Everyone's Talking About ... What to Read This Summer

Music, magic, and a good mystery! Woven around the discovery of a mysterious map found in the most unlikely place you can imagine, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge tells a story as diverse and eccentric as the country folk who populate Moonlight Ridge and the small town of Eden, Alabama. This surprising book will touch your heart, make you laugh, and may make you want to sleep with one eye open.

Did you ever go doodle-bug hunting as a child? Ever hear strange and frightening noises or catch a fleeting glance of a dangerous animal prowling in the woods? Did you listen breathlessly to scary stories told late at night? 

Or maybe you have some eccentric ancestors, family members, or neighbors who make you laugh, rejoice, or cringe!

All this and more can be found in the music and magic of Moonlight Ridge!

    Willie T. and Lily Claire

Blog Tag Party

A special thanks to KC Sprayberry for hosting a Blog Tag Party. This is such a great way to meet other writers and new friends. KC's blog, Out of Control Characters,  can be found at  http://outofcontrolcharacters.blogspot.com/

KC asked us to let others know what we are currently working on. I'm currently working on two exciting projects.

First, I'm writing the second book of the four volume Moonlight Ridge Series.

The four books in the series follow the seasons of the year, and this second one I'm currently working on is set in the beautiful backwoods of Alabama in autumn. You'll want to read the first book first, which tells the story of two children and their summer adventures in a magical world called Moonlight Ridge.

My Moonlight Ridge Series is very definitely Southern fiction. It's published as adult Southern genre, but crosses over as YA fiction as well. Young people of all ages love Lily Claire, Willie T., and all their peculiar relatives and neighbors. Magic wands, friendly animals, singing possums and mysteries on the mountain are just a few of the unusual attractions.
Which actors would I choose to play my characters in a movie rendition? I've thought about this a lot! Because the main two characters are 8 year-old children, I believe there would have to be a talent search across the South to find two talented youngsters for those parts. And just maybe, now that we've seen his stellar performance in the Hatfields and McCoys saga, we could get Kevin Costner to play Granddaddy W.T. Greenberry. That's for the already published Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge. For the "work in progress," we'll need a beautiful dark haired young lady to play the mysterious apparition that Lily Claire and Willie T. discover haunting the ruins of a 19th century landmark near their home.

My second Work In Progress is a YA supernatural mystery, with the working title Lovely, Dark and Deep. The first chapter won an award from Alabama Writers Conclave. The main character is a teen age girl who lives in a rural setting where mysterious events and night-time intrigue lure her into the woods at night.  It's about dreams, a young girls attempts to figure out the meaning of her dreams, and a cute boy named Buddy who may not be as simple as he seems.

 If you're visiting from the Blog Tag Party, please leave a comment. Happy blogging!

Dreams Are All True While They Last

Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?

Alfred Lord Tennyson

What a coincidence that my last blog post was about dreams! Today I just received word that  my YA novel in progress Lovely, Dark, and Deep has been awarded an Honorable Mention from Alabama Writers' Conclave in their First Chapter of a Novel contest. And this story is all about dreams, but definitely not in the ordinary sense.

None of my dreams are ever in the ordinary sense, so I have plenty of material for Lovely, Dark, and Deep!

Now, I just need to finish my Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge sequel, titled The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, which I'm determined to have finished by the end of summer, then get busy on Lovely, Dark, and Deep, a YA supernatural mystery.

Edgar Allan Poe said:  All that we see or seem , Is but a dream within a dream.