On March 16th I have a new book coming out in the Lighthouse Sisters series. This third title in the series is called LIGHT IN THE DARK. It follows Celeste’s story, who grew up at her family’s inn by the Deveaux Lighthouse on the South Carolina coast. As the back of the book reads in brief: “In this third novel in the beloved Lighthouse Sisters series, Celeste Deveaux struggles to find her way back to joy, love, and meaning after a painful relationship almost shatters her life.” I hope you’ll enjoy Celeste’s journey in this new novel with a little romance, a touch of suspense, and rich scenes on the coast at Edisto and in downtown Charleston.
For me, most all of my book story ideas come from thoughts or mental pictures that slip into my mind while visiting the places I write about. My home and heart live here in the mountains of Tennessee, but our favorite vacation spot is Edisto Beach, that we first visited when our children were small in the 1980s. Edisto is a quieter and less commercially developed place than busier beaches like Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head nearby. We loved this aspect of the island, enjoying the easy beach access, the peace and calm of this laid-back coastal community.
One summer at the end of the 1990s, when J.L. and I were vacationing at Edisto, we visited Hunting Island State Park and the big lighthouse there. The idea began to play around in my mind, wondering what it might have been like for four sisters to grow up on a windswept island beside a lighthouse. I soon began to envision these sisters, each different and distinct, raised in the family’s big bed-and-breakfast for tourists that had once been the lighthouse keeper’s home. Ideas began to drift in more and more and I was soon excited about this new book idea.
Once I get an overall concept and loose plan for a book, I begin to visualize the main characters for the books. For this four-book series, each book focuses on one of the four sisters. The first book LIGHT THE WAY introduced fictitious Watch Island on Edisto’s north end, plus the Deveaux Inn, Lighthouse, and the Deveaux family. The head of the family, Lloyd Deveaux has died unexpectedly, bringing sorrow and more work load to his wife Etta and to her daughter Burke. The oldest sister, Burke, has always loved the life at the island and never left as her sisters have. LIGHT THE WAY Is Burke’s story … and it becomes Waylon Jenkins’ story, too, when he retires from the Navy to come back to his family home on Edisto. Waylon and Burke grew up together, and it is sweet how they reconnect in this story. Lila, the youngest sister, has recently returned home, too, and before the book ends, the other two sisters also return, each running from personal problems. Gwen returns home with her three children, hurt over a betrayal with her husband. Not long after that, Burke and Gwen go to Nashville to bring home Celeste, and it is Celeste’s story you will read in LIGHT IN THE DARK.
Even though I have always visited the places where I set my books, I return to those settings again to explore as I begin to work on a new book set there. I pick up brochures, take photos, talk to people, learn historic facts, and gather story ideas. As I am researching and creating the settings for a book, I also develop and flesh out all the secondary and side characters. The sisters’ parents, Lloyd and Etta Deveaux, had to come to life, as did a diversity of neighbors and friends. Additionally, I spent months developing the Deveaux Inn, lighthouse, gift shop, and the entire 500-acre lighthouse station. I had to find out how a lighthouse works and to design the interior and operations of the inn and lighthouse. I also spent time learning about and creating the cottages, outbuildings, harbors, marina, and creeks around the island, and developing the employees who would help the Deveaux family run the inn. I studied extensively, too, to gain more knowledge about the South Carolina coast, the tides, ocean, climate, about the island, the lighthouse’s history, Edisto’s marshes, creeks, birds and animals, seashells, and a million other small things that might play into the stories.
To make each story more unique, I varied the setting focus of each book. LIGHT THE WAY focuses its story and setting on the lighthouse island at Edisto. LIGHTEN MY HEART branches out to take readers to scenes around Beaufort and Port Royal. This third book, LIGHT IN THE DARK, centers much of its story in downtown Charleston. I researched and learned about the city’s history, studied maps and articles, and my husband J.L. and I explored all over the downtown streets where scenes in the book would take place. We discovered so many spots we’d never visited before on these explorations, finding quiet gardens tucked away between gracious historic buildings, sleepy cemeteries, little museums, and cute restaurants and shops. I spent extensive time around King Street where many scenes in my story take place, bringing me wonderful ideas to help enrich Celeste’s story.
