An Old Familiar Place

is only half easy— The easy part is what you know about your own personal characters. What was going on around them at the time is quite another story. Rachel, After the Darkness covers a relatively condensed timeframe, beginning in late fall of 1872 and ending in late September 1873. Research that covers a little less than a year may not seem significant, but the year 1873 was not one of those insignificant years. In fact, the drama was amazingly intense, and I wanted to cover as much as I possibly could. That year combined with Rachel's memories covering the greater part of the first decade after the War, Reconstruction, and the continuing aftermath that droned on and on makes for an incredible story. If we are smart, we will never exhaust the War years and beyond from a literary perspective. Those years were rich with important information. I'm sorry to say, I didn't know a lot about the North before I started writing historical fiction. Learni...

I'm at the finish line with Rachel, After the Darkness . It is all with the publisher, and I am now at their mercy for a beautiful book block and cover. I can hardly wait. It's always fun to watch this part of the process unfold and to see the splendid handiwork of the design team. I do love my publisher! Here's a little excerpt from the story. I hope it will make you thirst for more! By Far the Greatest Rachel glanced toward the door where she had left the dress on the wood hanger her mother had packed in the side of the big box. She knew I would have no way of hanging it, thought Rachel. Madeleine Beauregard does think of everything. Rachel touched it again, lost in the feel of luxurious fabric, the fragrance of store-bought finery. Her head was spinning from the sudden eruption of a thousand possibilities. In an anxious moment, she removed the skirt from the hanger and slipped it to her slender waist, then the jacket, fastening the long row of covered butt...

"Sense of Place" I was elated when I learned I would be getting an endorsement for JOAB.  JACK LAMAR MAYFIELD, OXFORD, MS  I met Jack Lamar Mayfield last year in Oxford, Mississippi. My friend from high school days, Emmie Lou Mooney Greene, a prominent Oxonian herself, introduced me to him and we spent several hours getting a grand tour from an historical perspective. I fell in love with the beautiful university town situated in the rolling hill country of northeast Mississippi. Of course, I had been to Oxford many times, but never having known such things as Jack Mayfield shared that day. Jackie, as known by his friends, is a fifth generation Oxonian. His family came to Oxford shortly after the Chickasaw Cession of 1832. He is a former history instructor and writes a weekly column for the local newspaper The Oxford Eagle . His column is entitled "Sense of Place" and is solely about the history of Oxford and Ole Miss. He is the author of a book ...