A WALK IN THE GARDEN: Local Author Jacquelyn Cook stands next to the Japanese magnolia tree to show the unique shape of it's limbs. The trees are popular in the South and don vibrant pink blooms each spring.

DeSoto author releases collection of her novels
By GENIE COLLINS
Staff Writer
    DESOTO - Jacquelyn Cook has told stories of the old South in her books, since she first began publishing in 1985.
    She still has many stories to tell.
    One of her books Magnolias: A Romantic Family Saga From the Deep South in Four Complete Novels has recently been re-released by Barbour Books. The book is a collection of her first four novels, "The River Between," "The Wind Along the River," "River of Fire," "Beyond the Searching River". The book, released Nov. 1, is available exclusively at Wal-Mart.
    Her current book in progress is an historical novel set in the plantation country of Thomasville and contains "entirely historical characters."
    Cook’s books have a smidgen of everything in them from mystery and Gothicism to romance and adventure. She said her books appeal to women young and old and historically go from antebellum times through Re-construction. Her books reveal that problems we think are unique to this day and age existed in pre-Civil War Georgia.
    In the last book she wrote, "Lily" is separated from family through Union Gen. William T. Sherman's "march to the sea." Lily has to use clues to find her way back to her family.
    "The women in the book love Lily and the decisions she makes affect the other women," Cook said. She said her granddaughter liked book because it tells the story of "four different women and their struggle to meet life's challenges in changing times, and you can’t do it except through faith.
    "Women are facing the same thing today that they did back then," Cook said. "Their boyfriends and husbands are going off to war, and they have to cope on their own.
    "Women of all ages had problems and difficult things to face," Cook said. "But, how we deal with it is still the same -- have faith in God, peace in your heart and the wisdom to make the right decisions."
    "My goal is to write timely stories with lasting value," Cook said. However, she said a disadvantage is that it takes her "entirely too long because she researches extensively and pays attention to every minute detail of her subject and characters."
    "I want my characters to be true to the time period," she said.
    "I am turned on by historical settings," Cook said. "I have to go to the place and see it ... I have to be there to see it, feel it, smell it, taste it, and then I put it in my book."
    It’s no doubt from her writing that Cook loves the South. Her mother's family were some of the first settlers in Southwest Georgia. Cook said she grew up on a farm, and even though she lived in a town, "I loved being on a farm cotton picking."
    "People enjoy reading about those old things," she said.
    Where did Cook find her inspiration to write her old South novels?
    In 1985, she was on the Tour of Homes in Eufaula, Ala., a town where beautiful old Southern mansions line the streets. After traveling to Belvedere Hall, she looked down from the top balcony and imagined Lilly - her emotions, her thoughts and her demeanor.
    Cook originally began writing contemporary romance and suspense. However, her editor at the time said Cook should write about "lasting marriages with Christian values."
    Cook worked in journalism writing magazine articles for years and she worked for the Progressive Farmer magazine.
    Cook said her books have never drawn controversy from the fact that they begin in pre-Civil War days, during the time of slavery. She said her books "show the love between the master, and the servant."
    "The books show what was true (of slavery)," Cook said. "This is one point I’ve tried carefully to show."
    She said people of the different races "loved and cared for one another in those times. There were bad things, but there were good things."
    Cook explained that slaves were "part of the family," and many times, after they were freed, some of them stayed on the plantation, because "that was their home."
    "Things can be that way today if people would just put aside their animosities," she said.
    Cook said she wants to write longer novels and she has planned books that are "different."
    She currently has a contest going in which her readers can send their Wal-Mart receipts to her and their name goes into a pool. On Dec. 15, she will draw a name from the pool and give away a basket of "Southern goodies."
 
THE OLD SOUTH LIVES AGAIN: Cook got the inspiration for her books from visiting Belvedere Hall on the Eufaula, Ala. Tour of Homes in 1985.

Americus Times-Recorder, Americus, Georgia

Photo Credits: Genie Collins/Americus Times Recorder