Women’s fiction author, Marie Watts joins the blog this week to chat about her latest novel, Tough Trail Home
Author Name: Marie W. Watts
Book Title: Tough Trail Home
Book Genre: Women’s Fiction
Release Date: March 28, 2024
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Welcome, Marie! How would you describe Tough Trail Home?
Tough Trail Home is a delightful read about a family coming to terms with each other and their new lives.
What sparked the idea for this book?
I moved, by choice, from Houston to central Texas where I live on fifty acres. The difference between urban and rural living was an adjustment, but I will never willingly move back to a big city. Visiting meets all my needs.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
From start to finish, this book took 14 years! I began in 2010 and put the finished manuscript in the drawer, wrote three other novels, and then pulled it out three years ago to re-work.
I did research on miniature cattle. Then, when I resumed work on the book, I realized I needed to research technology available circa 2008.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
Life is fragile. What matters most is friends and family.
Any words of wisdom you give your pre-published writer self (or to a new writer)?
Take writing classes, join a critique group (and consider what they say), use a developmental editor until you learn the ropes, and believe in yourself.
What are your interests outside of writing and reading?
I am a history nut and work on a historic house in La Grange, Texas, the N.W. Faison House. We are developing a museum exhibit to highlight its rich African American history.
Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.
Yes. I am working on a trilogy based on my mother’s family who landed in the New World in 1630. I have esteemed relatives, including a great uncle who was a riverboat captain on the Tennessee River, owned a house of ill repute, and a pig who drank beer. It should be quite a story.
Where can readers find you?
You can learn all about Marie at www.mariewatts.com.
BLOGS AND NEWSLETTERS
You can sign up for Marie’s blogs and newsletters at www.mariewatts.com.
BOOKS
Links to books are located at www.mariewatts.com/books.
Watts, Marie W., Tough Trail Home. Texas. Black Rose Writing, 2024.
Watts, Marie W., RiRi’s Advice to the Grands. Muldoon, TX. Las Tortugas Press, 2023.
Watts, Marie W., Rapture by Revenge: Warriors for Equal Rights. Muldoon, TX: Las Tortugas Press, 2022.
Watts, Marie W., Only A Pawn: Warriors for Equal Rights. Muldoon, TX: Las Tortugas Press, 2020.
Watts, Marie W., The Cause Lives: Warriors for Equal Rights. Muldoon, TX: Las Tortugas Press, 2019.
Dalton, Marie, Dawn Hoyle, and Marie W. Watts. Human Relations, 4th ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011.
Watts, Marie W., La Grange: Images of America. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Watts, Marie, and Joy Darien. An American Salad. Austin, TX: Turnkey Press, 2003.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marie-w-watts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariewattsbooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieWattsBooks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariewattswriter/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-w-watts-5b2a2b/
MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/mariewatts4
Thank you, Marie! Tough Trail Home is out now.
Tough Trail Home
The Dunwhitty family is flying high until their carefully choreographed life falls apart during the 2008 Great Recession. Lisa’s firm goes belly-up while Michael’s shuts down after selling faulty heart valves. Desperate, Lisa insists they regroup by seeking refuge in rural Central Texas on land she inherits from a distant relative she barely knows.
It’s not the ranch Lisa remembers, but a ramshackle money pit. Michael and their teenage son, Andrew, despise the place. Only their young daughter, Jessica, is happy. After a bitter argument, Michael moves to the city. As his job search drags on, Lisa begins to plant roots; friendships develop for her and the children. With the help of Michael’s parents, her neighbor, and the remains of her savings, she begins to return the ranch to its former glory. The couple continues to drift further apart, Michael turning his attention to another woman.
A call from the sheriff’s department that their son is in custody jolts the couple to the core. Can they repair their relationship for the sake of their son? Or is it too late?
Author bio:
Marie W. Watts, author of the award-winning trilogy Warriors for Equal Rights, brings her life experiences as a mother and grandmother, wife, friend, divorcee, and human resource specialist to explore what matters in life.
Her works encompass both fiction and non-fiction, including co-authoring the best-selling textbook Human Relations, 4th ed. Additionally, her work has been published in the Texas Bar Journal and the Houston Business Journal, as well as featured on Issues Today, syndicated to 119 radio stations, NBC San Antonio, Texas, and TAMU-TV in College Station, Texas.
She lives on a central Texas ranch with her husband, volunteers at a historic house, and hangs out with her grandsons.
Follow Marie and her blog, Stories About Life at www.mariewatts.com.