Daren Dean has an eye on and ear for the everyday lives of working class folks. Some of his favorite authors write in the "grit" style. Put those together and you get stories and novels that are familiar to small town America. Then you add his research into the Civil War as it occurred in Missouri and you get an historic reality novel, The Black Harvest. Daren is not big on making sure his students have everything grammatically correct in their assignments. In his Lincoln University classes, he's interested in their creativity and ability to tell a story. Grammar can be fixed later.