Just a small-town girl

Writing in a small-town world. 😎

If I’m anything, I’m a small-town girl.

I grew up in a small town in the middle of coal mines and corn fields. Population—900. My graduating class had 24 students; somewhere around 15 of us had been together since preschool. Looking back, it was an interesting experience.

We were almost our own little family. We knew each other’s secrets. Every birthday since all of us were five, some before, we all attended. We were there in Kindergarten when Bryan* cut Eve’s hair and Mrs. S let us finger paint with chocolate pudding. We joined forces to throw Mrs. R a 40th birthday party in third grade. Lennon stuck a paper clip in an outlet and the hallway smelled like fire all afternoon in sixth grade. (And we all know who dared him to do it.)

We ate our lunches together in the old gym with its hardwood floors and dilapidated stage where we’d host cheerleading practice when the basketball team ran late in the new gym. We cared for a student who had emotional outbursts in high school when the substitute teachers were bamboozled and didn’t know what to do. “We got this,” we’d say. “Can you just go into the hallway? Give us ten.” We knew what to do. We’d known him his whole life.

Small-town life runs through my veins. It’s embedded in my DNA. Ice cream socials, Sunday dinners at Grandma’s, and making chicken and noodles as a fundraiser are what I know better than anything.

And that’s why I often write small-town romances.

The Carmichael series are just that—a tightly knit family that relies on each other the way I was brought up. They may fight and bicker (and add giant chickens to each other’s yard), but they're family at the end of the day.

And when they bring home the girls that steal their heart? They’re immediately family too.

The world has gone mad. I can barely turn on the television or radio—and let’s not start with social media. Ugh. Everywhere we turn, there’s gunk and devastation.

That’s why delivering feel-good, heart-warming romances is wildly important to me.

Few things are more magical, reassuring, and hopeful than reading a story filled with laughs and love. Setting those types of tales into worlds like I know, small-town life, is a marriage made in heaven.

Speaking of marriage … in Flaunt, my hero, Banks, poses as his heroine’s fake fiance. It’s supposed to be one night, one event. But it turns into so much more.

If you’re looking for a weekend read, I hope you’ll check it out.

xo,

Addy

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

1. Me and my mom during Football Homecoming. This is easily the biggest event of the year in my hometown. The alumni come in, there are alumni softball games, a big party, a festival, and, of course, the football game and crowning of Homecoming Queen. I was crowned queen a few minutes after this photo was taken.

2. Since it’s graduation season, I’ve been looking at my old graduation phots. This is me and Mr. Locke during my high school graduation. We called that hairstyle “topsy tales”. I see the young kids (Ha!) doing it now on Tiktok. So funny.

3. There is nothing more small-town Indiana than this picture. Basketball Homecoming my sophomore year. Dribbling a ball in heels and a dress.

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Meet Banks Carmichael, my small-town, blue-collar hero, in Flaunt. Live now on Amazon and free with Kindle Unlimited. Narration by Jacob Morgan and Mckenzie Cartwright coming next week.