G. G. Stokes Jr.

G.G. Stokes, Jr. is a southern writer whose works are set in the Southeastern United States, primarily in Georgia and the Carolinas. Stokes wrote his first story, a short science fiction work that was never published, while attending the eighth grade at Plains High School in Plains, Georgia, a small school of three hundred students ranging in age from the first to the twelfth grades. After serving six years in the US Navy's submarine service, Stokes began college at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, Georgia where he struggled to complete his core courses. There he began writing his first novel as a requirement for a creative writing course. Unable to type, he hand wrote the novel which eventually became the Debatable Land: A Novel of the Southeast. At this point, Stokes left college to work for the Georgia Department of Agriculture's Weights and Measures Division, a job that took him away from home on a regular basis. Spending nights in motel rooms across the state, he wrote his second work, One Two One, the story of a group of Georgia National guardsmen who stumble onto a lost cache of gold while on maneuvers during their summer training. Although this work has never been published, it resulted in his mastery of typing. Using an old manual typewriter handed down through his wife's family and a simple method - he drew an outline of his hands and fingers and his wife wrote the letters each finger strikes above them - Stokes became a passable typist by the time he completed One Two One.
After transferring to the Northeast Georgia area, Stokes returned to college where he earned a BA in History with a minor in Secondary Education and, later, an MA in Social Science from Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. Taking a job as an educator in a small rural high school, he did no writing for several years. In 2005 he began research for his third novel, the story of the forgotten Loyalists of the American Revolution. After two years of research, he began the novel, finishing it in 2007 and titling it A Lesser Form of Patriotism, A Novel of the King's Carolina Rangers and the American Revolution in the South. Using what he calls his shotgun method, he began emailing queries to five publishers or agents each night. After having sent out well over one hundred queries and sample chapters, and receiving no responses other than nicely worded rejections, he chanced upon the website of ePress-online. After reading the submission requirements for historical fiction, which limited works to 100,000 words, he sent a simple email to the editor asking if this was set in stone or simply a guideline. A Lesser Form of Patriotism was 125,000 words at the time. Discouraged and not expecting a favorable reply, he was surprised when the editor informed him that she was leaving on vacation and would look over the manuscript during her spare time. A few days later he received the reply that makes the day of any new author - if he would sign an agreement not to submit the work to any other publisher for six weeks, they would evaluate the manuscript. Five weeks later, it was accepted for heavy editing and eventual publication. Stokes's first contract was signed and the book was published at 121,576 words and with the shortened cover title of A Lesser Form of Patriotism
The publishing of A Lesser Form of Patriotism in 2008 was followed that same year by its prequel, Loving Lynn Celia: a Novel of the French and Indian War in the South. In 2009 Stokes's editor left ePress-online to begin a small publishing company in partnership with two friends, Norlights Press. Stokes's Colonial Southeast series was continued through this company with two additional books The Road to Bloody Marsh, a rewrite of his Debatable Land story set during King George's War, and Letters For Catherine, Stokes's first, first-person work telling the story of the Charleston prison ships as seen through the eyes of a young Patriot, William Hunter.
With his Colonial Southeast series completed, Stokes began working in new genres, producing a short 24 page history, Camp Toccoa: First Home of the Airborne in March 2011, and a crime and mystery novel, Fireson Bay, slated for release in late in 2011.

Works:

A Lesser Form of Patriotism: A Novel of the Kings Carolina Rangers and the American Revolution in the South.
Camp Toccoa: First Home of the Airborne.
Fireson Bay
Letters For Catherine: A Novel of Charleston during the American Revolution.
Loving Lynn Celia: A Novel of the French and Indian War in the South.
The Debatable Land: A Novel of the Southeast 1739-1745.
The Road to Bloody Marsh.