Former Instructor Jan Stites Writes Novel, 'Reading the Sweet Oak'

DAILY DEMOCRAT (WOODLAND) -- During the four years it took to write "Reading the Sweet Oak," Stites, accompanied by her husband, Bert Felton, took trips back to the Ozarks where she grew up camping, swimming and canoeing with her family. She not only wanted to capture the descriptions of the physical landscape but also the emotional landscape of the area's longtime residents. Her husband said that Stites, who also worked as a screenwriter and taught screenwriting at San Francisco State, depicted the Ozarks and its residents "down to a gnat's eyebrow."