A Tale of Southern Charm Dripping With Intrigue and Romance

 

Two Sisters. One Single Event. A Family Changed Forever.

At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly--and innocently--draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.

After Lily has a baby, Callie witnesses something she was never meant to see--or did she? Her memory is a haze, just an image in her mind of Emmy standing on a darkened riverbank and cradling Lily's missing baby girl. Only when the sisters are separated does the truth slowly come to light through their letters--including a revelation that will shape the rest of Callie's life.

Bestselling author Valerie Fraser Luesse weaves a complex and suspenseful tale dripping with intrigue, romance, and Southern charm.

Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of Almost Home and the bestselling, Christy Award–winning Missing Isaac. Her third novel, The Key to Everything, was inspired by a true story. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is best known for her features and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently the senior travel editor. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, she has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. The author lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Dave—and a mischievous orange cat named Cheeto.

https://www.valeriefraserluesse.com/

THE SOUTH IS IN THE DETAILS

By Valerie Fraser Luesse

At a literary conference I attended years ago, one of the presenters suggested that the reason Eudora Welty had such an ear for Deep South dialect was she heard it as an outsider, given that her father was from Ohio and her mother came from West Virginia. I’ve experienced the same thing writing for Southern Living magazine. Most of our staff members are from the South, but we have one editor who’s a New Yorker, and you wouldn’t believe how many great story ideas she has, simply because the things we do, the way we talk, the foods we eat—they’re all exotic to her. She finds Southern culture intriguing, while those of us who grew up here often take it for granted: Of course we consider macaroni and cheese a vegetable. Doesn’t everybody?

So much of telling Southern stories is just paying attention . . .

to that handwritten sign in a little country store: “No baggy britches. We don’t want to look at your underwear. The Management.”

to that Louisiana church sign that reads, “God answers knee mail.”

to Southernisms like “reckon” (think/imagine), “pocket book” (purse), “ear bobs” (earrings), and “some more” (impressive, as in, “That was some more party”)

to live oak trees and kudzu, barbecue joints and roadside tomatoes, preachers and football coaches and “beauticians” and Mama

The setting for my new novel, Almost Home, is based on a real place that once belonged to my family in Alabama, and as I wrote I kept reminding myself: Get the Southern details right. Sometimes I see better with my eyes closed, so that’s what I do when I get stuck. I close my eyes and picture myself inside the story. It helps me smell the red dirt and hear the whap of a screen door or the creaking sound of a hanging basket, swinging from a hook on the front porch. I can feel a cool breeze under the shade of a pecan tree or the hot prickle on my skin when I step out into the sun. I can swat at a mosquito, brush aggravating ants off my bare foot, and take a cool drink of water from the garden hose.

Authenticity is always in the details. And in the South, compelling details are everywhere.

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Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac and an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently the senior travel editor. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana’s Acadian Prairie, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Facebook.com/valeriefraserluessebooks