Bonnie Blaylock Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Bonnie Blaylock is a literary fiction author from the South East that is best known for her debut novel Light to the Hills. She has said that her works are inspired by her wandering through the world, life, and books where she picks up all manner of treasures.
Bonnie has always been drawn to the written world from very early on as she wrote and read her way through the classics and different genres. Ultimately, she went to the University of Tennessee, where she got her master’s degree in creative writing.
Nonetheless, it took her a long while to follow the muse as she would spend several years chasing unrelated careers. She worked for a software organization doing sales support writing and for a time also worked in research and technical writing for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Still, she did all that while still studying fiction craft and reading all manner of books.

Blaylock spent much of her childhood in the Southeast and this left its mark on who she became as an author. She developed a love and appreciation for the culture, the pace, language, and quirks of the people which are evident in her debut Light to the Hills.
The fascinating bits and pieces from unfamiliar places and people she meets also regularly make it into her writing. Blaylock has said that she loves to find humor in imperfection and is a huge lover of solidly written sentences, books, language, and words.
She is known among her friends for having books strewn all over her house and a home bookshelf so full she winders how the floor never caves in. As such it is only natural that Bonnie sees everything she experiences as a story.
Moreover, growing up in a large military family that used to move all over the country also provided her with a lot of material for her work.

She currently makes her home in central Tennessee where she lives with her two children several chickens and some honey bees. Her husband and partner in life, parenting, and faith is a small animal veterinarians.

Bonnie Blylock has been writing since she was a child as she had three older sisters that constantly read to her. She read a lot in high school and college and by the time she was writing her master’s thesis, she has a huge collection of short stories.
However, it was not until she was an empty nester that she renewed her efforts toward becoming a published author. In addition to her sisters, she has also been influenced by the many books she used to read that made her fall in love with well-crafted sentences.
As for her inspiration for her blockbuster debut novel, Blaylock has said that it came from a tweet she saw. Many of her essays are inspired by personal experiences with faith, a mature family, and the world she lives in.
She has said that she tends to ask a lot of what-if queries which usually gets her imagination going.

Just like most authors, Blylock had quite an interesting journey toward becoming a published author. She penned blog pieces and essays for several years before she made her first attempt at writing a novel.

In the several months, it took her to research and write her first science/historical thriller she learned everything she could about aspects of fiction writing.

Following a steep learning curve in which she queried and was rejected a lot she shelved her manuscript and tried to pen something unique with Light to the Hills. After about a year she got an offer from her Harvey Klinger agent Cate Hart.
Even though COVID significantly slowed everything down, she would ultimately become a published author in 2022.

She usually advises aspiring historical fiction to read a lot of historical fiction if they are to become successful. Bonnie Blaylock believes this is the only way to get a good grasp of how to write works that readers will find interesting and buy.

According to Blaylock, what makes her works unique is the fact that she believes everybody has different perspectives just like everyone has a different and unique fingerprint.

As a child, she was born in Japan but spent much of her childhood in the southern United States. In her twenties, she lost her mother and this would shape her view of life more than anything else since.
Living in the south also made her develop an appreciation for doing things outside the box. In this regard, she is a beekeeper, cohost of a podcast, and owner of three miniature donkeys.

She believes that since she used to read a lot of British literature much of her inner voice now speaks with a British accent. She also believes that her faith has been a significant influence on her writing as she usually filters everything through it.
Given her faith, she also tends to write in a hopeful tone regardless of the difficulty of her topic.

“Light to the Hills” by Bonnie Blaylock is the story of men both evil and good and brave and smart women doing what they have to do to protect their families.
At the center of the story is a young girl coming of age named Sass and a single mother named Amanda that lost her husband on the day she got her son. To support her family, Amanda works as a traveling librarian and usually rides a pack animal into the mountains where she distributes books.

It was while she was on one such mission that she saved Sass after she was bitten by a rattlesnake. It later turns out that both Amanda and Sass had been victims of assault by the same man who was responsible for killing the former’s husband.
When Sass finally gets the courage to tell her mother what happened, it provides Amanda the courage to tell her story and reconnect with the family from which she had become estranged.

Surprisingly, it is up to the mothers of the young women to band together and serves their own brand of mountain justice to the man who threatened to destroy both families.