“If you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere.” – Van Gogh
I’ve been working on a new novel, with a wildflower-herb farm and shop at its center, and as I have delved into research for the book, I’m been reminded again and again of the benefit of plants on our earth and of our frequent lack of gratitude for them. Plants include all the huge variety of trees, flowers, shrubs, herbs, mosses, grasses, and ferns that make up the plant world. Plants are extremely diverse and complex and there are millions of different species. All plants are made up of similar parts, like roots, stems, and leaves, but the most important thing about plants is that we cannot live on earth without them. Plants make oxygen, and all living things need it to breathe. Plants give us food, shade, and shelter, plus needful products like wood to build our homes, fuel, foods, and products we need and use in our world.
I think we are less schooled today than our ancestors, who lived in a more agriculturally based society, about the aesthetic and health value of plants. As I was reading about early Appalachian culture, for the family farm and shop in my story, I read often of how children were taught from young ages, in the past, about the natural world all around them. They were taught the names of trees, shrubs and flowers, learning which ones they could eat safely, which were poisonous. On walks through the woods, they learned characteristics about mosses and ferns, wildflowers, trees, and plant roots. They also learned to cultivate and grow all types of plants and flowers. My mother grew up in a large farm family and my father’s family gardened, too. I look back and remember with fondness their constant stories about the land, its plants, the trees. They carried such knowledge of the natural world. They knew how to plant and garden, how to care for and respect the beauty around them. I know they passed that love and respect for nature along to me. Even in my busy life, focused around other pursuits more than around gardening, I still appreciate all I see of nature’s beauty and I want to see it protected and reverenced.
On my bookshelves are many books about landscape gardening, plants, flowers, and herbs. I pull them out often to get ideas for gardening and planting in my yard, for understandings about my indoor houseplants, and to identify the trees, plants, and flowers I see when hiking or visiting parks, gardens, and outdoor sites. You can learn a great deal about plants just from books, with their glorious illustrations, and from studying the plants around your neighborhood and area where you live. From books and talking to other gardeners, you can learn there are right and wrong ways to plan landscaping for your yard or property.
Trees are always a healthy addition to begin with. They provide shade and should be planted to “frame” the house in a pleasing manner. Trees should go around the edges of your site and are especially pleasing when arranged in uneven numbers. That rule is good for shrubs and flowers, too. Shrubs and flowers should fill in around a home’s foundations and around the edges of a landscape site. Taller shrubs and plants should be placed to the back of a landscaped flower bed with gradually decreasing sized plants next, ending with some low growing plants or groundcovers at the edges. Large flowering plants like hollyhocks, foxglove, or gladiolus grow best against a wall or fence where they don’t overpower smaller plants in front of them and where they can be staked if needed. Other taller flowers like clumps of coneflowers, daylilies, purple phlox, and black-eyed Susan need a place toward the back of flowerbeds, too, or a wide area to themselves where they can grow tall and spread without overpowering plants beside or in front of them either. The impact and success of every garden lies in its initial design. Every yard needs a nice balance of trees, foundational shrubs, and some beds of plants and flowers to look its best—and not too many in number, type, and color. Kind of like inside your house, a yard needs a plan and a color scheme to look its best. It just takes a little thought, research, and planning to create a pleasant yard or an appealing flowerbed
Unless you take gardening courses or read extensively, the best way to decide on the right tree, shrub, plant, and flower species for your yard is to walk around your neighborhood or in nearby neighborhoods or garden areas to see what’s growing well. Trees and plants filled this world long before we did, with the fittest surviving best among all the other species. Your own climate, soil, and weather conditions dictate what will grow best in your regional area, yard or garden, without excessive cultivation and struggle. Make it easy on yourself and plant the types of trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers you see growing well everywhere you go. In my book story, my characters and farm owners, shop employees, and landscapers will advise their clients in that way, so they won’t set them up for failure in the herbs, perennials, wildflowers, and other indoor or outdoor plants they choose.
I’ve especially enjoyed reading about not only the healthy impact of plants on our world but about the healthy uses for plants, perennials, and herbs for cooking, making teas and herbal and wildflower products. As a quick garden reminder, perennial plants will come back and regrow year after year while annuals die off after temperatures get too cold and generally require you to plant new ones the following year. Trees are perennial plants, although I’m learning that some trees, like people, have longer lifespans than others. The same is true with many perennial flowers and sometimes a harsh, cold winter can harm even hardy perennials, shrubs, and flowering plants. Gardening is never one-hundred percent predictable, just like life.
