Lisa Wingate lives on a ranch in Texas, where she spoils the livestock, raises boys, and teaches Sunday school to high school seniors. She was inspired to become a writer by a first grade teacher who said she expected to see Lisa’s name in a magazine one day.
Lisa also entertained childhood dreams of being an Olympic gymnast and winning the National Finals Rodeo, but was stalled by the inability to do a back flip on the balance beam and parents who wouldn’t finance a rodeo career. She was lucky enough to marry into a big family of cowboys and southern storytellers who would inspire any lover of tall tales and fun characters. She is a full time writer, bestselling author of sixteen novels, and writes inspirational fiction for both a general market publisher and a Christian publisher. Of all the things she loves about her job, she loves connecting with people, both real and imaginary, the most.
Beth Webb Hart — Tuesdays
Beth Webb Hart lives in the heart of downtown Charleston where she chases children, writes thank you notes on monogrammed stationary, attends her composer husband’s orchestra concerts and journeys off of the peninsula every now and then to go fishing in the tidal creeks in and around Edisto Island. She is a native of the South Carolina lowcountry where, as a child with a penchant for daydreaming, she discovered the magical experience of making up stories in her mind while rocking in a hammock on a decaying screened porch. She fails regularly at ironing smocked dresses, polishing her grandmother’s silver and cooking shrimp and grits (or anything for that matter), but she loves to write novels and to teach on the topic of faith and the craft of fiction writing. She is the best-selling author of Grace at Low Tide, Adelaide Piper, The Wedding Machine and Love, Charleston.
Marybeth Whalen — Wednesdays
Marybeth Whalen grew up in North Carolina and still lives in the same small town she’s called home all her life, in spite of her teenage dreams of growing up and moving to New York City to become A Real Writer. Because after all, real writers have to live in New York. In her late teens, she started figuring out that that was not necessarily true. She found out about southern writers like Pat Conroy and Lee Smith, who inspired her to write about what she knew: the South. She’s been writing about her home and the people who live there ever since.
Marybeth is married to Curt and they have six children who keep her busy. Marybeth loves 80′s music, dark chocolate, new notebooks and pens, summertime, the ocean, bookstores, good chick flicks (they don’t even have to be great!), and laughing with friends.
Rachel Hauck writes the stories she loves to read. Yankee born, she’s lived in the south most of her life.
“When I first went to Ohio State from Tallahassee, FL, I called every one ‘Sugar.’ I said things like ‘hey’ and ‘y’all.’”
Rachel spun her southern experience into stories with her first chick lit, Georgia On Her Mind. “I love writing about the south because it’s warm, and rich in traditions, food and faith.”
Partnering with her southern based publisher, Thomas Nelson, Rachel has written stories set in Nashville, the South Carolina lowcountry and eastern Tennessee.
“I hope readers of this blog find it relaxing, fun and filled with faith and community. Yankees welcome!” P.S. I’m not much of a cook. Submit recipes to me so I can post them.
Shellie Rushing Tomlinson — Fridays
Known as The Belle of All Things Southern, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is a national best-selling author, speaker, and columnist. She and her husband Phil live and farm in Louisiana. Their two grown children are happily married and obediently producing a number of grandchildren for them to spoil. Shellie’s Penguin Group USA release, Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, was voted SIBA’s Nonfiction Finalist of 2009 by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. The sequel, Sue Ellen’s Girl Ain’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy hit stores in May 2011 with a hearty endorsement from legendary comedian Jeff Foxworthy, a blurb Shellie adamantly denies purchasing.
Shellie hosts her weekly talk show ATS LIVE every Mon. evening from 5-6 PM CST on TALK 540 KMLB out of northeast Louisiana. The show also streams in real time on Shellie’s popular website, www.allthingssouthern.com and podcasts there for listening convenience. Shellie’s three minute daily doses of All Things Southern are carried by twenty-eight radio affiliates across the South. Shellie writes a weekly inspirational feature in Newsstar, a Gannett paper serving the Ark/La/Miss and a monthly print and online column for Louisiana Road Trips. When Shellie isn’t writing, speaking, taping her show, answering email or writing content for the next deadline, you can find her playing tennis with Dixie Belle, (the chocolate lab who thinks she is in charge of running Shellie’s life).
When I was a child my family hosted a neighborhood Christmas party every year. It was simple, casual, kids were invited and so were teachers (much to my dismay and mortification.) 
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