Magnolia House
“There are no beautiful
surfaces, without a
terrible depth.”
I began writing Magnolia House almost ten years ago. It’s crazy to realize it’s been that long. It began as a National Novel Writing Month project—something outside of my usual fantasy genre—that got pushed to the back burner as I had kids and tried to keep them thriving in those first few years. The whole time I kept telling myself I’d come back to this book. I wanted to finish it, but more than that, I needed to.
Most writers have a few unfinished manuscripts on their hard drives. Or a few complete really terrible books that will never see the light of day. I have a few of those myself. And for better or worse I didn’t want Magnolia House to be one of them.
Again and again, I returned to this old house on the edge of a bayou covered in star jasmine and surrounded by magnolia trees. Emma’s strained relationship with her mother, and the memories that resurface when she returns home, were things that lingered with me. But it wasn’t only the characters and the house.
We lived in South Carolina when I was a kid and the South got under my skin in a way few other places have. I remember vividly the moment we got off the plane from Spain, stepping into the wet heat and seeing more green than I’d ever seen in my entire life. I miss it all the time. So, in some ways, Magnolia House is a little bit of a love letter to that part of the country—the beauty and harshness of it all.
The novel is like that too—there is beauty and harshness, a mix of reality and fiction, and through it all a love for the lush green landscape of the South.
Magnolia House is waiting.
Emma Taylor left home before she turned eighteen and swore she'd never go back. But when her mother unexpectedly dies, she learns that she'd inherited the home she's tried so hard to escape.
Unable to resist the pull of the small Louisiana town she grew up in, Emma returns to a place full of unpleasant memories and suspicious people. As far as she's concerned Vivian Taylor was a monster. But neighbors and friends were charmed by and loved her. It's Emma they don't trust.
As Emma sorts through the remnants of her mother's life she uncovers long hidden secrets with deep roots. In the night the house is full of strange sounds and a watchful presence. Magnolia House has not been abandoned. Vivian is still there.
To further complicate things Emma meets Jake, a man even more distrusted by the town than herself, and discovers his dark history is interwoven with Vivian's secrets.
To put the past at rest Emma will have to expose the truth about her mother and break ties with Magnolia House once and for all.