If you have space in your yard or garden, pollinators are a lovely option to consider. Native plants in pollinator gardens attract bees, birds, butterflies or other pollinators that carry the pollen between flowers causing fertilization, good fruits and viable seeds. This creates a healthier and more robust ecosystem. Unfortunately, worldwide there is evidence that pollinating bees, and animals have suffered from pesticides, invasive species, and environmental pollution so working to plant pollinators will help combat these losses. Some good pollinators to consider are: asters, black-eyed Susans, blanket flowers or gaillardias, ironweeds or vernonia, goldenrod, bee balm, orange milkweed, lavender, joe pye weed, red columbine, coreopsis or tickseed, coneflowers, wild purple geranium, pink swamp roses, sunflowers and many more. These native plants can also be used in making herbal products, oils, lotions, potpourri, wreaths, and soaps. Many are also edible, too, and good for baked goods. If you have a large space in your yard or on your property, you can create a pollinator garden of plants in big patches or clumps, planning a diversity of types so some bloom in spring, others in summer or fall. Many pollinators are herbaceous perennials and once established will return again and again. But please don’t use pesticides or chemicals on these plants.
Herbs are especially easy to grow both inside and outdoors in the right location and climate. Actually, herbs are some of the easiest plants for beginners to grow. They can be grown in the garden in rows, in raised garden containers or in the house in a spot with plenty of sunshine. I enjoyed learning that herbs don’t mind being communal and that different herbs will grow happily in the same container, three to a 14-inch-wide container or five to an 18-inch container. I also liked the idea of planting a row of different herbs in a long window box containers. Once established, you can just pinch off leaves as needed for cooking or for making soaps or herbal products.
Some common and easy herbs to grow are:
CHAMOMILE – bushy with a daisy-like flower. Used to make tea but flowers are edible, too, with a slightly sweet flavor. Pollinators like these. Like full sun.
GREEK OREGANO – green leaves have a nice flavor and aroma for pasta dishes, pizzas, salads,. Makes a ground cover like a mat but can be grown well in a container. Best to harvest right as it begins to flower. Can dry and keep.
ROSEMARY – pretty upright shaped evergreen plant; easy to grow. Fills the air with fragrance even as you brush your hand over it. Excellent flavor when fresh but can dry, too. A few stems will fill a room with fragrance.
GOLDEN SAGE – herbaceous perennial; odd shaped leaves with raised dots all over; great to add to sauces, poultry, sausage, pork. Fragrant. Good for planting in pots. Likes full sun.
THYME – easy and practical to grow; tiny, aromatic evergreen leaves. Enhances meats, eggs, meat, soups, sauces. Hardy, grows well in pots. Likes part shade. Be careful not to plant it by spreading neighbors that will crowd it out.
CHIVES – look like grass clumps in the pot or monkey grass; add a nice onion flavor to salads, soups, potatoes, or other dishes. Grows well in borders or containers. Light purple blooms in spring that look like clover are also edible. Can eat fresh or dry.
CILANTRO -leaves look like those on strawberry or parsley plants. Aromatic fragrance. Grows tall. Great in salsas and Mexican or Italian dishes. Dropped seeds will make new plants.
PARSLEY -curly leaves with small loves around leaves. Nutritious leaves high in iron and vitamins. Good for cooking and salads and as garnishes. Good for containers. Can dry.
SWEET BASIL – wonderful fragrance and flavor; great for Italian dishes or for making pesto. Typical green leaf shape in little florets. Good for containers or outdoors. Best when fresh.
DILL – has a Christmas tree look; good in garden beds, raised gardens or containers. Tasty leaves. Likes direct sun. Grows tall, might need staking when in bloom. Fallen seeds make new plants. Pretty yellow flowers in spring. Eat leaves fresh or dry. Harvest the seed for kitchen use.
Most herbs stay where you plant them without becoming overly invasive and spreading but be watchful for MINT. Whether SWEET MINT or PEPPERMINT – this herb has pretty leaves, is super easy to grow, great for its spearmint flavor and minty smell and good for beverages or iced tea, but be warned it will spread in the yard or garden. However, it can be happily grown in pots or containers by itself. I remember planting starts of mint that Mama gave me on the side of my house, and it spread like crazy, soon even coming up in the crack between the patio and sliding doors. I thought we’d never get rid of that mint. Lesson learned but the leaves were lovely in iced tea.
