Under the Bayou Moon was written primarily from the perspective of an outsider discovering Acadian Louisiana for the first time, just as I did. My sincere hope is that you’ve enjoyed discovering this singular place with Ellie Fields and that you fell in love with it just as she (and I) did.
I highly recommended the following books, which I used for research and inspiration:
Bernard, Shane K. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003.
Brasseaux, Carl A. Acadiana. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011.
Link, Donald, with Paula Disbrowe. Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link’s Louisiana. New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers, 2009.
Savoy, Ann. Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People. Eunice, Louisiana: Bluebird Press, 1984.
Valdman, Albert, ed., et al. Dictionary of Louisiana French. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
Vetter, Cyril E. Fonville Winans’ Louisiana: Politics, People, and Places. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016.
Winans, Fonville. Cruise of the Pintail. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011.
Winans, Melinda Risch, and Cynthia LeJeune Nobles. The Fonville Winans Cookbook: Recipes and Photographs from a Louisiana Artist. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2017.
Acknowledgments
MUCH LOVE AND GRATITUDE to my husband, Dave, for his endless patience and support, and to my parents, who read every draft of every book, reminding me again and again to stop worrying and write.
Many thanks to my extended family, church family, and dear friends for all their encouragement and support.
How to thank literary agent Leslie Stoker? Meeting Leslie at Southern Living was one of the great blessings of my life. Thank you, my friend, for believing in my work and guiding me every step of the way.
What were the chances that the manuscript for my first novel, Missing Isaac, would make its way from Birmingham, Alabama, to Leslie’s desk in New York, to a brilliant Michigan-based editor with an affinity for the South? (I do not believe in accidents.) That’s exactly what happened, and Kelsey Bowen has been my editor/spirit guide ever since, offering thoughtful questions and laser-sharp insights. Thank you, thank you, Kelsey, for elevating every manuscript you touch and for championing my work. My deep gratitude also goes to Jessica English, an amazing editor whose unfaltering attention to detail is rare and wonderful. Thank you, Jessica! And many thanks to yet another fine editor, Sadina Grody Brott, who shepherded the final manuscript and dealt with a million last-minute “do you think we should we change this” questions from me. Thank you for your good judgment and your patience, Sadina.
Proofreaders are the unsung heroes of the editing process, saving writers like me from many an embarrassing oversight. Sincere thanks for the time and talent of Sandra Judd, Robert Ludkey, and Julie Davis.
To Gayle Raymer and her creative team, my sincere thanks for your beautiful, evocative covers. I can’t even imagine how many book buyers are stopped in their tracks by your fantastic work.
To Michele Misiak, Karen Steele, Brianne Dekker, and the marketing and publicity teams at Revell Books, my thanks (and maybe some complimentary Milo’s sweet tea) for all that you do, all year long, to move those books off the shelves! I value your support and your friendship so very much.
I’d like to say a special thanks to the friends who kindly agreed to read advance copies of Under the Bayou Moon: Southern Living editor-in-chief Sid Evans and executive editor Krissy Tiglias, and four wonderful authors I truly admire—Erin Bartels, Nancy Dorman-Hickson, Lynette Eason, and Susie Finkbeiner. Many thanks also to Chris Jager of Baker Book House for all her encouragement and support.
To my dear friend, photographer Mark Sandlin, thank you (again) for the gift of your author portraits (#howdid youputupwithme).
As always, my heartfelt thanks to Sid Evans, Krissy Tiglias, Nellah McGough, and the Southern Living editorial staff for your continued support, and to Kristen Payne for promoting my work to fans of the magazine. I owe Raphe’s name to another Southern Living friend, Louisiana native Jorie MacDonald, who channeled her Cajun cousins to help me with my character.
I want to thank all the readers, booksellers, and media who have supported my writing, as well as the book clubs and writers’ clubs who have invited me to join you in person or on video. It’s an honor to share my stories with you.
As for my inspiration . . .
I credit Ellie’s passion for teaching and her love of history to my Aunt Patsy, who spent endless hours researching the history of our hometown so that her students would know the story of their own community. Her faith and love were shining examples to me and will stay with me always. (Uncle Bud, her husband, gave me many a colorful expression for my books and an appreciation for storytelling itself.)
Doc and Florence were inspired by two wonderful friends and neighbors, Ed and Julia McKinney, who lived next door to us until he was called home and she moved away to be closer to family. Just recently, we lost her as well. For years, Mr. McKinney tried unsuccessfully to persuade Dave and me to call him “Ed,” but that always felt disrespectful to us. Once he became ill, I found myself calling his wife “Miss Julia,” and later just “Julia.” I guess a sort of sisterhood grew between us during the long goodbye they said to each other as his health declined. She once told me that people sometimes asked her the secret to her long and happy marriage. “It’s just mutual respect and unconditional love,” she said matter-of-factly, as if those two things were easy to give. Dave and I watched the two of them walk through this life together in love and faith until they were united with God. The McKinneys and their family have been a great blessing to us. Any admiration you might feel for Doc and Florence Talbert is a direct reflection of my love for Ed and Julia McKinney, and my gratitude for their friendship.
Finally, I want to thank Fonville. (We’re way beyond the formality of surnames now.) At the very beginning, when I was doing preliminary research for Under the Bayou Moon, I googled my way to the work of the late photographer Fonville Winans, whose Depression-era images of the Louisiana bayou country are breathtaking. His portraits and landscapes fired my imagination with ideas for characters and bayou settings, so much so that I decided to put a charismatic photographer in my story. Heywood Thornberry became one of my all-time favorite characters, in part because some of the most talented, interesting people I know are photographers, but also because I wanted to invoke their powers of observation. (The scene where Heywood bypasses all the sights and sounds of a busy French Quarter street and instead photographs an artist quietly working in her studio, oblivious to all distractions, was inspired by one of my own Southern Living trips to New Orleans with Mark Sandlin, whom I watched do exactly that.) Talented photographers like Mark see things the rest of us miss. I’m hoping Heywood caught it all with his camera. It would be a shame to miss the perfect shot.
P.S. to Aunt Boots: Thank you for always being in my corner. Love, Baby Girl.
Valerie Fraser Luesse is the bestselling author of Missing Isaac, Almost Home, and The Key to Everything, as well as an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently senior travel editor. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse received the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society for her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana. A graduate of Auburn University and Baylor University, she lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Dave.
ValerieFraserLuesse.com
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Table of Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Half Title Page
Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
Title Page
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Dedication
Contents
Prologue
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Epilogue
Chapter One of Another Story from Valerie
Author Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
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