Daniel Blake Smith is a writer who loves to tell true, compelling American stories. Raised in the north Texas town of Wolfe City and educated at Oklahoma State University and the University of Virginia (where he received his doctorate in American history), Smith is the author of several books, most recently, OUR FAMILY DREAMS (St. Martin's Press), a novel-like narrative history about the Fletcher family whose story takes readers from its hard-scrabble Vermont farm origins in Revolutionary America to Virginia slave plantations and Indianapolis and the American West in the 19th century. The patriarch, Jesse Fletcher, struggled with debt and depression but managed to educate his children, especially his son Elijah, a Yankee who moved to Virginia and was shocked by the horrors of slavery, but later seduced by the plantation lifestyle. Another son, Calvin, left at age 17 for Indianapolis to become a self-made lawyer, banker, and a prominent citizen and passionate abolitionist. The grandchildren include Indiana, a women's education activist who donated her home to create Sweet Briar College; black sheep Lucian, who went to California to join in the gold rush; and physician Billy, captured as a spy during the Civil War.Smith is also the author of a major new book about the epic internal battles in Indian country that culminated in the epic tragedy of forced removal: AN AMERICAN BETRAYAL: CHEROKEE PATRIOTS AND THE TRAIL OF TEARS (Henry Holt). He's also the co-author of a critical narrative story about early Virginia, THE SHIPWRECK THAT SAVED JAMESTOWN (Henry Holt). Smith's most recent film, a narrative feature film he wrote and produced, TEXAS HEART, tells the poignant and compelling story of a mob lawyer on the run (after losing a key case) who decides to reinvent himself in a small, forgotten back country Texas town but while hiding out stumbles upon a powerful reason to do good. The film has its Hollywood premiere in June and will be available on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Hulu and other major platforms. Smith's the writer/producer of six feature documentaries, most notably, IMPACT: AFTER THE CRASH (about the deadliest drunk-driving-related crash in US history), ENVISIONING HOME; and THE CHEROKEES' TRAIL OF TEARS (narrated by James Earl Jones and Wes Studi).Formerly a professor of American history at the University of Kentucky, Smith now lives in St. Louis where he writes books and makes films.