August 14, 2018:

#woohooanothercontract #number3- On Friday of last week, I received my third book contract. This one is for Mountain Laurel - the story I began back in 2009 and probably the one I’ve most wanted to see become a book. This is the story about Mom and Dad’s first date. It is chocked full of family lore, with a whole lot of creative liberty thrown in to make a good read, but the stories are basically true, some told by Mom and some by Dad, but each one means something to me. The old sayings, passed down by my Grandparents through my Parents, will live on through me to my grandchildren. The setting is The Smoky Mountains and there’s a nod to many things important to my family: Church homecomings, railroad trains, growing a garden, canning and, with the help of an expert, even burley tobacco (okay, that’s not something we grew, but its history goes way back and was an important crop to East Tennessee). However, I couldn’t write a story about this area without throwing in a chapter about moonshining. This book is near and dear to my heart and I’m excited to see it finally coming to life-due out March 2019. You will know how important it is to me when you read the dedication: 

To my granddaughter, Hannah Elizabeth, named after my mother, the real Mountain Laurel. 

(Onie Elizabeth Bowers, 1918-2011).