While researching for my book, I’ve especially enjoyed reading about the easy teas you can make with herbs and flowers. I’ve also enjoyed learning how many herbs and flowers are edible. Edible flowers and herbs are always best when picked fresh out of your garden, and untreated with pesticides or chemicals. They are best when picked fresh in the morning and they will often keep in a plastic container in the refrigerator for days so you can get out a few to toss in a salad or special dish. Be sure you know the flowers that are safe to eat, however, as many are poisonous like foxgloves, oleander, and poppies. One edible flower you’re probably familiar with from childhood is Honeysuckle. You can enjoy the nectar or use the petals for a tea. Cornflowers have a spicy clove-like taste and hibiscus have a citrus-flavor in herbal teas and are a good addition to fruit salads. Wild violets and pansies make lovely teas, too, and can be used in salads or even jams and jellies. Many of the edible flowers I read about I was already familiar with for foods like dill for seasoning vegetables, elderberry for making wine or teas, basil for soups or pasta, or chives with their oniony flavor for salads or other dishes. It’s really fun to pick up books or to do some research on the internet to learn herbs, flowers, wildflowers, and perennials you can use in cooking, jams, jellies, salads, or sprinkle on foods for garnishes.
I thought I’d close this blog post with a couple of recipes for herbals teas and jellies you might want to try out.
LAVENDER HERBAL TEA – To make four cups of Lavender Tea
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp dried lavender (unsprayed with pesticides)
4 cups fresh filtered water
Lemon or honey to taste
Directions:
Put dried lavender flowers into a tea pot (or a loose tea strainer if preferred). Bring water to boil and pour over lavender flowers and cover the pot. Steep for 5-10 minutes. Strain the tea (or remove strainer). Serve with lemon or honey to taste.
WILD VIOLET JELLY
Ingredients:
2 cups of wild violet flowers (soaked and gently rinsed)
2.5 cups boiling water
Juice of half lemon
1 box Sure-Jell pectin … and 3.5 cups sugar
Directions:
Put rinsed flowers in a large mason jar with a non-plastic lid. Pour cups of boiling water over the flower and cover the jar with the lid. Allow the flowers to infuse the water for a least four hours or overnight. Pour the infused water through a sieve into a large heavy-duty pot. Squeeze the lemon into the infused water, which will change the color to a pinkish hue. Add the box of pectin and mix well. Stir the mixture, bring to a boil, and add the sugar. Boil another minute and keep stirring until the jelly gets hot and a little foamy. Immediately pour into small mason jelly jars. Tip the sealed jars over for 15 minutes to set. You’ll hear a ping and the center of the lid will flatten. Allow to sit for 24 hours and then the jelly is ready to enjoy!
EASY LAVENDER PERFUME
Ingredients:
Grain Alcohol (not rubbing alcohol)
1 cup dried lavender leaves or flowers
Small glass bottles with tight fitting caps or cork.
Directions:
Cut or chop the plant material into tiny pieces. You can also use dried rose petals or gardenia petals, if preferred). Put the pieces in a small bottle and add the alcohol. Be sure to fill the bottle completely so there is very little air in it. Let the perfume sit for two weeks. Then uncap it and strain the perfume to remove the plant pieces. Sniff the perfume. If it doesn’t smell like the lavender leaves or flowers you started with, let it sit another week or two until it does. Make a pretty label for the bottle, especially if you try other types of herbs or flowers.
I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing some of my research and information about gardening, flowers and herbs, that will find their way, I’m sure, into my new Mountain Home novel, set in Cosby in the Smoky Mountains, which will be titled: WILDFLOWER HAVEN.
See you in September! … Lin
“To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.” Audrey Hepburn
Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
“The Mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.” – Henry Ward Beecher
As kittens, geese, or other animals learn and imprint from their mothers, we learn from the mothers who raise us. Our mothers, whether they realize it or not, are our teachers. They model the way we should live and think. They teach us what is important not only by their words but by their example. For most of us, our mother’s voice, words of love, encouragement, caution, and concerns, are ever in the background of our minds. A mother’s teaching, especially if it is good, strong, and true, can have a powerful impact on a life. George Washington said, “All I am I owe my mother. I attribute all my successes in life to the moral, intelligent and physical education I received from her.” Others have also written beautiful words about their mothers. John Wesley said: “My mother was the source from which I derived the guiding principles of life.” I doubt either of their mothers, caught up in the busyness of their days, the demands of childrearing and life, realized they were making such an impact on their sons, but the inescapable fact is: Mothers teach us and they make a difference in our lives.
