The Vision Seeker – A Tale of the Tuscarora
For girls of the Tuscarora Nation in the Carolinas (1711), playing lacrosse is forbidden, but Running-Girl doesn’t care. She’s not a maiden yet, and besides, she’s absolutely no good at women’s chores. But Running-Girl is afraid. She’s having flash-visions—dead bodies strewn about the lacrosse field; her village bursting into flames. She tells no one, but the visions become more detailed during her Maidenhood seclusion. They show the death and destruction of her village and her parents. When she shares her visions with the Clan Mothers of the village, her name is changed to Vision-Seeker in honor of the gift Creator has given her. However, her Clan Mother cannot help her interpret the meaning of her visions and many in the village don’t believe her … until the attack comes. The Vision Seeker, a Tale of the Tuscarora, is an historical YA novel set in North Carolina, 1711-1713.
“I discovered the Tuscarora War history (1711-1713) doing research on Native Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. The history of this war and the treatment of the Tuscarora at the hands of the British intrigued me and I began to look at ways I could tell the story from the view point of a girl who experiences it. With the help of the Clan Mothers of the Tuscarora Nation in upstate New York, I began a fourteen-year journey of discovery. The result is the first book of a trilogy that will tell the Tuscarora story: The Vision Seeker.” Dr. Mary Lois Sanders
The Vision Seeker is available in paperback and from Kindle.
About Mary Lois Sanders (The Villages, Florida Author)
A native Texan, Mary Lois Sanders is the daughter of a Baptist preacher and a Baptist preacher’s daughter, both of whom were published authors in their special fields of expertise. They both loved music as well. Perhaps her love of both writing and music are in her genes, who knows? But she grew up loving to write and sing.
To this end, Mary Lois worked on her high school newspaper, wrote stories she never showed to anyone, and took voice and piano lessons. The voice lessons took, the piano just barely passed.
As she tells it, her most obvious talent, upon entering college, was singing, so she chose to major in music, earning both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Baylor University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Church Music and Vocal Performance from Southwester Baptist Theological Seminary. Her writing skills became focused on academic articles and papers.
After teaching for nearly 20 years, Mary Lois married. Instead of teaching she became the volunteer minister of music in several churches in Kansas City and New Jersey. She also began writing for children. Her credits include nonfiction articles in Cobblestone, Calliope and other periodicals. She also wrote and published short stories for Boy’s Life and several anthologies. Her award-winning novels include:
• The Vision Seeker, A Tale of the Tuscarora, a YA historical novel awarded the Silver Medal for YA fiction by the Florida Book Awards in 2014, and First place for YA novel, published, in the Royal Palm Literary Awards of FWA in 2014. • Down from the Mountains, a Timothy Michael O’Hara Adventure—a Middle Grade historical novel that won First Place, Middle Grade published novel in the Royal Palm Literary Awards of FWA in 2014.
Mary Lois is a member of SCBWI, Florida Writer’s Association (FWA), and Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). She’s also Publisher/Managing Editor of Creative Writer’s Notebook, a monthly newsletter for writers, and owner of Court Jester Publications.
