USA Today best-selling author Tamera Alexander was a recent visitor to Lynchburg, where she stopped at Miss Mary Bobo’s and told staff about her most recent work, In These Hills. The book is a historical fiction piece, and is set in 1905 Lynchburg.

Though the main characters in the book, Josephine Dunham and Dodge Coburn, are fictional characters, most of the rest of the book is historically accurate. When writing her books, the settings are real places, and secondary characters are often real people. Tamera deliberately takes deep dives into the background history of her stories, and weaves her characters and their stories into the lives of people and places of the time. She credits Mike Northcutt and Lynn Tolley with their help in making her new book as historically accurate as possible.

In the story, Josephine comes to Lynchburg after leaving an abusive husband in Atlanta. She first stops at Miss Mary’s, hoping to work for room and board. When that does not work out, she lands a job at Jack Daniel’s Distillery, ironic because she is a suffragist and very much opposed to drinking! She crosses paths with Dodge Coburn, a cattle farmer, and things get complicated after that.

Though raised in Atlanta, Tamera had relatives living in Moore County, and fondly remembers many summer visits here. Her grandfather broke mules for Jack Daniels. Locals will likely have known of the people and places named in the book.

Tamera writes in a Christian worldview, and has authored twenty books over the last twenty years. Her best-selling novels have won her numerous industry-leading awards. In 2020, Tamera was inducted into the Christy Award Hall of Fame for her legacy and contribution to Christian fiction.

She has written “The Mansion Series,” in which the Belmont Mansion and the Belle Meade Mansion in Nashville, and the Carnton Mansion in Franklin are the settings for those stories. Each of the mansions have their own three book series, though the stories are standalone novels. Both Belmont and Belle Meade Mansions offer special “Mansion Series” tours for her readers.

Tamera will be in Lynchburg again on Sunday, June 14 at 2:00 pm to speak to the Moore County Historical Society about her new book. The Society meets at the Farris Creek Masonic Lodge, 101 Main Street in Lynchburg.