As little children we lean to and look up to our mothers, loving to hold our mother’s hand and to listen to her read to us, bringing her little bouquets of flowers from the yard, writing her love-notes, and sharing with her all the thoughts and happenings of our day. As we grow older and more independent, we naturally pull away, establishing our own identity, detaching, and seeing with time our mothers in a less idealistic way. Oddly, as we age, and I think especially after we lose our mothers, we look back and see them more idealistically again, realizing all they gave to us, all they gave up to raise us, all the good and worthwhile teachings they planted into our lives and nurtured. We acknowledge even more then how they shaped us, in part, to be what we are today. We are more ready to sing their praises and give them honor for it.
As I grew older, I thanked my mother on many occasions for the lessons she taught me, the love she gave freely, and for the good, virtuous, loving example of her life she ever modeled before me. It was often my mother who was there, standing beside me in the darkest times. Washington Irving wrote: “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity.” I’m blessed to look back and remember my mother was always there for me in good times and bad, and was also my friend.
Title: CELEBRATING THE STARS AND STRIPES IN BOOKS – by Dr. Lin Stepp
We began to research and plan for that new book, around our jobs and my ongoing writing and book tour events for my novels, and in 2015 we finally began our travel trips to the parks. Over the next two years, we visited all 56 of Tennessee’s state parks. In researching and planning for the book, we decided to divide the book into Tennessee’s three natural regions, East, Middle, and West Tennessee. We began our visits at the far Eastern end of Tennessee at Warriors Path State Park, Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, and David Crockett Birthplace, working our way gradually across the state on weekend travels until we reached Tennessee’s final parks on the Mississippi River like Meeman-Shelby Forrest State Park, Fort Pillow State Park, and Reelfoot Lake State Park, the last park on our journey.
In writing our new guidebook later, we gave clear directions to each park, a description of all the things to do and see within the park, and we provided over 700 color photos throughout the book in illustration. We hiked multitudes of trails, visited historic sites and museums, explored battlefields and old forts, took historic tours, and learned more than we ever could imagine about the rich history and diversity of our state parks. Often, I wrote and added a “History Note” after a park description to further acquaint readers with aspects of how that park had formed and about its early settlers and historic significance. I often talked about Revolutionary and Civil War battles which had taken place at the parks, the lives of patriots, old homes, churches, and cemeteries within the parks, and about the early work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in building many of the roads, trails, and structures in the parks.
A surprise to us in nearly every park we visited was in learning that the U.S. flag was raised and lowered with honor and respect every day, often at the main visitor center or park office, but sometimes also over a historic fort or museum. We also saw old flags of the past honored in photos on walls of museums, and in historic buildings, with descriptions about their part in pivotal battles or in the lives of patriots. It was a rich lesson in the history of the United States, and of our home state of Tennessee, to visit these parks and to learn more than we expected to about our state and national heritage.
After completing our park visits, the next year was spent getting the book completed for publication, and in the spring of 2018, DISCOVERING TENNESSEE STATE PARKS published. It was, and is, to the best of our knowledge, the only book about Tennessee’s state parks, detailing each in descriptions with photos. The guidebook hit several bestseller lists. It raced into the top 5 in Amazon’s East South Central US Travel Books category. Book Authority ranked it #4 in Best Tennessee Travel Guide Books of All Time, featured also on CNN, Forbes and Inc, and the book became a finalist in the Travel Guides and Essays category in American Book Fest’s 2019 national contest, with over 2000 publisher entries. It was fun seeing our adventures appeal to so many, and knowing we were providing a roadmap for others to learn more about Tennessee’s heritage, beauty, and unique history, in every park they read about.
