Southern author Rose Senehi will discuss her latest novel, “Render Unto the Valley,” at the Lanier Library on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at noon. The program is free and everyone is welcome.
Originally from Michigan, Senehi moved to New York State, where she attended Syracuse University. Living and raising two children in the village of Cazenovia, N.Y., she used this small farming community as a basis for her first novel, “Shadows in the Grass.” She was also pursuing a business career opening shopping malls throughout the northeast, but when she had an opportunity to move to a warmer climate she took it and moved to Myrtle Beach, S.C., which she used as a setting for her novel “Pelican Watch.”
Senehi first visited the Lanier Library in 2010, when she discussed her mystery novel about a summer camp in Western North Carolina,  “The Wind in the Woods.” In addition to her writing, she works with organizations to preserve the forested environment of the North Carolina mountains.
The third in Senehi’s Blue Ridge series of novels,  “Render Unto the Valley” is set in Fairview, in the Hickory Nut Gap of Western North Carolina, where she now has a home. The author describes this novel as “… a contemporary novel cloaked in the rich history of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains.” She said it tells of a woman’s struggle to bridge the divide between the staunchly independent mountain culture she comes from and the sophisticated world she has become a par of – all while concealing an ugly secret that drove her away from the area.
The novel received a gold medal in the 2012 Independent Book Publisher Awards and was also honored this year by the Southeast Independent Booksellers Association.
The program is part of the Lanier Library’s Brown Bag Lunch series, held on the third Tuesday of each month. Brown Bag events are timed to allow working people to attend during their lunch breaks, and, if they so wish, to bring their lunch. Coffee is available at the library.
– article submitted by Vonda Krahn