How did this series of novels come about?

I had written a couple of gothic novels– which were what I thought I wanted to write, and back in the '70s they were so popular– and when I sent them to Zondervan (publishers), the editor called me up and said, "I love your style, but that’s not what we’re looking for." She was looking for straight romance, which I had never done before. But I had been to Eufala, where they have a tour of homes every year. There are unique mansions lining the streets, and I wondered why they weren’t simple mansions– they had cosmopolitan Italian marble and antiques from Europe. I just knew there had to be a story, and when I climbed up in the belvedere in Fendall Hall, it just came to life. I could imagine Lilly sitting there, looking out over the Chattahoochee looking for her steamboat captain. She became the first of four heroines.

It was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be, because I knew him so well. I started with him as a 12-year-old boy (in the first novel), and I knew his parents, and they all became part of me.

What are the challenges of writing romance novels from a Christian perspective?

There aren’t many. There are a lot of people out there who are looking for a good story with good elements to think about later, and would also like to be able to give their grandmother or granddaughter the book. (The world of my novels) is the real world to me. If I lived in New York, I might have a different world, but I live in a rural area, and the people I know revolve around the church and the love of family. That’s my real life. In the novels you still have that love story, you’ve still got the conflicts, but it s a different attitude. You feel the romance without ever hopping into bed. You leave a little to the imagination— like in "Gone With the Wind," when Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs, and shuts the door, and the next thing you see is her smile in the morning. That’s much more romantic to me.

You say that your surroundings are a major influence on your writing, and it’s evident in "Magnolias" - local readers will no doubt recognize some of the scenery in your novels. What’s your process for incorporating local history and culture into your work?

What I like to do is interview older people, and go to the musty, dusty documents and old books for research. I ve always been extremely careful about my historical details, because I started life as a non-fiction writer— I wrote three books, and wrote for magazines and newspapers. I just learned that the University of Georgia is collecting my work for its Georgiana Collection. When I heard that, I was so glad I had been careful about my details!