As mentioned earlier, I also write novels set around the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, and others set at the South Carolina coast. As of today, I have twenty-three published novels, with two more publishing in March, and six guidebooks jointly written with my husband, and I give many talks at civic groups and organizations, like DAR groups, at libraries, book clubs, women’s conferences, and regional events. I mention this because when J.L. and I were in South Carolina in 2019 at a book signing at Barnes & Noble in Charleston, SC, the year after our Tennessee parks book published, the store’s Community Relations Manager (CRM) came out waving our TN parks guidebook. “We need one of these for South Carolina,” he said. “We got nothing, and people ask for books about our parks all the time. You guys need to write one of these for our state.” With pressure like this continuing, we decided to listen, and over the next two years, around our other ongoing work and events schedule, J.L. and I took week-long visits, when we could, to work on a new South Carolina state parks guidebook.
South Carolina has less parks than Tennessee, and in South Carolina, many historic sites, military parks, and battlegrounds, which were governed under the state’s jurisdiction in Tennessee, were under the national park’s jurisdiction in South Carolina, so we decided to also include those parks in our guidebook. Many were also close to the state parks, as well, and we knew visitors would want to know about them and probably visit them, too. We ended up including a total of 55 state and national parks in this new guidebook, and we laid it out in format and design similarly to our published Tennessee guidebook.
Over the next two years we shared many interesting trips exploring and enjoying the lovely parks all over the state of South Carolina. Similar to our previous guidebook, we organized our parks into four geographic regions, the Upstate, Midlands, Pee Dee, and Lowcountry. South Carolina’s history is older than Tennessee’s, so we enjoyed learning even more about earlier times in America through our parks’ visits, especially in visiting many Revolutionary War and Civil War sites. Again, as in Tennessee, we often ran into DAR markers and history notes and the joy of seeing our national flag flown in nearly every park we visited. Several historic sites of particular interest were Ninety-Six National Historic Site, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Colonial Dorchester, Rivers Bridge, Andrew Jackson State Park, Kings Mountain, along with coastal Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter.
Our new guidebook published in 2021 and it, too, has been a strong bestseller. As far as we know, there is no other current guidebook to all the parks in South Carolina, although, of course, different parks get mentioned or spotlighted in other books. We are so pleased that we have been able to bring our readers “armchair traveling” to the state parks to encourage them to visit them and to let them know more about the interesting places to see in each park. As in our first state parks guidebook, I wrote many “History Notes” after significant parks in South Carolina to teach readers more about the heritage and rich history of the parks.
Our travels to visit parks, to bring them to life for our readers, involves a lot of planning and extensive travel. We create a detailed agenda before any week of visits, with our journey mapped out to travel in the most expedient way to the parks we plan to visit in an area. Despite the advent of GPS and other modern technology, J.L. and I always take printouts of park and state maps with us as we travel. Many parks are in remote areas where cellphones and other travel helps don’t work well, and we often find better routes to the parks than the ones recommended. Finding good places to stay in proximity to the parks we plan to visit is yet another challenge.
On our return home, I write up the descriptions of our park visits for our book and introductory materials, like including a history at the beginning of each book about how the parks in the state developed. J.L. and I select the best photos to include, and then he creates and lays out each park page in InDesign. He also creates regional and alphabetical indexes for each book. Multiple edits follow, done both out of the publishing house and in. Our graphic designer creates the book covers, the state park maps included in each book, and other specialized pieces that make our books unique. It’s a long effort to get a book press ready, even after all the parks visits are completed. Yet, it is very rewarding to pass on the joy and learning—and rich history—of our visits to readers all over the U.S. and abroad.
This last year, in the summer of 2023, our third book VISITING NORTH CAROLINA STATE PARKS published after yet another two years of park visits. In the same year, two of my novels published, one a novel set in Cherokee, North Carolina, titled VISITING AYITA. Even in my novels I teach history to my readers. In this book I taught about the history of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, about the town of Cherokee, its people, and heritage today. Others may be “history makers” in person but I love sharing history in books with my fans and readers. Every one of my Smoky Mountain books takes readers visiting to a new place around the mountains and I often get to include wonderful extras about the heritage of an area that I hope my readers will visit, like the rich history found in Dandridge, Tennessee, in EIGHT AT THE LAKE, a closer look at quiet Townsend on the quiet side of the Smokies in DOWN BY THE RIVER, colorful history about Gatlinburg and the Walker Sisters in my book DELIA’S PLACE, and interesting facts about Edisto, Charleston, Beaufort, and Port Royal in my Edisto and Lighthouse Sisters books set on the South Carolina coast.
