My First Writing Project of 2024

I am excited to have my first writing project of 2024 ready and loaded onto KDP. Grandma's Match for Garrett will publish tomorrow, January 16th. When Garrett Oliver’s grandmother requests help on her ranch after her husband dies, Garrett’s father chooses him to leave Cades Cove, Tennessee, and go to Indian Territory which is now Oklahoma. When he gets there, Garrett suspects his grandma wants to match him with her beautiful half-Chickasaw friend, but the more he sees of Wren Hudson, the less he resists his grandmother’s efforts. He wants to protect the often-shunned woman from the community’s prejudice and discover who’s vandalizing her place. But he’s supposed to return to Cades Cove, and Wren doesn’t plan to ever marry, so the future looks about as unpredictable as the Appalachian weather back home.

Link to book

This book was fun to write, but it was unusual for me. For one thing, I didn't know what was going to happen at the end until I got there. Normally, I know my characters, the beginning of my story, and the ending by the time I start writing, but not in this case. It might have been better for the genre if it had ended another way, but I stayed true to my characters' hearts. All my novels are character-driven, so they dictate the story to me.

I had hoped that Jared Walters could narrate the Audible version of the book, but he was recovering from COVID, and with the lingering cough, he wasn't ready. His voice and style would have been a perfect fit; however, I found a new narrator that I'm very pleased with. She's from Tennessee, like Jared, but she has a more general American accent. I think she's done a fantastic job, and I believe listeners will be as pleased as I am. I'm hoping that Charity Spencer will agree to do other books for me and that you'll check out this sweet story. Perhaps you'll fall in love with Garrett and Wren the way I did.

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