Writing My Roots
Hello, and welcome back to the blog! I’m glad you’re here. Today’s post comes from my July author newsletter. If you enjoy it, be sure to subscribe below to get my newsletter delivered to your inbox every month! I often include fun free writing activities for kids and sneak peeks into my writing process and book updates.
So this has been quite a summer. I have been in and out and “graduated” early from physical therapy for a knee injury, quickly returning to hiking the hills and hollows of Indiana.
Yes, if you’re not from around here, Indiana does have hills! And you know, I suppose Indiana is precisely where I want to begin.
Old Indiana Stories
Old stories seem to find me and ask me to write them. They’re not always exact history, but they always come from long ago. And like me, every one of these stories has deep Indiana roots. I can’t explain it, but these stories always seem to find their creator in me. Sometimes it feels like I’m a muse for my home state.
It began when I was in high school, discovering the stories of my own ancestors in Indiana. And then not long after we married, I followed my husband’s family tree, too. Our kids are at least tenth-generation Hoosiers on both sides.
My first book, Going Over Home, sprung from this exploration. And while fiction, many of those characters are based on our ancestors. I also spent a good amount of time visiting an 1830s living history museum at Conner Prairie, grounding the story in pioneer life. I loved every minute of that process.
My recent middle-grade novels-in-verse Little Bird Woman and Little Orphant Allie are based on real people from Indiana. Little Bird Woman tells a childhood story of author and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter. Little Orphant Allie tells the story of Mary Alice Smith, who inspired the classic poem “Little Orphant Annie” by The Hoosier Poet James Whitcomb Riley.
A New Indiana Story
My new novel, Heirloom Rose, harkens back to my Going over Home days. It’s contemporary middle-grade fiction, but its roots run deep through Indiana’s past. And it, too, is an old story that seemed to track me down and ask me to write it.
At first, I resisted writing the story. I don’t have personal ties to the history in the story and it seemed like such a complicated story to take on.
That much is true. Shelley Wallace, the artist doing the cover art (who also did the cover for Little Bird Woman), sensed this and poured that complexity into her piece.
But this story led me back to continue my MFA at Spalding University, where a wonderful faculty mentor helped me write the story the way it needed to be. I took it through several rounds of revisions and then entrusted it to my editor, Jessica at Cozy Cottage Editing. Now, it’s nearly ready to be released into the world.
And while no, I do not have personal ties to the history in the story– the displacement of the communities by the construction of southern Indiana’s Lake Monroe, I grounded myself in the place as much as I could. I researched extensively with Monroe County History Center. I visited old cemeteries in the area. I hiked the hills around the lake. Most importantly, I listened. And I did my best to honor the story that wanted to come through me.
Heirloom Rose
Thirteen-year-old Janie Wells wants nothing more than to go camping with her friends over spring break. After all, a camping trip to southern Indiana’s Lake Monroe sounds a whole lot more fun than staying home. But when Janie’s mother decides that she and her grandmother are going too, the trip takes an unexpected turn.
Soon after they arrive at the campground, Janie discovers a long-hidden family truth—her grandmother grew up in the community displaced by the construction of Lake Monroe decades earlier. Now there’s so much for Janie to unravel about this place and her family’s troubled past, and it grows even more complicated when she learns that her grandmother is losing her memory.
Over the course of the week, Janie navigates a bittersweet reunion with the past and a tender reconnection in the present, learning compassion and understanding along the way.
Ultimately, Heirloom Rose is a story of a family’s heartbreak and healing.
Heirloom Rose will release in September 2026. Stay tuned for a cover reveal and preorder information– coming soon! In the meantime, take a look at my other books. I have something special for young readers of these books coming, too.
Soak up the sun, and enjoy the beauty of summertime. And take care of yourselves out there, too.
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I’ll be back again soon!
Katie
