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Inspiration for the Mountain Women Series I started writing fiction when I retired. I wasn’t sure anyone would like anything I had to say, but I wanted to write what was familiar and something I thought was important. Because I’d lived for almost 50 years in a farming community with nearby sawmills and coal mines, I was familiar with the beautiful but difficult terrain of West Virginia and a culture based on hard work and cooperation. I could see how previous generations had to be extremely hardy and resourceful. I have always been inspired by these qualities.

So I wrote The Girl on the Mountain, the foundation of the Mountain Women series. The Girl on the Mountain begins in 1899, as the last of the state’s virgin forest is being cut down. The setting for all the books is the fictional town of Winkler, which begins life as a sawmill town and eventually becomes a coal town. This series is not based on historical events, heroes, or historical figures, but on the culture of the period and how events of the early 1900s affected ordinary people.