About the Author

Dr. Lin Stepp is a native Tennessean, a businesswoman, and an educator. She is a past faculty member at Tusculum College where she taught research and a wide variety of psychology and counseling courses for 20 years. Her business background includes over 25 years in marketing, sales, production art, and regional publishing. She has editorial and writing experience in regional magazines and in the academic field.

Lin Stepp has twelve published novels each set in different locations around the Smoky Mountains. Her first five novels were published by an imprint of John F. Blair Publishing of Winston Salem, North Carolina. These novels included The Foster Girls (2009), Tell Me About Orchard Hollow (2010), For Six Good Reasons (2011), Delia’s Place (2012), and Second Hand Rose (2013). Five subsequent novels were published by Kensington Publishing, New York, including Down by the River (June 2014), Makin’ Miracles (January 2015), Saving Laurel Springs (October 2015) and Welcome Back (March 2016) as well as a short novella A Smoky Mountain Gift included in the 2014 Christmas anthology, featuring Fern Michaels, and titled When the Snow Falls.

Continuing books, published by Mountain Hill Press, include Daddy’s Girl (2017), Lost Inheritance (2018), The Interlude (2019), Happy Valley (2020), Downsizing (2021), Eight at the Lake (2022), and Shop on the Corner (2023).  Lin also has two series of  coastal books set in South Carolina, the Edisto Trilogy, including  Claire at Edisto (2019), Return To Edisto (2020) and Edisto Song (2021) and the Lighthouse Sisters Books, Light the Way (2021), Lighten My Heart (2022), and Light in the Dark (2023). Lin and her husband J.L. also write regional guidebooks, including a bestselling Smokies hiking guide titled The Afternoon Hiker (2014), a state parks guidebook to all the 56 Tennessee state parks called Discovering Tennessee State Parks (2018) which was a finalist in American Book Fest’s National Contest in Travel Guides and  two additional state park guidebooks to South Carolina state parks titled Exploring South Carolina State Parks (2021) and to North Carolina parks Visiting North Carolina State Parks (2023).

J.L. Stepp is a native East Tennessean who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Stepp owns and operates S & S Communications, established in 1990, which published in past a monthly outdoor magazine called Tennessee Fishing & Hunting Guide. The magazine covered fishing and hunting topics in Tennessee and was distributed in print form to advertisers at the first of every month. J.L., a graduate of The University of Tennessee, alsopreviously  marketed UT Vols sports related products such as football and basketball schedules, limited edition prints, and licensed sports collectibles. A graduate of The University of Tennessee, Stepp’s background includes over 45 years in sales, marketing, management, and publications. He enjoys a wide variety of outdoor sports, including golf, fishing, and hiking. The Afternoon Hiker (2014), jointly written with his wife Lin Stepp, chronicles 110 hikes in the Smokies with descriptions and photos, Discovering Tennessee State Parks (2018) describes all 56 parks in the state of Tennessee with over 700 color illustrations. and a two other state parks guides take readers visiting to the South Carolina parks titled Exploring South Carolina State Parks (2021) and the North Carolina state parks in Visiting North Carolina State Parks (2023).                                                                                                                    

• Author’s International Titles                                                                                                      
• Author’s Associations       

Author Facts

(1) Lin was born and spent most of childhood and adult life in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her relatives trekked down the Appalachian Trail from Virginia to settle this east Tennessee area and she has deep family roots here.

(2) Met her husband J.L. more than 40 years ago while they were students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Both are still Vol fans.

(3) Knoxville is Lin’s hometown. She and her husband J.L. have lived for over 40 years in the same home on a quiet cul-de-sac among warm, long-time neighbors and friends.

(4) Lin has always loved and had cats. The two family cats recently died at nearly 18 yrs old – Sophie, a female tortoise-shell, and Tucker, a male black and white tuxedo.

(5) Lin’s parents, Joy and Phil Mathews, now deceased, lived in nearby Maryville, Tennessee, and her older brother David and his wife, Sandy, both deceased, lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  J.L.’s mother, Emma, deceased, lived in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. J.L.’s younger brother, Steve, is also deceased, but his older sister Rose still lives nearby in Athens, Tennessee, where J.L. was born and raised.  J.L. and Lin both have many cousins around the U.S. and in Tennessee, and despite distances, ours is a warm, connected family – with many relatives in Tennessee and around the Southeast United States.

(6) J.L. and Lin’s two children are young adults now, living and working outside of Tennessee. Max teaches high school art in Metairie, Louisiana, outside New Orleans. Kate is media librarian for a high school in Hope Mills, North Carolina, near Fayetteville.

(7) Lin and her husband are strong Christians and are active in a local church in their west Knoxville area. Lin enjoys the women’s circle, and often speaks for Christian groups and churches.

(8) Lin’s favorite pastimes besides writing and teaching include: reading – especially romances and mysteries, painting and drawing, walking and hiking in the Smoky Mountains nearby, swimming and being around the water, and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors.