Biography
About the Author
Writing has always been a dream for me, though I never considered making it public other than my professional work as an attorney. Then I inherited some letters from three generations of maternal ancestors documenting their courting relationships and what led them to marry or to refrain from marriage. Love Letters From Appalachia is a novel based upon a real-life romance between my grandmother and a man that never came to fruition and a granddaughter's search for love in her own life trying to discover what went wrong with a relationship nearly 100 years before.
My dream is almost a reality. My first novel, "Love Letters From Appalachia" is projected for publication in the spring of 2022. A sequel is currently in production and I hope to have it completed for publication by summer of 2023. A third installment is in the planning stages which will complete the trilogy.
Since turning my passion into a profession, I am constantly exploring new ideas to follow the trilogy born from the love letters of my ancestors. The mountains of Western North Carolina are full of history and stories I could spend a lifetime writing about. While I will never be able to tell all of them, it is my hope that I can shed some light on a few of the secrets hidden in those rugged, but breathtaking ancient mountains.
Photograph Courtesy of Robert Ludlow
Photography by Cindy Harter Sims at cindyharterphotography.com
Love Letters From Appalachia ©
Love Letters From Appalachia©, the premier novel by Laura Porter Taylor is currently in production and is projected for availability in the Spring of 2021. I am currently looking for beta readers to preview the novel. If you are interested in becoming a beta reader for this novel, please contact me.
Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them – a mother’s approval, a father’s nod – are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
--Mitch Albom (from "The Five People You Meet In Heaven")
Be thou my vision of Lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that thou art. Thou my best thought by day or by night, waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word. I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I thy true son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise, Thou mine Inheritance, now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won, May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heav'n's Sun. Heart of my own heart, whate'er befall, still be my vsion, O Ruler of all.