Our graphics artist daughter, Katherine, worked with me to create the linked, and glorious, book covers for these new books. For series books, I partially plan all the books before writing even the first. Yet each story evolves more richly, and in much more detail, as the story is written later. I think you’ll truly enjoy Celeste’s story, as she works her way past a harsh time of life into many new beginnings and into new happiness after a dark time. LIGHT IN THE DARK is a perfect title for her story.
As an author, I always create an “Inspiration Collage Board” for my books … and here you can see my board for the Lighthouse Sisters books. The four books have a rich array of characters you will meet along the way. All their lives have problems and challenges… and they often little mysteries to unravel. In LIGHT THE WAY, a series of murders are going on around the coastal area that Burke and Waylon get swept into. In LIGHTEN MY HEART Alex’s family’s restaurant gets troubled, as do other Beaufort businesses, by a counterfeiter. And in LIGHT THE WAY, Celeste and Reid work their way through their own set of problems you will soon read about and get caught up in.
I hope you’ll curl up in a comfy chair in your house, or out on the porch in a favorite rocker, and settle in to enjoy this new Lighthouse Sisters book.
Looking ahead, I’ve recently finished the fourth and last book in this series, Lila’s story, THE LIGHT CONTINUES, which has already begun the various editing and production stages a book goes through for about a year before it finds its way into reader hands. You’ll be hearing more about this title next year … and I am sure there will be more coastal books to come for you to enjoy—along with more titles set around the mountains. … Next month in my blog, I’ll talk to you about my upcoming Mountain Home book, publishing in mid-March, too, called SHOP ON THE CORNER and set in the charm of Waynesville, North Carolina.
See you then … Happy Valentine’s Day … and don’t forget to read my February Newsletter, too ….All best, … Lin
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.
READ MORE IN 2024
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” [ Joseph Addison, 17th Century English writer]
“Reading makes the mind grow.” – [Kacey Riel]
“Reading helps us gain insight into our own lives and the lives of others.” [Diana Raab, PhD, Psychology Today]
“The seeds of dreams are often found in books.” [Dolly Parton]
“When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain off further happiness.” [Jules Renard]
Up close, some tree leaves are “Smooth Edged” or entire, around their sides, while others are zig-zagged or “Tooth Edged.” Dogwood trees and Crabapple trees, familiar to most, are good examples of “smooth-edged” trees, although the Crabapples do have tiny teeth around their edges. Beech trees are a more obvious example of “tooth-edged” trees. There are several different types of Beech trees but the American Beech is particularly stately and beautiful, often growing into a tall, giant of a tree. Elm trees, too, are “tooth-edged” trees and the well-known American Elm is often a large shade tree with wide spreading branches. The elms and beech in our neighborhood turn a golden yellow and then brown.
After you begin to study more about tree leaves, you will find that many are recognizable in the fall not only by their color but by their shape. Also, some trees have different shaped leaves on different varieties, like on Sassafras trees. In our neighborhood is a giant red-leafed Sassafras with long simple leaves with no lobes. It turns crimson red in the fall. Also in the neighborhood is a Sassafras tree with three-lobed simple leaves. This shorter sycamore tree’s leaves turn a rich yellow in the fall. I often think these sycamore leaves look sort of like mittens in shape and often the leaves only have two lobes instead of three, looking even more like a mitten.
Often you can recognize trees not only by their leaves but by their nuts, seeds, or berries. The Sweetgum tree is one of those. Its pointed lobed and toothed leaves are somewhat star-shaped. Sweetgum leaves turn red and purplish-red in fall and you can often find the tree’s round, spiny “sweet gum balls” nearby, the tree’s fruit, containing the seed. Young Sweetgum trees don’t produce Sweetgum balls at first but the trees start producing them later as they age.
The Chestnut tree not only has distinctive leaves, easy to identify, but it produces sticky “Chestnut Burrs” in fall. The leaves on a Chestnut tree are often big, too, like magnolia leaves. My neighbor has a big Chestnut tree in her back yard and it’s her hand you see in the photo holding one of the tree’s burrs.
