University Newswire
Thursday, November 5, 2009
UNCP hosts Lost Colony fiction writer on November 10
Richard Folsom, author of “Indian Wood: A Mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island,” will speak in the Main Reading Room of UNC Pembroke’s Mary Livermore Library at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10.
Folsom will talk about his latest book of historical fiction. UNCP’s campus and one of UNCP’s employees are mentioned in the book, as are other scenes from Robeson County.
The book concerns attempts to prove that the Lumbee Indians are, or are not, descended from the Roanoke Island Lost Colonists. The controversy about that theory is a main part of the plot line.
Richard Folsom is a native of Fayetteville and a graduate of East Carolina University, where some scenes in the book also take place, specifically in the special collections area of the E.C.U. library.
Lisa Morgan of Our State Magazine said in the January 2009 issue that “Folsom cracks open America’s oldest cold case file in this spine tingling piece of historical fiction. He presents the evidence like a well-prepared district attorney, leaving the reader guessing until the end. Indian Wood is an exciting and intellectually stimulating journey through North Carolina’s Colonial history.”
Folsom graduated from East Carolina University in 1971 with a B.A. in history, served in the Army for two years, then returned to ECU and received an M.A. in instructional design in 1974. The author lives at Blounts Creek, N.C., just east of “Little Washington,” along the Pamlico River.
“Indian Wood was published in August 2008 and is Folsom’s second novel. It is an historical murder mystery and much more than a well-researched tale of the Lost Colony.
It is also a story of the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, who some claim to be descended from the Lost Colonists of Roanoke Island. The historical mystery is wrapped within a contemporary murder mystery.
Who killed the professor that may have discovered a link between the Lumbees and the Lost Colonists? The person that can unravel the professor’s two linking theories may also be able to solve the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.
“The Pareto Spread,” Folsom’s first book, was published in 2006. It is an action- thriller, a story of the decline of traditional American values and beliefs, and the radical attempt by a group of ultra patriots to reset the moral compass of an entire nation.
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