Books are the way I go home with people, and as a past professor, books are the way I teach others about the beauty and history of places I love. My books, set in contemporary times, take readers to new places and into the lives of new characters each time, teaching about love, patriotism, good morals, kindness, faith, and more. I cherish Dolly Parton’s words about my books: “Well, I’ve finally come across someone that believes in all the things that I do … love, family, faith, intrigue, mystery, loyalty, romance, and a great love for our beloved Smoky Mountains. Dr. Lin Stepp, I salute you.” I believe, in these times, where we often see morals and patriotism compromised, that we each need to work to remind others of the good in our country, the rich legacy left to us by our ancestors, the beauty in our world, and the way to live in it with caring and kindness in our everyday lives. This is what I strive to teach in my books, in my novels, and in our regional guidebooks.
I celebrate the Stars and Stripes, the love of country, the beauty around us, the good and the honorable and true, still in our world, with every book I write. So much of what people write today does not encourage the type of strong character, strength of mind and heart, that helped to create our nation and that our forefathers fought and died for. My own relatives trekked down through the wilderness to settle this east Tennessee area. I have a rich legacy of patriots, teachers, preachers, and statesmen in my background. I hope I give them honor in all I do.
This month for my May Blog, I wanted to share the essay I submitted this winter for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution annual DAR Women’s Issues contest. We were to write our essay in one of four categories: Career, Family, Mental Health, or Physical Health. I submitted my essay in the Careers category and I recently learned that my entry won 1st Place in Tennessee and 3rd Place in the Southeastern Divisional level. This lovely certificate, below, was given to our chapter regent this month at the State Conference in Nashville. I was unable to attend, since I was traveling in South Carolina on Book Tour, but I am pleased for the first place award for our chapter and for the third place recognition at the divisional level for the Tennessee State Society as well.
I give the main credit for this nice honor to our Chapter Regent Brenda Wyatt who kept pushing me to take time to enter. I started to write the words “badgered me to enter” in humor. I was so busy with work at that time, in edits for one book and working on writing another, that it seemed hard to imagine I could find the time for anything else. But I stopped to plan and write the essay, with Brenda’s urging, on a careers subject dear to me – that it is never too late to follow the dreams in your heart. I titled it: “BE ALL YOU CAN BE, NO MATTER YOUR AGE.”
I belong to a Knoxville, TN, Chapter called Andrew Bogle DAR and I have been in the DAR since college years before marriage. I have carried a lot of offices and roles over the years with DAR and I am currently our chapter’s Chaplain. Ours is a large, friendly, active group, and If you are interested in DAR and would like to learn more about joining our Andrew Bogle Chapter, please feel free to contact our Chapter Regent, Brenda Wyatt, at her email at: 
As an additional treat this month, I also received a Recognition Certificate of Award for “FIFTY YEARS OF SERVICE TO DAR.” Below is the brief DAR essay that I hope you will enjoy reading … and I also hope, like the title, that it will encourage you to be all you can be and to follow your dreams, no matter your age!
Despite all the progress women have gained, in attaining equal rights to reach for higher achievement at any age, women are still marginalized and limited in reaching for their dreams by many factors—the culture, the expectations of others, gender and ageism stereotypes, and a deep, innate desire to please others that often holds women back from boldly pursuing their goals. Women, in particular, seem to want someone to give them permission to step out courageously to strive for new goals, and yet it is rare that the encouragement they yearn for will come.
I speak for many groups and organizations, and I have encouraged the women and men in them, and the many college students I have taught as a professor, that it is never too late for them to pursue the dreams of their heart, no matter their age, the environment they grew up in, or if anyone is encouraging them or cheering them on. Ultimately, the courage to pursue any dream must come from within, and particularly in middle and older age, each of us will either step forward into growth every day or step back into safety and the comfortable, familiar habits and life patterns we are used to.
Additionally, taking any debt to attend school, with my own children’s college years not far ahead, wasn’t an option, so I picked up a second job to pay for my college expenses. On a somewhat humorous note, the doctoral program I was entering, in Educational Leadership at the University of Tennessee (UT), would have been an impossibility for me at all as a young girl. Women were not allowed to even apply for that doctorate program then. When I started my studies, those old stigmas still circled among faculty in the college. One of the best encouragements I received in those years came from an unexpected source, from a UPS delivery man who said wisely: “Give it all you’ve got. It can never hurt to better yourself.”