Two less common trees to watch for in the fall landscape are the yellow Gingko tree, with its green leaves gradually turning a vibrant yellow and the Red Dawn tree, sometimes called the Dawn Redwood tree, a deciduous tree with leaves that look much like an evergreen Christmas tree. The Ginkgo tree, also native to East Asia, is one of the oldest known living tree species in the world. The leaves have a distinctive “fan” shape, making it easily recognizable. I remember several beautiful Gingko trees on the University of Tennessee campus and we are blessed to have a lovely Gingko in our neighborhood, a beauty of yellow color right now. Another very old tree, you might spot because of its unique leaflets, is the Dawn Redwood. My neighbor has one in her yard and as fall wanes it turns a gorgeous orange. This tree is actually now an endangered species and like many redwoods can grow to a great height.
As you look out across the hillsides at the fall colors, when you’re stopped along the way or driving, many of the yellow trees you see are most likely to be beech, birch, and yellow tulip poplars, while the lush rich orange and yellow-orange trees you spot are probably sugar maples, oaks and sweetgums. The reds scattered and clumped on the hillsides may be mainly maples, dogwoods, sassafras, and oaks. The colors of fall are always a delight and I love knowing that I’ll know more now about what kind of tree I’m seeing as I enjoy them. To learn more about the trees near your home, pick up a “tree guidebook” to help you identify the trees you see, read about identifying trees on the internet, and possibly download one of the “tree identification” apps to help you learn more about the trees in your fall landscape….And enjoy the fall!
With the weather a little cooler around the East Tennessee area, J.L. and I decided to take a day and visit seven of the best-known historic homes in our hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Most of the sites we had visited in times past but others we hadn’t explored at all, so we had a fun day traveling around Knoxville, visiting all seven sites in the chronological order in which they’d been built. I hope you’ll enjoy sharing in our journey, with a photo of each site and a few brief notes about it, and I hope this post will make you eager to look into historic sites you can visit in your own hometown and community. I think you will find it more interesting than you might imagine, helping you learn more about your city’s past—and your own past. As David McCullough once wrote: “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
The city of Knoxville began in the 1700s on a point high above the Tennessee River, on wilderness land once a part of the hunting grounds of the Cherokee Indians. What we know today as “downtown Knoxville” started with the first pioneer home built by James White in 1786 on Hill Avenue. White is called the Founder of Knoxville and he came from North Carolina to settle on a 1000-acre land grant given to him for his service as a Captain in the Revolutionary War. He soon built a fort around his home and gradually other outbuildings were added, a smokehouse and well, weaving house, blacksmith, and guest house, soon making it a hub for travelers and for trading. James White negotiated several treaties with white settlers and with the Cherokee. In 1791, working with President Washington’s Secretary of War, Henry Knox, White and his son-in-law Charles McClung divided a part of his downtown land into lots to help develop a town, which they called Knoxville after Henry Knox. In 1790, White’s fort was restored and opened to the public, and today visitors can take a tour of the grounds and learn about life in these early days in Knoxville.
Across the street from the James White Fort is Blount Mansion, built by William Blount in 1792. William Blount, a signer of the United States Constitution, chose Knoxville as the area’s first territorial capital. He built his home for his wife Mary Grainger Blount and their children, and their fine home was also used for business and state meetings. Few pioneers, and especially the Indians of that era, had ever seen a home like the Blounts’ with glass windows and refined furnishings. Blount played a leading role in helping Tennessee to become a state and he became one of Tennessee’s first United States Senators in 1796. I wrote about Blount Mansion in an earlier post in November of 2022 if you want to read more about this site and see more photos.
Our next visit was to Marble Springs State Historic Site, the last home of John Sevier. The 350-acre farmstead on John Sevier Highway contains the cabin homestead of John Sevier and his second wife Catherine. Sevier was a Revolutionary War soldier, a frontier militia commander, a hero of King’s Mountain, and later the first governor of Tennessee, serving six terms as governor in total. He lived at Marble Springs from 1790 to 1815. Visitors can take a “self-guided tour” around the grounds to see the Sevier cabin, with an added kitchen, nearby herb garden, smokehouse and spring house. On the grounds are other outbuildings made into an office and gift shop, plus an old tavern, moved to the site from West Knoxville. Many events and reenactments are held at Marble Springs and several hiking trails can be enjoyed on the property.
