Jack Hammond Jr. is a lifelong resident of South Carolina, growing up during the Cold War and the Civil Rights era. He holds a BA in English from Coker College and an MBA from Wingate University. After a long career managing municipal and county utilities, a Board of Directors mercifully put him out of his misery when they fired him. He began teaching high school English. Along with teaching, Mr. Hammond became a head track coach and an assistant football coach, winning three consecutive state championships in football. Teaching reignited his love for literature and writing. The Last Hanging in Scots Bend is his first novel. It draws historical images and individuals from the Reconstruction era into the intensely personal drama of two families locked in a bitter generational conflict. It is an examination of man's place in the natural world, the randomness of fate, and man's relationship to God. Mr. Hammond is currently working on a second novel, Never Enough Words, set during the Civil Rights era in Scots Bend, South Carolina.