Presenting: Children's/YA Book Author Kerry Madden

There are so many of you who have taken the time to write up a praise blurb, or post about Tender Graces, or write up a review, or email me your thoughts, et-cetera. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. So, I'm going to spend some time bragging and talking up all of you!

Someone, after reading a draft of Tender Graces before it went to print, said I should contact Kerry Madden, since she'd written childrens/YA books called "The Maggie Valley Trilogy" about a mountain family here in the Smoky Mountains where I live. I emailed Kerry and we talked about our books, writing, the mountains. I offered to review her MV Trilogy, and she offered to read and write up a blurb for Tender Graces. So began a friendship between two authors who love the mountains, love writing, love our characters, love language.

I read all three of her books: Gentle's Holler, Louisiana's Song, and Jessie's Mountain. The word that surfaced more often than any other is: Charming. Folks, if you have girls aged 10 and up, consider purchasing these three books for them. They are gentle, sweetly written, and Livy Two, the narrator of all three books, will steal their heart. Though they are for a younger audience, I was engaged enough to read all three with a happy heart. Their innocence, charm, and family-oriented theme will delight audiences young and "old."

About Kerry: I grew up the daughter of a football coach in football towns across the South and Midwest. I was the oldest of four children, so I spent a lot of time babysitting and making up stories for my younger brothers and sister to perform. I wrote my first novel, Offsides, about growing up in the world of football. I was also told to clean the kitchen a lot when I was a kid, and so I made up stories to escape in my head. My sister became an orphan scrubbing a stove or I became a nun, chopping vegetables—a train conductor, a sickly mother, an evil school matron— anything to escape the drudgery of my own life. ... for more about Kerry, go to her website About Kerry page.

What Kerry wrote about Tender Graces: Kathryn Magendie's TENDER GRACES leaves a ghostly trail of broken hearts from by-God West Virginia to Texas to the shimmering seasons of Louisiana where real love and an unexpected home is found for a lost child. Reminiscent of early Lee Smith and Silas House, Magendie's Virginia Kate Carey is the steady beating pulse of this beautiful narrative that sweeps through a lifetime of loss, grief, and ultimately redemption and what it means to go home again.

Kerry is the fourth in my "Presenting:" series. I've introduced: Deborah Leblanc, Barbara at Serenity Gate, and Diane from OCEAN Magazine. Go by and give them your support and love!