Chasiti Kirkland Jackson
Creative Writer/Copy Editor

Chasiti slept with tarantulas in Base Camp Ganadero when one of the deadliest hurricanes of the century leveled western Honduras. She followed the trail of a serial killer who murdered four women, one whom he abducted from a grocery store and ditched her toddler at a Georgia welcome center.

That was in another life as a news reporter, and yes, she’s older than she looks. She played crime detective, court reporter and tornado chaser. She explained how the school board spent tax dollars and how city ordinances affected people. She reported on politics, covering visits to South Carolina by presidential cabinet members. She stood toe to toe with the first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright; soldier and statesman retired Gen. Colin Powell; and the late U.S. representative Henry J. Hyde, who tried to impeach President Clinton when the Monica Lewinsky scandal erupted and ended up before Hyde’s judiciary committee.

Chasiti knew the “The Godfather of Soul,” James Brown, on a first-name basis. It wasn’t hard, really. He was practically a neighbor whose stage moves — the quick shuffles, the knee-drops, the splits — were often overshadowed by his scrapes with the law, which he rebelled against.

In 2001, three months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Chasiti accepted a job with the National Wild Turkey Federation. At first she fielded media calls and, through press releases, made the wild turkey seem glamorous. Later, she served as managing editor of Women in the Outdoors and Wheelin’ Sportsmen magazines and occasionally wrote for Turkey Call.

There’s really no reason why Chasiti fell in love with writing. Maybe as an only child she grew tired of one-sided conversations. She’s also bad at math, and her left brain sleeps a lot. Athletics were out of the question because she’s too graceful, and she’s the only one in her dad’s family who can’t play a musical instrument, despite her long fingers, which everyone said were meant for the piano.

Chasiti lives with her husband Mark, a helicopter pilot, in New Holland, S.C., labeled Barefoot on the map. She enjoys bonfires and beer, helps her dad on the family farm, eats her Mema’s tomato gravy and turnips, collects eggs from her yard chickens, the Hippie Chicks, and hangs out at The River Bar, which she co-owns.