Orange Blossom Special: An Ellery Novella
About this ebook
The author of Georgia Author of Year Award winners Bless Her Heart and Oh My Stars presents a novella about the family we have, the family we make, and how those two sometimes come together at the oddest times.
Edie Malcolm isn't sure she wants to keep living after her husband of sixty years, Jerome, passes away. Jerome, as he always did, had other plans—and a few surprises for his beloved wife. Unfortunately for Edie, those plans involve teaming up with her not-so-favorite sister-in-law Janice and two neighboring teens who haven't quite figured out who they are going to be in life, much less how to deal with Jerome's death.
Thanks to Jerome's wacky will, the foursome will have to travel the length of Tennessee in the Orange Blossom Special, an ancient hearse that Jerome had painted an orange and white checkerboard in homage to his beloved Volunteers.
As they spread his ashes in the places he requested, Edie and Janice are tempted to leave behind years of hostility and forge a new kinship. Even though nothing goes according to plan, the quartet still learns about love, grief, and the odd ways in which friendship can blossom.
About the author
Born and raised in a small town in West Tennessee, Sally Kilpatrick writes to go home. It is a place she better appreciates and understands since moving away over twenty years ago to earn a B.A. at the University of Tennessee. While also majoring in English, Sally met and fell in love with a Georgia man who relocated her to his home state. It is a place she taught high school Spanish for eight years before taking a sabbatical to write and mother full time. She went back to school at Kennesaw State University where she graduated with an M.A. in professional writing.
Published by Kensington in Spring 2015, The Happy Hour Choir was a manuscript fueled by countless muffins and cups of coffee at Sally's local dessert shop. The original story of protagonist Beulah Land won the "Duel on the Delta" award, was a finalist for the Maggie Awards and Golden Heart® Awards and was also nominated for a Georgia Author of the Year Award.
Her next two novels also take place in the Ellery "universe." Bittersweet Creek, described by Sally as "Shakespeare. . . with cows," released in the fall of 2015. Better Get to Livin', her story of a funeral director and a failed actress, was published in May 2016. That brings us to Sally's latest novel, Bless Her Heart, which was published by Kensington in October 2017.
Sally lives with her husband and two children (aka The Hobbit and Her Majesty) in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. In addition to reading and writing, Sally's hobbies include traveling, historic house tours, running, religious studies, and all things geek.
