Launched with Local Love
On August 17, 2019, I celebrated the launch of my very first novel for young readers. For me, it was a dream-come-true. Over the course of about eight or nine years, I developed Dahlia in Bloom based on my mother’s fond memories of her childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I fictionalized her world and created a character who lived in it. Just before she passed away, I shared the beginnings of that story with my mother and received her blessing. The story grew and changed ov