I like writing about human beings.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m a huge extrovert, or because I believe with every fiber of my soul that we were created to connect.  No matter what we’re doing, we yearn for companionship.  Though writers can be known for being introverted, I think the opposite is actually true.  I think that our stories are testaments to how much we want to just reach out and grab something…something that makes us feel as alive as we can be.  The pen is just the medium in which we are able to do it.

Maybe it was that yen for human interaction that made me a writer to begin with.  I was an only child until I was 8 years old, so I made people up to talk to.  Then once I was able to write, I mapped out their voices in story-form…and I fell in love with the art.  You can expect character-driven literature from me, and distinct voices that have accents, inflections, and purposes.  You can expect your mother, your sister, your friend, your star-crossed lover.  You can expect flaws…you can expect people.

As a novelist writing fiction pieces, I’ve found that most of my stories are Southern in nature, because I get southerners.  Also, I think it’s possible that southern people as a whole are just bound to their atmospheres, with myself as no exception.  We are all about who planted the tree we climbed as children, and who helped us catch our first fish.  We care which of our ancestors fought in which war.  We are proud that every stone, every tree, every river is a history lesson.  I dig into those places that radiate life already, and I harness it.  It’s a heat as strong as a Charleston July.

When I’m not working on my latest novel or short story, I choose to blog about people.  One of my focuses is spot-lighting women in my city.  Charleston is a breeding ground for southern women with big voices.  So many have something to say, and I give them a forum to say it through my story-telling.  I love celebrating other driven people, and love creating synergy between us all!

Please hop on board with me, and travel with me on my journeys down southern roads, across vast beaches, and into deep mountains! Meet the amazing characters hiding in every nook and cranny along the way!  I hope you’ll want to return again and again to my porch, sip a Firefly lemonade or muscodine wine with me, and fall into a fantastic story.

 

Visit http://www.whatswriteincharleston.com for more about the amazing women in           this town!

Follow this site for updates on my novels, including  Tobacco Sun, coming to you                      Summer 2017!  Preview the book jacket blurb below!

 

The year is 1947.  The war is over, Jackie Robinson has just integrated baseball, and Frank Sinatra breezes in over the fuzzy airwaves.  A sense of relief is finally sweeping the nation…everywhere except Tobaccoville, North Carolina.

Beyond the rural fields that are pregnant with decades of secrets, a mysterious Hollywood pin-up is jailed for murder while her facially birthmarked half-sister may hold the answers as to why.  

The two girls, estranged for years, share a haunting past, a shell-shocked love interest, and maybe even a cruel destiny.  Through mountains of lies, the truth that inevitably comes pouring out of the tobacco leaves will come to light.  Will this light reveal the path to the siblings’ foreordained destruction, or their long-awaited deliverance?  Will they realize they each hold the power to set the other free before it’s too late?

A story of heritage, hurt, and somehow, hope; Tobacco Sun keeps you on the edge of your seat while you find yourself rooting for redemption.  This one cannot be put down!

Photo courtesy of Morgan Williams