What if you had the power to amend choices you made in the past? Would you do it even if it changed everything? Mercy Land has made some unexpected choices for a young woman in the 1930s. The sheltered daughter of a traveling preacher, she chooses to leave her rural community to move to nearby Bay City on the warm, gulf-waters of southern Alabama. There she finds a job at the local paper and spends seven years making herself indispensible to old Doc Philips, the publisher and editor. Then she gets a frantic call at dawn—it’s the biggest news story of her life, and she can’t print a word of...
The Anti-Valentine’s Day Post
Ok, it’s not like I’m against Valentine’s Day. People get all happy and the pink and red come out in force. It is hard not to catch a little of the giddiness. But I’ve always believed there should be so much more to it. Not just one day, but every day should have the same joy and love. My husband and I have a weekly “date night” where it is just the two of us and sometimes we just have dinner and a rented movie at home. I’m not saying everyone should/can do that each week – but why do we save it all for one day in February and...
Lessons learned from my day job…
There are many good reasons for a “day job” as an aspiring author. Income, among many other things, is the biggest perk. But there are countless other positives. For me, my experience as an event and communications coordinator for a small college has set me ahead in many ways as a writer. 1. Project Management The key to any good event planner is balancing one thing while juggling another dozen objects in the air. With one hand. Writers must do the same thing: proposals, drafts, revising, marketing, social media, book signings… The list goes on and on. 2. A Designer’s Eye I’m by no means a professional or even good...
Story Behind the Story: April Gardner
It’s believed my great, great+ grandfather might have been Chief Red Eagle/William Weatherford of the Creek Indians. The legend I’d always heard was that he jumped off a cliff to save his people. Lying in bed early one morning, I wished I could read the story in a novel. (I luuurve historical fiction.) The next logical thought was that I should be the one to write it. Outside of high school, I’d never written before, but figured I’d give it a go. During research, I came across Pickett’s History of Alabama, the most thrilling history book you’ll ever read. It was written in 1851 in story-book fashion. The author interviewed...
Story Behind the Story: Henry McLaughlin
The idea for the novel came first as an image of a man, Michael Archer, standing on ridge looking down on a small town. As I asked myself why he was there, the story unfolded: He was there to attempt reconciliation, a prodigal by proxy, of a son, Ben Carstairs, hung for a crime he didn’t commit and his estranged father, Sam. The characters grew out of the story. I don’t know how else to describe it. Michael meets the stunning Rachel Stone while waiting for Sam to return from a business trip. Beautiful yet guarded, Rachel is running from a past as dark as Michael’s, and the last...