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| Me with my parents at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly in North Carolina when I was around two years old. Many years later, I would sign my first contract here with Elk Lake Publishing. |
My childhood collection of Little House on the Prairie books, worn from a dedicated reader's devotion, sits proudly on my bookshelf, a reminder that as a little girl similar in age to its author, I imagined myself a modern day Laura Ingalls Wilder who would one day write her own story of a family moving from place to place – Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana – and the escapades those moves involved. And there were plenty, I assure you. Because my dad was a church planter, moving every few years was just a part of life.
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| My dad on the far left. First Baptist Church in Newton Falls, Ohio, where I was born, is still going strong. |
I never wrote those stories, but that seed was planted and nourished and continued to grow, waiting for God's perfect timing and just the right stories. All I needed was a small dog and my mother.
Bentley, a mini-dachshund, became a part of my youngest daughter's world when she was fifteen. A little over a year later, my mother moved in with us after my father passed away. Bentley was small, but his personality was large, and with every pounce he took through the house, my mind tumbled with a children's story. Bently does this, and Bentley does that until I had to get my thoughts on paper.
At the same time, my mother and I spent many afternoons at the dining table poring over her notebooks of family history and research, me asking questions about things she'd written, she asking her own questions about something she knew there was an answer to, God providing those answers. Miracles I will never forget.
A year later, she passed away, but the memories and the dreams lingered.
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| My mom lived an adventurous life! |
In May 2016, I attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Writers' Conference at Ridgecrest in North Carolina, where Elk Lake Publishers offered a contract, and two Benny Books came to life.
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| Bently put his paw of approval on my children's book contract. |
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| Click here to see the Benny books on Amazon. |
When a group of writers from Elk Lake formed a collection of novellas, I jumped in, even though I'd never written a historical romance. I wanted to tell in fiction form my parents' story. With two wonderful mentors helping me, I wrote a well-received novella. And I wondered, what is next?
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| The fictional story, "Nobody Loves You Like Me," based on my parents, can be found in this collection of stories published by Elk Lake Publishing. |
I had ideas born from the kitchen table with my mother. Irish immigrants who came during the potato famine. Fiddle players who worked the docks of New York City during the day and played the saloons at night, eventually leaving and making their way to Southeastern Tennessee, Alabama, Texas.
And while the stories of Chattanooga Hearts are fictional, there are whispers of ancestors throughout, of my parents' influence and of dreams that refused to die.
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| Click here to learn more about the books! |
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| Loving Miss Lucy, the fourth book in the series, released yesterday, November 2! |
Loving Miss Lucy, Book4, released November 2, and the final book of the Chattanooga Hearts Series, The Master of Ceremonies, will be out Spring 2027, but a spin-off series is already in the works. Once again, my mind can hardly keep up!
Thank you for going down this memory lane with me and allowing me to share my books with you!
Cheryl Rae Johnson writes historical romance novels set in the American South. She has made her home in all corners of the US but is now settled on the eastern edge of Texas, where she teaches writing and literature at her local university as well as ministers alongside her husband of over forty years in her local church. She can often be found drinking coffee and hanging out with her ever-growing brood of grandchildren. She loves to connect with her readers. You can join her here:
