Haint Blue: Chapel Hill author and Beaufort photographer join hands on new Lowcountry novel
Haint Blue
Chapel Hill author and Beaufort photographer join hands on new Lowcountry novel
Author Carl E. Linke of Chapel Hill NC and Beaufort photographer Jack Howison have joined hands to introduce this weekend Linke’s new novel, Haint Blue, featuring a collage of Lowcountry photographs on the cover including Howison’s.
Haint Blue is a story of century-old strife, passion, grisly violence, liars’ tales and local legends set in Beaufort, deep in the heart of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
In 1986 a novice businessman, Kip Drummond, rescued a sentimental landmark—the Lady’s Island Oyster Factory—. But six years later he finds himself pressured by corporate greed and paralyzed by Lowcountry desperation.
On the one side, spurred by plans to replace the run-down factory with a megamillion dollar waterfront development, a trio of predators from Philadelphia enlist the aide of a local mole and an Italian connection to deliver a no-holds-barred squeeze for the sale.
On the opposite side, fueled by rumors of the undisclosed sale, the restless Gullah workers prod their ex-Marine foreman, “Gunny” Brewer, to go head-to-head with Kip in an effort to squelch the deal, knowing his failure would cost them the livelihood that had sustained them for decades.
Caught in the maelstrom, Kip fumbles the waning support of his bombshell wife, Sandi, who longs to return to her socialite life in Charleston and becomes a willing prey.
When Kip turns to friends, he finds himself at a table in a former slave’s shack with Madam Ayanda, a tarot reader who channels Kip’s energy through cards that unveil a secret which Kip had fought desperately to conceal, but which he would need to reveal to beat a deadly hex on him.
Author Carl E. Linke, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army for twenty years in a variety of command and operations assignments around the world. With a Master of Science degree in Industrial Relations from the Krannert School of Management (Purdue University) and years of experience in building operations, he has spent his professional years developing and promoting start-up companies in Chicago and in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.
Linke currently lives with his wife, Penny, in Chapel Hill. They now share the house with two dogs and a parrot; their horse just could not handle the stairs so he lives in a nearby barn. His two grown children–in New York City and in graduate school at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)– will not let Carl leave the land of Tar Heel basketball, though
he longs for the day when he can sit on the dock to watch the sunrise over Lucy Creek in Beaufort.
Photographer Jack Howison is known around the globe as the maker of exquisite sunrise photographs across the waters of Beaufort River, published daily in The Beaufort Tribune. Numerous tributes to Jack’s skill as a photographer in letters to the editor attest to the pleasure he brings with his daily sunrise greetings.
Jack is a graduate chemist who spent 35 years in chemical sales with one job bringing him to the Lowcountry in 1990. He moved to Beaufort in 1991 and set up his own sales company in 1995 selling for various chemical and plastic manufacturers and distributors. He is currently “semi-retired” and working on sales projects as they present themselves.
Photography has always been Jack’s hobby but much more so with the advent of digital cameras and computers. His sunrise photos evolved from his love of the outdoors, being an early riser and influenced by his grandfather, who always appreciated the serenity of the early mornings and daybreak.
Jack looks forward to each and every morning and the hour or so of solitude he has as the sun rises and the new day emerges. He is happy to be able to share each day with others in the form of photographs.
Since he began sharing his sunrise photos, his morning email list has grown to more than 180 members to include The Beaufort Tribune, The Weather Channel and people all over the world.
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