Cold Running Creek - Softcover

Zelda Lockhart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0978910214 ISBN 13: 9780978910211

Publisher: LaVenson Press, 2006

Synopsis

During one of the most tumultuous times for the North American continent (pre and post Civil War) three generations of women, both Native American and African American, struggle to be free. Raven, the main character of the first two chapters of the novel, is the daughter of Choctaw Native Americans who have escaped the relocation from Mississippi to Oklahoma Territory in hopes of negotiating their rights in the political maze of their changing landscape. in the event of faltered plans, her mother and father, ishki and inki, have charged Raven with the responsibility of her two younger siblings. The three children are the sole survivors of the resulting tragedy. Though eventually Raven marries a half French, half Choctaw man of prominence, and becomes the proud Misses of LeFlore plantation, she bares the initial, seemingly indelible wounds of the novel, and extends those to her daughter, Lilly, a half black, half Choctaw infant who Raven raises as the full-blood heir to LeFlore. As the upshot of a second political miscalculation of American conquest, Lilly is captured and sold into the last three years of slavery. Though her actual bondage is short, her escape from her own enslavement spans to mid-life. She is always waiting for something to change. One day, she abandons her two daughters and commits a dreadful act against her husband. Though horrifying, her lashing out is the very catalyst for her freedom. In an ending that peaks to a crescendo of redemption, Lilly's salvation brings with it freedom for two generations of male and female ancestors of both Choctaw and African heritage. Cold Running Creek is enlightening in its untold historical truths, and relevant to all time with its soul-stirring revelations. With a chorus of swamps, voodoo, floods, creeks and rivers, Cold Running Creek is rich, passionate, and leaves the reader breathless.

About this title

About the Author:

Zelda Lockhart is author of the novel Fifth Born, which was a 2002 Barnes & Noble Discovery selection and won a finalist award for debut fiction from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Foundation. Ms. Lockhart holds a BA in English from Norfolk State University, an MA in English from Old Dominion University, and a certificate in writing, directing and editing film from the New York Film Academy. Her other works of fiction, poetry and essays can be found in anthologies, journals and magazines. Lockhart is also the author of The Evolution, a serial novella, currently appearing in the archives of USAToday.com's Open Book series. She is currently working on her third novel, and facilitating a variety of workshops that empower adults and children to self-define through writing. Ms. Lockhart welcomes inquiries about her workshops and writing at www.zeldalockhart.com. She lives in North Carolina, with her two children.

Review:

Cold Running Creek is a story of heartache, for the Choctaw family killed during the time of removal, to the harshness of the life of the mixed blood slave child, born in the breeding bed, taken from her mother and reared in the "big house" of a Choctaw family. When the illusions of the elite, eventually crashed, destroying the lifestyles of this family of wealth, the introduction into a life of bondage consumed the slave child once again, returning her to the fate to which she was born. Zelda Lockhart, with her pen, takes the reader on a poignant journey: of not only a version of slavery seldom mentioned, but a struggle for land and life, and the efforts to assimilate, and to still not find acceptance by the greater society. Ms. Lockhart also peels back the layers of the effects of chattel slavery on the heart and soul of the enslaver and the enslaved. With her pen, Lockhart has brought forth characters hidden in the pages of history, and with her imagination, Zelda Lockhart has unleashed a story of new dimensions, bringing out new characters in an old story, as old as the cold creek running. Ms. Lockhart has carved her place on the list of gifted writers. --Angela Walton-Raji, author of Black Indian Genealogy

About this edition

• Publisher: LaVenson Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0978910214
• ISBN 13: 9780978910211
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320