The Edge of Light

First of all, thank you to all the family members of those who’ve died protecting our country. What a sacrifice your loved ones made for us … and we so rarely take the time to consider it. Personally, I’m grateful to have a cousin home from service in the Middle East. He can’t say when he comes and goes because of his job, but it shocked my aunt to wake up to him hovering over her a few days ago!

Maybe you’re home relaxing on this beautiful Memorial Day. Maybe you’re wishing for a good book to read RIGHT NOW on your Kindle. Allow me to be at your service!

May I recommend Ann Shorey’s debut novel, The Edge of Light? Set in Missouri in the 1830s, this book defies the usual conventions of a historical. After Molly McGarvie’s husband dies, she faces obstacle after obstacle: degenerating familial relationships, the unrest still swirling around slavery and the Underground Railroad, and the difficulty of keeping her family together.

I received this book months ago, but didn’t have a chance to read it until during the divorce. Ann’s tagline is Yesterday’s Women–Today’s Issues. Boy, did she get that right! I was struck, time and time again as I read, how alike Molly’s struggles were to my own. Trying to make our own way in a world more suited to men–or at least a childless woman. Dealing with loss, but also an awakening to the world that awaits. Denying attraction to any other man. Balancing a compulsion to work to make money for one’s family, while needing to spend time tightening and reassuring family bonds. The overwhelming responsibility of being sole provider. The questioning of whether hard choices made are right or not. Deciding where to live. Mostly, the seeking after what God wants in our lives.

With fresh writing, strong characters, and an unusual plot line, Ann creates a hunger for the next book in the At Home in Beldon Grove series.

Here’s a little bit more about Ann and the book, plus a picture of us from last year: (I think I need to get longer arms for better pictures!)

1. How much of yourself do you write into your characters?

A little bit of myself finds it way into most of my female characters. In The Edge of Light, the little girl, Luellen, is me as a child. A trial to my mom!

2. When did you first discover you were a writer?

When I was in high school. In my junior year we were given an assignment to write a story. When my English teacher handed the papers back, she encouraged me to continue writing. Before that, I’d made up stories and scenarios with my sister all through our childhood–I just didn’t write them down.

3. What other books have you written, whether published or not?

I wrote a nonfiction family history, titled A Great Cloud of Witnesses, which was privately published in 1998. My family has been blessed with memoir writers, going back to an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution. However, my male ancestors did the writing, so I turned to fiction to tell the women’s side of the story. The Edge of Light was inspired by the life of one of my great-great aunts.

The second book in the At Home in Beldon Grove series, titled The Promise of Morning, was also inspired by a female ancestor–my great-great grandmother. The Promise of Morning is scheduled for release in January, 2010.

4. What advice would you give an author just starting out?

Consider your first book or two as practice runs. There’s no better way to learn to write fiction than to write and re-write. Take your writing seriously and don’t let anyone diminish your dreams. Go to every good conference you can afford and take the classes offered that pertain to your work.