I lived, worked, played, befriended locals, went to church, and had a baby in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Straight out of graduate school with twin desires to be gainfully employed and live somewhere pretty not too far from our families, my husband and I snatched up job offers in Floyd County. The soft, green, undulating mountains, meandering valleys, the Big Sandy River, and Dewey Lake were a welcome change from the traffic, noise, pollution and inconvenience of St. Louis. It is a place like no other. 

Floyd County turned out not to be the land of milk and honey I had hoped for: We were outsiders. Our dialect was the first thing to give us away. Though people were friendly, it was hard to make friends. Work was overwhelming for me. There was no easy travel route out of the mountains to visit family. The beauty that attracted us there also worked against us in that regard.

We moved from there years ago yet I remain captivated by the people and scenery of Floyd County. They bewitch me so that memories commingled with imagination bubble up from within me onto the pages of a book I am writing. Characters I've created talk in Kentucky Appalachian dialect in my mind and I labor to make their speech sound authentic in print. I want to bring forth their uniqueness, their feistiness, kindness, fortitude, all the great things about their culture. For nearly three years now the story has been urging me on. All that stands in the way is time - finding enough of it to sit down and write - and my own desire to do justice to Floyd County.