Catoosa author Marnie Pehrson was
recently honored as one of Barnes and Noble's top 100
best-selling authors.
“It was exciting,” Pehrson said.
She has been married for almost 22 years and has six
children. The oldest is in college and the youngest is in
kindergarten.
“I’ve always liked to write,” Pehrson said. She kept a
journal from the time she was 14 years old.
“I wanted to be everything from an artist to a writer to a
chemist,” Pehrson says of her past aspirations.
It was through creating websites that Pehrson finally
realized her niche.
These sites require a lot of articles, which led her to
writing books.
Her site, Shelovesgod.com, has many inspirational articles
and ideamarketers.com contains more business-oriented
articles.
Pehrson says her books are generally set in the South and
have a “romantic twist”.
“If you like the South, or history with a little touch of
romance, then you’d like my books,” Pehrson said.
Pehrson adds that her books are also a clean alternative to
most romance novels and that they won’t offend someone’s
morals.
Most often it is a place that inspires Pehrson.
Her close proximity to Chickamauga Battlefield gives her a
great advantage when writing.
“I walk around, take a lot of pictures,” Pehrson said.
She adds that simply driving through the battlefield every
day serves as a motive for writing stories set in war times.
“The weird thing is I don’t even like war,” Pehrson said.
She writes many short stories set in the Battlefield as
well.
She was motivated to write “Angel and the Enemy,” her
latest novel, after she took a friend to Signal Point. Angel
earned her the Barnes and Noble honor.
Her friend bestowed the idea of writing a story about a
Southern girl that falls in love with a Yankee soldier.
“I just ran with it,” Pehrson said.
“Angel and the Enemy” is about a Georgia girl whose home is
invaded by two Yankee soldiers. She and one of the soldiers
fall in love despite the intense prejudices they harbor
against each other.
“Angel and the Enemy” has a couple secondary characters,
which Pehrson says are based on relatives.
Writing stories based on her ancestors is another specialty
of Pehrson’s.
“My mother is a big genealogist,” Pehrson said. “She’s kept
a lot of records.”
Pehrson uses records, timelines, and a family genealogy on
her computer to accurately base a story on her ancestors.
She hopes readers will gain, “an appreciation for the
past,” through her historical writings. She also feels it is
important to recognize the sacrifices of our ancestors.
Pehrson loves writing partly because, “It’s an escape; you
can kind of step into another time and another place.”
Pehrson says reactions from readers have been great.
“Everybody’s really liked it; gotten lots of good
feedback.”
“Generally they’ll come away with a greater since of faith
in God or in the good of other people,” she said.
“The Patriot Wore Petticoats” is Pehrson’s personal
favorite because it is about her fourth great grandmother;
however, she is most proud of “Angel and the Enemy” because
she feels it is her best work.
Pehrson said it helped having such a good editor, Julie
Bellon, who mentored her and taught her a lot about writing
during the course of a year.
Pehrson has six historical fiction books in print and has
also written seven inspirational Christian books.
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