After graduation, I began teaching college courses at Tusculum College where I continued working and teaching for twenty years. I taught a wide variety of Psychology and Research courses in the college’s Adult Studies program, where I worked with young and older adults, most returning to school to get their education while working and raising families. It was a joy to learn, along with my students, and to encourage them in their lives as individuals. I still keep up with many of my old students and those years were filled with rich meaning.
I was teaching then and also working part-time as the Educational Coordinator for Huntington Learning Center, traveling to visit schools in four counties. Many of our friends, of similar ages, were retiring, but we were moving into new ventures. In truth, most people didn’t have any confidence that we could write a book or ever get it published. Their comments were polite and somewhat condescending. Frankly, it was the type of encouragement I was used to, and I had learned well from experience in past, as C. S. Lewis wrote, that: “You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream.”
I suppose that seeded the idea, and one day driving back from speaking at a school in Vonore, Tennessee, the idea for a series of novels—just like I wanted to read—rolled into my thoughts. Long years ago, as a young girl, my dream had been to write books, so I thought: “Why not now?” I went home and began plotting out a series of novels I called The Smoky Mountain series, contemporary romances, with a dash of suspense, and a touch of inspiration, each one set in a new location around the Smoky Mountains.
I faced a new learning curve in figuring out how to seek publication for a book. However, in 2008 I signed contract with a big regional publisher in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to publish my books. To say that everyone who knew me was stunned would be an understatement. Next, I faced the huge, daunting new task of marketing and traveling to sign and speak about my books, while continuing to write more books and also work. After the publication of five novels and our hiking guide, I had to pursue a new publisher, as well, due to changes with my current one. I was blessed to sign with Kensington Publishing for my next titles, one of New York’s huge, national publishers. My books had been selling well before, but now I began to experience the blessings of hitting the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon Bestseller lists, and my titles began to publish internationally as well as in the United States.
I thank God every day for enabling me to have enjoyed a whole new career in my middle years. It truly is never too late to be what you might have been in this life, if you will believe in yourself and your dreams and work hard to see them come to pass. One of my greatest joys now is in encouraging other men and women to pursue their dreams, and to overcome all the roadblocks and challenges along the way, to see their dreams become a reality, too.
Living near the Great Smoky Mountains, I look forward to the wildflowers blooming every year. When J.L. and I were working on our hiking guidebook, we were on the trails often through all seasons, always seeing new flowers along the way. But April was always the prettiest month of the year for enjoying the wildflowers. It’s also in April when the wildflower pilgrimages and wildflower walks around the mountain areas are held. There are more than 1,500 kinds of flowering plants in the Smokies, more than in any other national park, so there are always many varieties and types of wildflowers to discover.
On our hikes and walks in the mountains, we have taken many photos of wildflowers, like the photo of us at the beginning of this post with several varieties of trillium, an early Smokies wildflower. However photographer fans and friends of ours, that we’ve met on the “writer’s road,” take far more spectacular and beautiful photos than we do, so I’ve spotlighted some of their work in this blog post. Raven Pat Smith’s photos above show a glorious white trillium, an early purple violet and wild bluebells.
We often discover daffodils, flowering shrubs, and non-native plants around the crumbling walls, foundations, and chimneys of old homesteads—the flowers living on long after the people and farms are gone. Marie Burchett Merritt’s photos on the right show dogwoods in bloom, yellow trillium, and wild dwarf iris—that I always love spotting on the trail.
Vibrant pink Catawba rhododendron, like in Kristina Plaas’s photo, grow in the higher elevations like on Andrews Bald or near the Chimney Tops Trailhead. Many wildflowers we simply run into along a trail … stopping to delight in our “finds.” Special wildflowers, always a treat to discover, are white dutchman’s britches, yellow lady’s slippers, and red Indian paintbrush, also in Kristina Plaas’s photo above.
We tried to mention in our hiking guide The Afternoon Hiker trails especially known for wildflowers but flowers in the mountains often show up in unexpected places, and there are flowers of different types to see from early spring into the late fall. But April is still the best time to see the most wildflower varieties in the mountains. If you ever come to the Smokies in April the show of wildflowers will delight you and give you lovely memories to carry home. But remember that anytime you explore the woods, parks, and fields near your own hometown in the warmer seasons that you will find wildflowers, too. This month, I hope you will head outdoors—and get out of your car and walk up a trail—to enjoy the beauty you will find at every turn.
