Soon she discovers the secret that prompted Emma to irrationally blame an entire race - a secret that had nothing to do with family history, although it strongly paralleled another tragic event from the past.1846, Marianne Witherell’s journal: Before Lincoln and the American Civil War, slavery is at its peak in South Carolina. After Emma’s death though, Olivia finds a letter and an old journal among her belongings. Olivia assumed that bigotry was the product of her mother’s loyalty to long-dead relatives, an allegiance to maintain the family’s white blood line. My day job consists of teaching career skills to adults, as well as writing training curriculum.Olivia’s marriage to an African-American man was unacceptable to her mother Emma, Southern-bred descendant of prominent South Carolina slaveholders. We are parents to two wonderful adult daughters, Kayla and Abbey, and grandparents to one adorable baby boy named Luke Elliott. Known as "Teri" in my private life, I live in Indiana with my husband Karl. Over two years later, my first novel, "The Secrets of Heavenly," was born. In that moment, I knew that I had to craft a story and that this "scene" had to be woven into its fabric.
It was the story of infanticide carried out on a plantation where there was a surplus of slave babies. One day after reading a book titled "To Be a Slave" (by Julius Lester), I was especially angered by one account of particular cruelty. Ad copy, catalog descriptions, marketing collateral, company newsletters.
Then I "graduated" to marketing work where my blood truly began to boil. From adolescent poetry to short stories, writing was a creative escape for me, a shy little girl who tried to keep my voice under wraps.Īs I became a working adult, I always gravitated to the jobs that allowed me the freedom to express ideas, working in administrative positions where I could write company policies and employee handbooks. While my classmates groaned when our teachers assigned book reports, research papers, and essays, I had to hide the spark in my eyes and the giddiness in my voice.
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