In the fall of 2009, I made a decision to leave the secular market where I had published for fifteen years to try to find a home for historical novels written from a Christian world view.  I didn’t know anyone who worked in that market except for my best friend who had herself made the transition from the secular market a few years earlier.  She introduced me to her agent, who required a very labor-intensive book proposal package. I submitted it to her  in November of 2009 and by January of  2010, I was under contract at Thomas Nelson to write a series of three historical novels. This week, I turned in the revised manuscript for EVERY PERFECT GIFT, the final book in the series.

Where did the time go? I spent a lot of it conducting  research, learning about everything  from blockade running to wildflowers to millinery skills to the KKK, to newspapering….I loved all of it. Even more, I loved weaving the historical and the personal into three  novels  about strong women seeking to better their lives against long odds. And finding love along the way.

Two Hickory Ridge novels will release this year–one in March and the last in November. By which time I will have completed the next book, set in the South Carolina lowcountry. This new book is loosely based on the life of Elizabeth Allston Pringle, a woman rice planter in post-bellum South Carolina. I’ve been reading her journals and writings and am besotted with her life story. I can’t wait to dig in and to bring you a new story.

Thanks for spending time with me in Hickory Ridge. I hope you enjoy BEAUTY FOR ASHES and EVERY PERFECT GIFT.  Writing these stories was a blessing to me. I hope they bless you, too.