Hartsville Native Dan Easterling Signing copies of The Paralegal on Friday

On Friday, July 23, 2010
Burry Bookstore is hosting an Author Meet and Greet
from 4:00 until 5:30 pm Hartsville Native Dan Easterling
will be signing copies of his new novel
The Paralegal
This event is FREE and open to the public

Paula Cooper, a paralegal from Georgetown, SC, gets in way over her head while working for a crooked attorney, J. Thomas Denby, who has a way of winning most all of his cases. She is asked by her boss to participate in a plot to blackmail a federal judge for a huge bonus. Reluctantly Paula, the single mother of two teenage daughters, attends Judge Parks' annual Christmas party in Charleston, SC where she is to entice him to his bedroom for an embrace. A private investigator hidden outside waits to capture a photo, but before she can complete her mission things go terribly wrong.

The love of her boyfriend, Jim Roberts, an antique dealer she had met at the Isle of Palms the previous summer, is tested because of what Paula has done. She is confronted with the possibility of losing this special man, and faces charges with jail time. Jim has challenges of his own learning of Paula's secret life.

The FBI investigative team of John Dibbs and Albert Mendez are assigned to the case discovering that there are many possible suspects in a double murder and blackmail plot. The twists and turns are many as they attempt to capture the assailant in a shootout within the picturesque city of Charleston.

Daniel describes his novel in the three paragraphs above, but says that it's more than a suspense novel. According to Daniel, it has a little bit of everything, from the history of Charleston and St. Michael's Episcopal Church, to a providential love, which is evident throughout the book as his main character, Paula Cooper, seeks redemption from a bad decision. A statement about the pollution of our environment is also evident as a sub-theme.

Daniel Stephen Easterling, known in Hartsville as Danny while growing up, was born at Byerly Hospital on October 28, 1951. He attended school locally in Hartsville and played basketball, lettering six years for Hartsville Jr. High and Senior High. He is the youngest of four siblings and raised by a widow, Erma M. Easterling, whose late husband, H. C. Easterling worked at Sonoco Products Company as a precision millwright until he passed away of cancer in March of 1955 when Daniel was three and a half. Mrs. Easterling also passed away four years ago.

Upon high school graduation in May of 1969, Daniel attended the University of South Carolina from 1969-1972. For personal reasons Daniel withdrew as a junior to travel and live in different parts of the United States, i.e. Missouri, California, and Texas. Daniel also did missions work at an orphanage in Central America. He attended the University of Texas at Tyler in 1978-1979 while managing a restaurant, and then transferred to Howard Payne University, a private college in Brownwood, Texas. He graduated with honors in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts where he majored in Psychology with a minor in Political Science. He was twice named to Who's Who of America. Daniel returned to South Carolina in 1983 to live and work in Hartsville in the eighties. In 1991 Daniel moved to Columbia where he currently lives and works in sales. Daniel is divorced and has two grown children. His hobbies are travel, exercise, guitar, harmonica, and tennis. Daniel's second novel is due to be released in late 2010.