A couple of years ago, I wrote a short story for a charity anthology. “Light of the Moon” was about a young woman jilted at the altar when her mother (an accused murderess) escaped from jail with the sheriff (the young woman’s fiance.) The story had an open ending because I love open endings.

Not everyone loves open endings. I was asked countless times what happened to the young woman, to her mother, to the sheriff. The answer was, I didn’t know. When the story came to me, it ended with the jilting. I never seriously considered writing a sequel until Sister Jean, the facilitator at the retreat house where “Light of the Moon” was written, told me she wanted to know what happened to the sheriff. She said I should write a sequel.

I went to Catholic school. When a nun says you should do something, you do it.

The Murderess of Bayou Rosa is that sequel.

Set in 1920 in a small bayou town in Louisiana, it is the story of a fallen woman who crosses the line of her hometown’s tolerance when she shoots her lover in the back. After a world war and influenza pandemic, can a jury of twelve men vote to hang a woman they’ve seen grow up since birth?

The Murderess of Bayou Rosa is available for Kindle or in paperback here.