Author Description

<p>This first book in the Big Creek Appalachian series begins in dark places where children are traded as child brides to men who are willing to work the family farm. Hard Cover edition.</p><p>A 1920s saga of Emerald Ashby coming-of-age. "I'm poetic in an Appalachian sort of way. People say I'm easy. I ain't, but it's easy to see why they'd think so! Whisper now. Wanna know how I survived? I'll tell ya..."Set against the superstitions and old-time religion in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, author Tonya Jewel Blessing tells a difficult, yet redemptive story of a blossoming young woman who is accompanied by her friends and her foes on a journey toward hope and healing. Not since Catherine Marshall's strong heroine named Christy, has an Appalachian drama come to life like The Whispering of the Willows.</p><p>Love weaves through dismal circumstances and poverty where Emerald Ashby grows strong despite grievous wrongs committed against her.</p><p>In this desperate historical setting, mysterious disappearances lead to traps set for the innocent. Now, when key individuals begin carving out a rescue plan, Emerald Ashby sets a few of her own traps. </p><p>It's a page-turner. In this ailing town. What will be their measure of success? Cleverly suspenseful and sweetly spoken, the storyteller's unassuming voice transforms an Appalachian trail of tears into holy terror against an evil that stalks the innocent. </p><p>The Whispering of the Willows is a work of historical fiction. Set in the late 1920s, in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, eighth-grade Emerald is about to learn some hard lessons when a deeply disturbed man is thrust into her life by her abusive father and an enabling mother. In The Whispering of the Willows, an Appalachian marriage practice might be compared to the modern sex trade which exploits young females.</p><p>PRAISE FOR THE WHISPERING OF THE WILLOWS: </p><p>"The story is emotionally gripping and pulls the reader along to see what wil