TODAY IS THE DAY!  It’s not only my physical birthday, it’s my book birthday. After five-plus years of hard labor, we are moments away from the birth of For the Love of Emma. At some point today my debut novel is due to go live on Amazon! Watch for it!

I am a third-generation artist and grew up in a family brimming with creativity.  From a young age, I knew I wanted to paint like my father. I only wish someone had told me to pursue writing as well.

I attended art school in Atlanta, majored in commercial graphics, and for over 25 years wholesaled my art prints and stationery nationwide. In 2003, I leaped from the competitive treadmill I found myself on and looked forward to a satisfying retirement.

Today—I’m selling books. I never saw it coming.

Candor Magazine

My mother was the writer. Although she didn’t pursue writing professionally, she was an avid reader, loved to write poetry, and had several poems published as a young woman. After her death in 2011, I attended a small writer’s conference with a friend and heard God’s call to write. I soon picked up the  pen my mother laid down and went on to learn the craft of writing devotions.

Shortly thereafter, I found a box of letters from her first love in a trunk that had sat in her bedroom for years. While a waitress at the Rainbow Restaurant in Fayetteville in the late thirties, she met a young soldier from Fort Bragg and they planned to marry. After reading the seventy-nine letters he’d written her over the course of about thirteen months, I knew the letters held the seeds of a fascinating novel. “Someone should write one,” I said.

Oops! But—I was a devotion writer. I knew nothing about writing fiction, and seldom read it. I couldn’t imagine God calling me to write a novel.

Tap image to order

Today, my debut novel, For the Love of Emma, releases with Mountain Brook Ink. I’m grateful for the encouragement and excellent guidance Miralee Ferrell and her team have given me. I also thank those of you who have helped me navigate this sharp learning curve, and for Cyle Young, my agent, who found my book a forever home. Ultimately, I thank God for entrusting me with His gift of words.

One thing I’ve learned through this journey is that we’re never too old to begin something new. When God calls us, he will equip us. Although I regret it’s taken me more than two-thirds of my life to discover this satisfying labor of love, I know God’s timing is perfect and can’t imagine a more satisfying retirement.

Looking forward, Mountain Brook Ink contracted me for two novels. I’m in the early stages of For the Love of Emma’s sequel, Emma’s Quest. Please pray for me. My manuscript is due July 15, 2021. I don’t have the luxury of 5+ years to pen this one.

I invite you to subscribe to my Bringing Life into Focus website for future updates at www.starrayers.org and to check out For the Love of Emma on my Amazon Author page. If you’ve already ordered, Thank you! If you haven’t, I pray you’ll take a “peek inside” on Amazon and consider it.

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Painted by my grandfather, Captain William Brown

My talented father, Douglas Brown

Painted by my father

“Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” —H. Jackson Brown, Jr., P.S. I Love You

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