I have a new Mountain Home Book coming out March 16th titled SHOP ON THE CORNER. I enjoy writing all my books, set around the mountains and at the coast … but this book was especially fun for me to write. I got really attached to all the characters in the story and had so much fun creating their adventures. I also loved revisiting, on several trips, the Waynesville, North Carolina, area to work on this book, walking the downtown streets, stopping in all the charming stores, eating in the cute local restaurants. Each visit reminded me again how much I like this picturesque and engaging North Carolina town.
As you may guess, that change takes her to Waynesville, North Carolina, to an empty shop for sale right on a corner near Waynesville’s main street. It’s a big move for Laura, who has never been to Waynesville before, but she soon finds the change to be a good one. This is due in part to meeting Mitchell Quinlan who owns Quinlan Staffing Services across the street from Laura’s shop. There is definitely a little sizzle of attraction when they first meet. However, both have a host of life problems and responsibilities going on … and they soon get drawn into other problems and issues around the town of Waynesville … as you will, too!
A special pleasure in working on this book was creating two very unique businesses, Laura’s upholstery shop and Mitchell’s family staffing business. I did a lot of research for both businesses to make them as accurate as possible. Years ago, I actually did a short-term temp job in a staffing services office here in Knoxville, TN, and in a past sales job, I often visited with a favorite sales client, Bob Cable, at his upholstery store, Ledford’s Upholstery, in downtown Elizabethton, TN. I so enjoy creating businesses like these. One of the pleasures of being an author to me is “trying” out a host of occupations and careers through my book characters!
You’ll see the pictures here of how I imagined that my four main story characters might look…. Laura O’Dell and her sister Georgina, Mitchell Quinlan and his mother Evelyn, an area artist and art instructor. Each of these individuals had distinct personalities and you’ll come to know each well in the book, along with a wide host of enjoyable side characters I truly loved spending time with in my mind. These include friends and work associates, Mitchell’s niece and nephew, Mackenzie and Charlie, and Mitchell’s other relatives—especially his grandmothers, Nannie V and Mimi—and all the wonderful Barlow family. You’re in for a treat with this rich southern story, along with the extra addition of a running local mystery to follow.
Those of you who read my books know that I set all my stories in “real” places and try to use as many real streets, shops, restaurants, and tourist sites around the area as I can so readers will feel like they have actually visited in the settings of my books. Besides getting to know Waynesville … you’ll also enjoy sitting on Main Street with my main characters to watch the annual Folkmoot International Festival Parade wind its colorful way down the street. I’ve been in Waynesville to enjoy this parade in July … and it is stunning to see.
A short distance from Waynesville, too, is the beautiful Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, a lovely place set around a picturesque lake with a walking trail all around it. You’ll get to take a nice walk on that trail with Mitchell, Laura, the kids, and the family dog Zoey at one point. I’ve stayed at Junaluska in past and also signed books at the retreat center’s bookstore. Junaluska is especially beautiful when the 200 roses bloom on the lakeside Rose Walk.
Waynesville is also near many well-known tourist attractions. One is the Biltmore House, Gardens, and Estate. Biltmore is the historic home and property built by George Vanderbilt, still owned by his descendants and covering over 8,000 acres. It is a major tourist attraction and draws over a million visitors a year to tour the historic home and the beautifully landscaped grounds and gardens. At one point in the book, you’ll get to visit Biltmore with Mitchell and Laura … and learn more about it.
Additionally, you’ll get to take a hike in the Cataloochee area of the Smoky Mountains with Mitchell and Laura. … A fan once told me that one of her favorite things about my books was that I always put a hike in every book. I went back to check and it’s basically true. I like to show readers what a pleasure a “walk” or hike in the mountains can be. In this book you’ll get to hike and learn more about the Little Cataloochee Trail and the Cataloochee Valley, once the home of many settlers. Cataloochee is as beautiful as Cades Cove—but less crowded.
Through books, readers get the joy of living many lives and visiting a multitude of new places. I hope you’ll enjoy meeting the rich array of characters I’ve created for SHOP ON THE CORNER and that you’ll love visiting this colorful small town. As the back of the book reads: “Sometimes life’s unexpected hardships force you to consider drastic changes you’d never have dreamed of but lead in time to some sweet and unexpected joys.”
Lin Stepp 