After leaving Marble Springs we drove to east Knoxville, crossing the Holston River, to historic Ramsey House on Thorngrove Pike, built in 1797. I’ve toured this house several times and have been to events here as an author. It’s a lovely old home to tour, on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been beautifully preserved. The stone house was constructed with marble and limestone and often called the “finest house in Tennessee” because of its architecture. The house was built by Colonel Francis Ramsey (1764-1820) and his wife Peggy, and the Ramseys were among the earliest families to settle in the Knoxville area. Colonel Ramsey was a leader in the military, a surveyor, a plantation owner, and a statesman. With John Sevier, James White, and William Blount, Ramsey was involved in the establishment of Knoxville and played many roles in the city’s early history.
Crossing the Holston River again, we next visited the Mabry-Hazen House on Dandridge Avenue. Also listed on the Register of Historic Places, the house, built in 1858, is located atop Mabry’s Hill on an eight-acre site. The two-story Italianate house was constructed for Joseph Alexander Mabry II. Mabry was a wealthy Knoxville merchant and importer who helped the Confederate army during the war, with forces once occupying his home. His daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Rush Strong Hazen, inherited the house which later passed to their daughter Evelyn. After Evelyn’s death the house opened as a museum. The day we visited, a group of homeschoolers had just taken a tour of the house, learning more about Knoxville’s early history and how people lived in past times.
Knoxville developed first in areas close to its downtown. Many old homes like the Mabry-Hazen house and Ramsey House can be found in the East Knoxville area, where the Chilhowee Park was also created in the late 1800s. Other prominent homes developed to the North in Old North Knoxville in the last half of the 1800s, as did other fine homes heading West of downtown beyond the new University of Tennessee on Kingston Pike. The Pike was only 30 feet wide when first created in the 1790s, created to connect downtown Knoxville to Campbell’s Station further west. Crescent Bend is thought to be the oldest residential structure on Kingston Pike, built by Drury Paine Armstrong (1799-1856) and his family in 1834, on what was then a large tract of 600 acres of land. The big two-storied white house has lavish interiors and a commanding view of a bend in the Tennessee River behind it. Today the grand house can be toured but it is best known as an event site for lovely weddings and gatherings. The home has a beautiful tiered garden on its grounds, with nine terraces, five fountains, and lovely statuary, and in the spring the grounds are lush with flowers and masses of tulips.
The next historic home on our list, Bleak House, was built by Drury Amstrong’s son Robert Armstrong and his wife Louisa in 1858 on a part of the family’s land they were given. Beautiful portraits of the couple hang inside the house in the front parlor. An antebellum Classical Revival style home, it also is on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was used as a Confederate headquarters during the Battle of Knoxville and two cannonballs are still imbedded in the walls. The home, now called Confederate Memorial Hall, belongs to Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is rich with Civil War history. Tours can be arranged, and like Crescent Bend, many weddings and events are held at this elegant white house on the hillside. It, too, has lovely grounds and gardens.
The final visit on our historic house tour was to Westwood, also on Kingston Pike, built in 1890. This Queen Anne brick home with its ornate exterior touches and Romanesque stone elements was built for John Lutz and his wife Adelia Armstrong Lutz. This is another home linked to the Armstrong family, the land given to the couple by Adelia’s father Robert Armstrong of Bleak House. Westwood house once sat on a large estate property with extensive grounds. The house stayed in the Lutz family until 2009 and was later given to Knox Heritage to restore in 2013. The interior of the home is beautiful and one of its special distinctions is that there is still a painting studio and art gallery in the house, with over 30 of Adelia Armstrong Lutz’s paintings. The studio is stunning to see with red walls and gorgeous architecture. Adelia was a prominent and well-known artist of the day and is considered to be the first professional woman artist in Knoxville. Her home, Westwood, was inducted into the prestigious Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) network in 2002.
