Friends of the Library. This item is unavailable.Friends of the Library

". . . a beautifully wrought hymn of praise to readers and book-lovers in the most sacred of places, the libraries where we find both." --Cassandra King, author of the best-selling novels The Sunday Wife

WHEN ADELE COVINGTON becomes an author in her sixties, she goes on a book tour to speak to the Friends of the Library groups in ten small towns in her home state of Mississippi. Chasing her personal demons through the Christ-haunted South of her childhood, Adele befriends an eclectic group of wounded people and decides to tell their stories. From Eupora to Meridian, from a budding artist with an abusive husband to a seven-year-old with a rare form of cancer, each story contains elements of hope and healing and honors the heart, soul, and history of the Magnolia State.

I had so much FUN writing these ten short stories, my first in thisgenre. I experienced a bit of what William Faulkner said about hiswriting process: "It begins with a character, usually, and once hestands up on his feet and begins to move all I can do is trot alongbehind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to putdown what he says and does." After my 2017 tour of libraries in tensmall towns in Mississippi, I wrote these stories in about three months. While the historic information about each town is factual, thecharacters and their stories are completely fictional. It was especially fun to blend fact and fiction in the story set in Meridian, my mother's home town, where she is buried in the same cemetery as the king andqueen of a gypsy tribe that spent time in the area. As a native ofJackson, I had never visited many of these towns in my home state, andnow I can't wait to return to each of them, sharing the stories theyinspired for FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY.