The Zodiac Cult Murders

About the Book

About the Author

Mr. Santee, a native of The Santee region of South Carolina graduated from St. Louis University where he began his literary career as an undergraduate. His first short story appeared in  YOUNG WORLD MAGAZINE and shortly thereafter he sold short stories to MAINE LIFE, CAROLINA MAGAZINE PSA MAGAZINE and many literary magazines. As a published poet he has had his work appear in a variety of magazines and he has had five plays produced and one published.

His many writing awards include: 1st prize for adult fiction ( PERSIE )  - A Writer;s International Network Contest sponsored by Publisher's Weekly Magazine. A First Prize Florida State Writing Competition and an Opus Magnum Discovery Award.

He was a Grand Prize Winner of the Poetry Arts Award and won three first place awards in The New York Poetry Forum and many other writing competitions.

His first book, THE ZODIAC CULT MURDERS was published by GUILD PRESS and his most recent essay was published by NAVAL HISTORY MAGAZINE.

It is his love of history that prompted him to write SIX NOTCH ROAD and the other books in THE JOSHUA TRAIL TRILOGY.

On moving to Sacramento he fell in love with the rich literary lore of the California gold rush and spent every spare moment prowling the gold fields. The fascinating people and events of that unique era in American History inspired him to do detailed research on the stories that he felt had not been told or told well enough. He was particularly interested in the stories of the hard rock miners who are not the subject of most of western literature involving this era.

He found stories about the tough Welsh miners who came from the Pennsylvania coal mines to be of special interest. SIX NOTCH ROAD, is a work of fiction but it is was painstakingly researched over a period of five years and is written as a tribute to those hardy men of yesteryear who responded to California's call, "... to send me men as big as my mountains".