The Paper Rose Club

Authors Jennifer Youngblood and Sandra Poole invite you to check out the latest segment (Twenty-three) of THE PAPER ROSE CLUB just released.

My nephew's wife, Jennifer and her mother, Sandra wrote and published the novel Livin' in High Cotton in 2004. I ordered it from my local Seattle neighborhood bookstore. Inspired by the life of Sandra's grandmother---all these gals are originally from Alabama---Livin' in High Cotton is set during early depression era in Alabama and reveals some intriguing twists in the conflicted racial relations of the deep South. Jennifer and Sandra published their second novel in 2007, Stoney Creek, Alabama set in modern times. The mother and daughter team are currently writing a third novel, The Paper Rose Club, which is available online, as chapters are completed. If you'd like to read The Paper Rose Club online "book" for free, click here and you can sign up!

And, of course you can check your local library or order Livin' in High Cotton and Stoney Creek, Alabama from your local neighborhood bookstore or Amazon. I'm an "Auntie" by marriage, but I'm still proud!

P.S. Below is a post from Jennifer Youngblood's blog on the topic of writing Stoney Creek, Alabama.

Football is alive and well in Stoney Creek, Alabama
10:20 AM PST, January 21, 2008
One thing that our readers love about our work is that it's real. My mom and I are both native Alabamians and are very proud of our southern heritage. In our second novel, Stoney Creek, Alabama, we wrote about football. Football has always been a large part of my life. Many of my friends played high school ball and because I was a majorette, I went to every single football game. And I was not alone; the whole town shut down on Friday night. The years we had a winning season (and we usually did) the games would go on until mid to late November. Sometimes the temperature would drop to the thirties. We must've looked ridiculous in our teenie outfits, trying to smile while catching a frozen baton that hurt like a brick being hurled from a two-storey building when it hit our hands. To say that everything revolved around football was an understatement. It was our way of life--our religion. We lost the state playoffs two years in a row to the same team. And to add insult to injury, the game went into double overtime both years. I remember watching our players as they collapsed on the field and bawled like babies at the end of the game.As passionate as my peers were about football, they paled in comparison to my dad. Not only was he a football hero in his hometown, but he got a scholarship to the University of Alabama where he played under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant on the famous turn-around team. I believe the year was 1957. It was a good Saturday in our home when Alabama won, and when they lost...the rest of us just stayed out of Dad's way. It was great having an in-house expert when writing Stoney Creek, Alabama. My dad has an incredible wealth of knowledge and interesting stories to share. It was very rewarding to see this portion of our manuscript come together in such a real and vivid way.