God Centered
Family Focused
Christy Award Winner, First Novel
Her granddaughter, Evelyn Lester, shows up on Beatrice’s doorstep anyway, burdened with her own secret baggage. Determined to help her Granny B mend fences with her far-flung brood, Evelyn turns her grandmother’s heart and home inside out. Evelyn’s meddling uncovers a tucked-away box of old letters, forcing the two women to wrestle with their past and present pain as they confront the truth Beatrice has worked a lifetime to hide.
ABOUT Me
COMING February 2021
If Maxine could put her finger on the moment when her life went into a tailspin, she would point back twenty years to the day her daddy died. She tells herself he’s the only person who ever really knew and loved her, and if he hadn’t left her behind, her future would’ve taken a different path. No absentee mother, no stepfather, no rebellious ripping and running during her teenage years. And no JD, who gave her wandering young heart a home, at least for a time.
But that’s over and done with. All grown-up now, Maxine has pledged her heart and ring finger to Theodore Charles, the man she’ll promise to love, honor, and obey in front of God and everybody. At least that’s what she’s telling anybody who will listen. The only folks buying it are the dog and the readers of her column, however. Her best friend and family aren’t having it―not even Celeste, the double bass–playing thirteen-year-old the community of Mount Laurel, North Carolina, believes is Maxine’s adopted sister. And apparently, neither is the newly returned JD, who seems intent on toppling Maxine’s reconstructed life. As her wedding day marches ever closer, Maxine confronts what it means to be really known and loved by examining what’s buried in her own heart and exposing truth that has never seen the light of day.
Picture Perfect
I don't remember this photo. I believe my daddy took it one Easter Sunday morning nearly my lifetime ago. My sisters seem to be working hard to make sure I sat still long enough for him to capture this moment. They’re not the only ones who worked hard. My folks made...
Soul Satisfaction
Our Oscar is one of the most particular dogs I know, especially when it comes to food. He had to try several dog food brands ranging from ridiculous to reasonable before he finally “agreed” to one. My parents are raising his brother, Michael. He hasn’t met a treat he...
Fertile Ground
Right before Thanksgiving, Mama told me she had loved my grandmother well. Not merely a lot, but well. “I cried at her funeral, but I didn’t break down,” she said. “I knew I had done everything I could for her while she was alive.” Now, I know how much she misses my...
There’s God in Them Thar Hills!
If you look closely—as in turn the photo upside down and squint for ten minutes—you might detect what it took us eighteen laps to spot: a hill. And of course, the moment we laid eyes on it on our fifth day of walking, we felt it. Immediately. Our thighs started to...
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