News & Events
Novel in Progress
September 2011
Nancy, Carroll, and I are busy plotting a new triple-author novel, Hostage at Heart Mountain. It takes place in the fictional small town of Old Stove Creek, Wyoming, in 1945, and the actual nearby Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Center will play a prominent part in it. We're not sure where the idea came from, but something sparked it and we're all fired up. The three of us spent ten days in Cody, Wyoming, in June, researching the events that took place at the Center during World War II.
We will each write a character, as we did with our Company of Good Women trilogy, published by Deseret Book in 2006, 2007, and 2008. There are: Ruby, ex-rodeo queen, who is anxious about sending her only son off to war; Thelma, crusty proprietor of the general store, who maintains order and decorum in her domain with her trusty broom; and Kathryn, who has been more or less drafted to teach school in Old Stove Creek even though she has had only two years of college and yearns to be back on campus. The three women become unlikely friends. Each in her own way is held hostage at Heart Mountain, just as much as the United States citizens who are behind barbed wire at the relocation center.
CRUSTY OLD BROADS GO TO COLLEGE!
Spring 2010
Almost Sisters , the first book in our trilogy, The Company of Good Women, is an assigned novel on the reading list for a class titled The Literature of Mormon Women at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California.
The class is taught by Claudia L. Bushman, professor of Mormon Studies at the university. The class syllabus describes the book as “Collaborative work on the creation of a community dealing with current problems.” Questions the students are asked to consider deal with what the authors say about the LDS community, interpretation of LDS life, skills of the writers, and how the tensions in the book reflect LDS life.
A few of the other books on the list are The Giant Joshua by Maureen Whipple, A Little Lower Than the Angels by Virginia Sorensen, Lighten Up by Chieko Okazaki, The Marketing of Sister B by Linda Hoffman Kimball, Parting the Veil: Stories from a Mormon Imagination by Phyllis Barber, Thoughts of a Grasshopper by Louise Plummer, and Goodbye, I Love You by Carol Lynn Pearson.
STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF JOSEPH SMITH
SPRING 2009
Richard E. Turley, Jr., and Lael Littke
New Women's Novel Just Out
Keepers of Blackbird Hill
September 2011
"Lael Littke has created another page turner with her new book."
-Judith Jefferies
My new women's novel, titled Keepers of Blackbird Hill, is just out with Deseret Book. Although most of the books listed on our website are triple- or double-authored, this is a single. Last year Carroll and Nancy, who are sisters, authored Leaning Into the Curves together. This was my year to do one by myself before we triple up for a new one we have in mind.
So what is my new book about? This is what reviewer Judith Jefferies says: "Keepers of Blackbird Hill is a novel of self-discovery. Jayda has inherited the old family property back home. She leaves her ill-scripted life in Hollywood to return to the place where she grew up and is once again faced with the stern and demanding family she so desperately wanted to escape when she was younger — only to find they're more demanding than ever.… Developers want Jayda's land. The money could give her a new start."
There are things that make her hesitate to sell. Old friends. Lee Spencer, for one, who was her leading man in high school and community musicals. But Lee has changed so much she scarely recognizes him. And then there is Smoot Ferguson. It seems as if everybody wants her to meet him. "You'll like Smoot," they assure her. One day he comes by.…
And then there is the house itself, with its Remembering Room that has a wall of drawers filled with family history.
There are several people who would benefit from the sale of the house. One of them leaves threatening notes around the property, scraps of paper with a large circle and ugly black diagonal slash. "Go back to Hollywood," they say. It's not until the threats grow dangerous to Jayda and those who befriend her that she makes a decision.
Carroll Morris and Nancy Anderson Talk about Leaning into the Curves
Spring 2010
Nancy: A few years ago, I sat next to a couple from my ward, Tom and Elaine Kenney, at a High Priest activity. During dinner Tom entertained us about his and Elaine’s adventures with the Temple Rider’s Association. That’s a group LDS motorcycle riders who combine road trips with temple service...read more >>
Who We Are
Nancy Anderson, Lael Littke
and Carroll Hofeling Morris
For those of you new to the Virtual Sisters website, Nancy and Carroll really are sisters. Their longtime friend and vacation buddy, Lael, is an “almost sister.” In fact, we were vacationing in Moab in 1999 when Nancy asked, “Why don’t we write a book together?”
Our trilogy, The Company of Good Women, was the result of that offhand question. It’s unique. Three books… by three authors… about three women whose friendship last over the 25 years of their quest to become COBS—Crusty Old Broads! In case that doesn’t sound like something to aspire to, a COB is a woman who “pulls up her socks and keeps going, no matter what life sends her way.”
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