July 16, 2016, my books will be for sale in The Country Store at the Natchitoches-NSU Crafts Festival. Here's my bio:
Given the name Mary Lou Gregg at birth, I
grew up in Smith County Mississippi, south of Taylorsville and north of Hot
Coffee. My father’s farm was less than a mile from Leaf River swamp. Down the
stream, my Uncle Newt Knight established the Free State of Jones during the
Civil War.
I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Southern Mississippi. My late husband, Robert Cheatham and I
taught in the Greenville, Mississippi, schools.
Eventually we moved to Ruston, Louisiana,
where he taught music at Louisiana Tech University and I taught part time while
taking care of our daughter Christie. I received an Associate Degree from Tech
in nursing and worked at Lincoln General Hospital.
After his death in 2002, I devoted my time to
writing and traveling to see my daughter Christie Marie Underwood, who is a
dairy nutritionist with Purina-Land of Lakes.
The day after Christmas in 2015, I married
John Cooke a retired petroleum land man. John and I are living happily in
Shreveport.
My books include a novel Solomon’s Porch, two story cookbooks, three nonfiction
inspirational books, one first-century Christian historical novel entitled Abi of Cyrene, and a series called the
Covington Chronicles. The novels in the series are Secret Promise, The Courtship
of Miss Loretta Larson, The Dream Bucket, and Manuela Blayne. Each book stands alone. They are about life in the
early 1900’s in and around an imaginary south Mississippi town called
Taylorsburg. Abi of Cyrene, The Courtship
of Miss Loretta Larson, and The Dream
Bucket have won awards.
Currently I am co-authoring a novel with
Sarah Walker Gorrell, a Taylorsville, Mississippi, resident. She maintains
blogs and writes in a column in the local Taylorsville paper. Our new book will
be the fifth in the series.
Up to now the Covington Chronicles have been
family-style novels that adhere to the standards of Christian publishing. Some
of the subject matter in the current book Sarah and I are writing requires a
few graphic details and depiction of violence to tell the story. We are writing
it as tastefully as possible.
I like to explore social issues while evoking
strong emotions and trying to entertain with enjoyable stories. Abi of Cyrene deals with some issues women have always faced, such as taking care of
a family while the father is away. Secret
Promise depicts domestic abuse and the oppression of African Americans
during Reconstruction years. The
Courtship of Miss Loretta Larson delves into discrimination against
impoverished Italian immigrants. The
Dream Bucket portrays spousal abuse. Manuela
Blayne is the story of a young African American girl, who has been deserted
by her mother and left to live with her grandparents, who were slaves. She
faces discrimination and abuse from many angles.
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