Knoxville is my home town, surrounded by beautiful natural scenery, and I do love it. Knoxville had the first state newspaper in Tennessee and it is the home of one of American’s oldest state universities, The University of Tennessee, started as Blount College in 1794. Knoxville was the first capital of the state of Tennessee, and Knoxvillians have run for president, won Pulitzer prizes, served in famous military roles, been recognized as conservationists, scholars, and industrial leaders. I’m sure your home town is full of rich history, too, and I hope you’ll take some time to visit some of the historic sites and buildings where you live. Robert Penn Warren said: “History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.”
“Festivals are happy places.”
My favorite festivals are the Regional Festivals held around the Appalachian and southeast area where I live. These festivals also include juried Arts and Crafts Shows, where participants submit their art or show items to be judged for inclusion. We have attended many of these, like the Home Craft Days Festival in Big Stone Gap, VA, the Foxfire Mountaineer Festival in Clayton, GA, and the Townsend Spring Festival in the Smokies. We also enjoy the annual spring Artisan Market in Lenoir City, TN, sponsored by the Foothills Craft Guild, and full of wonderful fine artists. Many times in past. we have also attended the Wilderness Wildlife Week festival, held in Pigeon Forge every year, where J.L. and I give presentations during the days of the event. This festival, continuing for several days, has vendors, speakers, hikes, and excursions.
As the summertime kicks in, with its warm weather and with children out of school, many festivals are held outside all around the U.S. We can attend only festivals where there is some “indoor” space since we have a multi-book display to protect from the weather. This year we traveled to the Mountain Artisans Summertime Arts and Crafts Show in Cullowhee, North Carolina, for a two-day show and then in July to the annual Grainger County Tomato Festival in Rutledge, Tennessee. We’ve been attending the Tomato Festival for over twelve years now … and it is one that we always enjoy. At the Tomato Festival are vendors, entertainment, artisans, crafters, and vegetable farmers from around the Grainger County area with their wonderful Grainger County Tomatoes the festival is named for.
Coming up for us at the end of August is one of the many historical festivals we love to participate in each year – the Cades Cove Museum Homecoming held on the grounds of the old Thompson-Brown House, built in the 1700s. The old historic house contains the Cades Cove Museum with pioneer relics and furnishings. This event is coming up this month on Saturday, August 26th, so make plans to stop by if you can! We’ll be on the porch of the old house, like in the picture at the beginning of this blog post. If you’ve missed reading some of our books, we’ll have all of them there with us … and you’ll enjoy visiting with the wonderful vendors, historians, and entertainers at this festival event. You can also have lunch under one of the big shade trees.
Starting in October, J.L. and I have back-to-back signing events every weekend through October, November, and into December, not only in Tennessee, but in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgia. Some festivals are still being finalized … but most are already on the Appearances page of my author’s website with specific dates, places, addresses, and times… We’ll be going to Frozen Head State Park’s Heritage Festival October 14th, to the Treats, Crafts and Vendor Show in Rock Spring, Georgia, on October 21st. Later in October, we’ll be attending the Annual Mountain Makins’ Festival in Morristown, TN, October 28th and 29th and participating in the Foothills Craft Guild’s fall show on November 3rd and 4th. Note the photo college illustrations are from past events we attended … so be sure to check the dates and times on my website for when these events will occur this year. What is always fun about all of our fall events is the variety at the festivals … the different crafters, artists, photographers, entertainers, the special activities for the kids, food vendors, and lavish fall decorations. 
I hope talking about all these festival events in my blog post will encourage you to look for festivals you can attend in your own home area, if you don’t live near us in the Southeast. In most all parts of the U.S. and abroad, there are an abundance of year-round festivals you can visit and enjoy. Most of the ones we attend are Free to the public or only charge a small entrance fee to help offset parking – and are full of family fun for all ages. Long before we became authors … J.L. and I loved visiting festival events, always offering a great getaway from the house and an entertaining day. Our memories are packed with good remembrances of beautiful crafts, great food, rich entertainment, and the additional joy of meeting new friends along the way. As for me … “I am going to keep having fun every day I have left, because there is no other way of life. You just have to decide whether you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.” [Randy Pausch]
Lin Stepp 