Johnny Neil Smith

As a child Johnny Neil Smith often sat at his grandparents’ fireplace listening to stories of their parents’ struggles while pioneering south Mississippi in the eighteen hundreds. Now a retired educator with an ardent interest in early American history, Smith weaves the stories he heard as a child into all his novels. In Beyond His Mercy, he tells the story of his great-great grandfather, Lott Williams, who located the children of his murdered son-in-law and deceased daughter who lived in Cass County, Texas, and who then brought his grandchildren to live with him in Mississippi. In all of Smith’s writings, he captures the emotions behind the events that were passed down to him from his grandparents. He is also the author of Hillcountry Warriors and Unconquered, from Sunstone Press.