery, the war and the human impulse to love
on lives of everyone on Covenant Plantation.
Covenant is told from the perspective of a slave.
The Civil War provides a smoky background for this debut novel that
delves into the uncomfortable friction that exists between the waning power of
the Southern plantation culture and the emerging identities that lie beneath.
The naive Seth Hunter Jr., whose existence has been mapped out for him by
domineering patriarchs, finds himself forced to confront his life as pressures
from the past and future force him from his pedestal. The divine nature of the
American ideal of Manifest Destiny led earlier generations of Hunters from
humble Northern beginnings to a precipice of Southern power embodied in
Covenant Plantation, Seth Jr.'s inheritance. As the Civil War unseats the
stability of the South, Seth's own life unravels. The estate, the lifestyle and
the woman he was given all become harder to hang on to as he struggles to
fulfill his destiny.
Enjoy these two excerpts from
Covenant:
Seth Junior at his father's death bed...
He strained to hear Seth Senior. His daddy's voice once had boomed
with presence and authority. That's the voice he wanted to hear and imitate,
and the wisdom, strength and will power he needed.
"I ain't never had to think about nothing like that before,
Daddy."
"Why not? Did I make it so easy? Was I so sure that Providence
would always be there? Was I? My daddy, he never worried about me. He knew I
was ready! Don't you mess with His stuff, you hear me, Seth Junior? Huh?"
The old man's breath smelled of age, an indescribably dry odor, one that Seth
Junior knew he would never smell again.
There was a long pause before he spoke again, opening and closing
his eyes at a slow and deliberate rate breathing deeply, his chest heaving with
each effort. " You have to carry on
stand in my place."
Seth Junior breaks the news to Sandy...
Her response was so sudden, so quick that it startled both horses.
Her horse bolted like a runaway, leaving Seth Junior standing in shock, trying
to control his horse and holding the side of his face where Sandy had struck
him with her riding crop. It took only a moment before he reined in his horse
and felt the pain. Only then did he realize that in that brief moment, she had
disappeared.
His first thought was to go after her, but her horse was as fast as
his, perhaps faster. In an instant, he realized that maybe this was the best
solution, her running off, and his allowing her to run off. Yet at the same
moment came the realization that he couldn't bear the thought of being without
her. If she left the plantation, his land, she would be just another nigger
slave gal, beautiful and desirable and available. He gasped when he felt the
words in his mind: another nigger slave gal. He had never thought of her in
that way, and it disturbed him that he could with such ease.
Author Bio:
Dr. Clifford D. Harper is a respected theatrical executive producer
and playwright. His written works include Curse and Neva's Tale. Neva's Tale
was produced by Theresa Larkin, directed by Ted Lange, and earned actor Larry
Gammell Jr. an NAACP Award and another from L.A. Weekly in 1993 for his
supporting role.
A retired Professor of Theatre Arts and Dance at California State
University, Los Angeles, Clif served as the Chair of the Department of Theatre
Arts where he established the "Theatre of the Twenty-First Century"
and revived the Dance Kaleidoscope program in the LA community. During his
tenure, he became the founding Executive Director of the Harriet and Charles
Luckman Fine Arts Complex, where he developed the world-renowned Luckman Jazz
Orchestra. Dr. Harper's commitment to the arts was instrumental in facilitating
the art retrospective: "African American Artists in Los Angeles, A Survey,
Exhibition, 1945-2003."
Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Clif taught for a year at Sangamon
State University before moving on to Southern Illinois University in
Carbondale, where he served as Chair of the Black Studies Program and Dean of
General Academic Programs. Dr. Harper received an undergraduate degree from the
University of Illinois, a Master's in Theatre and Speech and became one of the
first African Americans to earn a PhD. in English from St. Louis University
Born and raised in a segregated neighborhood of East St. Louis,
Illinois, Dr. Harper graduated and later returned to teach at his high school
alma mater, Lincoln High. Dr. Harper found this experience to be significant
and rewarding. During this time, he discovered his passion for theater and
found inspiration in his students, many of whom went on to have gratifying
careers.
Dr. Harper's many accomplishments have included: working with the
renowned Katherine Dunham, receiving a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Award,
earning one of the earliest Certificates in Black Studies from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, and starting a "Forgivable Loan" program for
female PhD's at CSULA.
Clif and his lovely wife, Linda, have migrated north to the Oregon
Coast, settling in the charming town of Gleneden Beach. Clif continues to write
and is working on his next novel.
