Lin Stepp

Author of The Smoky Mountain Books

BOOK TOUR

Current BOOK TOUR - Information & Dates

Cover Art

The beautiful works of art featured on the covers of The Smoky Mountain Series novels were painted by the well-known regional artist Jim Gray.

Jim Gray is a nationally proclaimed artist who has been painting Smoky Mountain scenes and southern landscapes for over thirty years. In 1966, Gray and his family moved to east Tennessee so that Jim could explore and paint the beauty of the countryside surrounding the Smoky Mountains. Today, Jim Gray has three galleries in east Tennessee and one in Alabama. He has sold over 2000 paintings and 125,000 prints to collectors in the United States and abroad. Jim is listed in Who’s Who in American Art and has been featured in many publications, including National Geographic and Southern Living.

Artist's Website

Prints of these paintings can be purchased in Jim Gray galleries or ordered through Jim Gray’s website.

Jim Gray’s business address is:
GREENBRIAR INCORPORATED
P. O. Box 735, Gatlinburg, TN 37738
Business Phone: (865) 573-0579

The Afternoon Hiker - Smokies Guidebook

The beautiful Great Smoky Mountains provide the inspiration for this unique hiking guide—designed especially for the average tourist or hiking enthusiast seeking a morning or afternoon walk in the Smokies that will prove pleasant and fun. All 110 hikes in The Afternoon Hiker are easily accessible and average 6-8 miles roundtrip.

In the late 1990s, Lin and J.L. Stepp began to explore and hike the trails in the Smokies. They bought several books and guides – checked others out at the library – but quickly found many of these books did not describe aspects of the mountain trails in any detail until eight to ten miles from the trailhead. As “non-Sierra-club” afternoon hikers – they’d often turned around and come back by that point!

A journaler by nature, Lin wrote brief descriptions of their trail explorations after every outing while J.L. documented their hikes with photos. The couple soon began to envision creating a book of their experiences to share with others.

Although a large quantity of trail guides exist on the market, Lin and J.L. found many lacked specific information they wanted to know about the Smokies trails—specific distances from one point to another, interesting highlights along the way, and more accurate evaluations of trail difficulty for average individuals. As hikers less intent on the long march and covering the miles rapidly – the Stepps enjoyed stopping and exploring old cemeteries and settlers’ homes off the trail, climbing down a bank to enjoy a hidden waterfall, or ambling through a field to study a giant hollowed-out tree. Their guidebook includes these personal “finds” and adventures, ongoing mileage notes to better evaluate distance from one point to another, and more accurate evaluations of the difficulty of hikes for average individuals.

The 110 hikes in The Afternoon Hiker are arranged chronologically—in the order Lin and J.L. hiked them—but the book includes both a regional and alphabetical index to locate trails by name or area, along with a Smokies map. The hiking layout in the book is one of its most distinctive features. With every turn of the page, the reader encounters a new trail to read about. Each Tennessee or North Carolina hike description spreads over two pages, around accompanying photos, with the trail name, the season the trail was first hiked, a general rating of the hike, and clear directions to get to the trailhead. The book includes over 300 photos to enhance the text plus a hiking patch created for each trail.

This is the perfect hiking guide for the occasional hiker, for busy professionals wanting to get away to the mountains for a weekend break, or for tourists visiting the Smoky Mountains and seeking a hiking trail they can enjoy for a memorable afternoon.

The Smoky Mountain Series

The Smoky Mountain Series is a linked series of upbeat, sentimental contemporary romance novels. Each novel is set in a different area of the Smoky Mountains so that the reader gets to experience a visit to a new area of the Smokies along with the rich pleasure of a good Southern story about memorable characters. Familiar characters and places tie the stories together in an enjoyable way for readers who like a series they can settle into. The Foster Girls is the first of twelve novels in the series. The second book, Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, came out in the Spring of 2010. For Six Good Reaons, the third book in the series, was released early in 2011. The exciting fourth book, Delia's Place, will be available in April 2012.

All titles are available in Print and Ebook formats.

The Foster Girls - Book One

The deep secrets – that restrict us and limit our lives – are at the heart of this first, engaging novel in the new Smoky Mountain series.

Vivian Delaney – in The Foster Girls – arrives in the quiet Wear’s Valley, on the backside of the Smoky Mountains, carrying a heavy load of hidden problems – and eager to find a quiet place to escape the recent troubles of her past. However, secrets are hard to keep, and right away Vivian encounters unexpected challenges with her landlord, Scott Jamison. From Vivian’s first meeting with Scott – at the end of a rifle barrel – Scott seems purposed to push past all Vivian’s defenses and to find a way into her heart.

Just as Vivian begins to trust Scott – and is able to share her secrets with him and new friends in the valley – love for a little foster girl, Sarah Taylor, challenges Vivian and Scott’s new relationship. When Sarah is lost in the mountains, the suspense and conflict build – with the lives of several characters caught tantalizingly in the balance.
Readers will quickly become wrapped up in the magic of this heartwarming story set against the backdrop of the beautiful Smoky Mountains National Park. They will heartily enjoy the likable cast of main and secondary characters along with the sprinkling of Appalachian flavor that generously enhances this inspirational regional story.

Tell Me About Orchard Hollow - Book Two

It is difficult to recover when hurt by those we love and trust - but in this second novel in the beloved Smoky Mountain Series, a young woman finds healing and new confidence while staying in a mountain cabin on the quiet side of the mountains.

New Yorker Jenna Howell has spent many pleasant hours listening to her older neighbor, Sam Oliver, spin stories about his beloved home place on Orchard Hollow Road in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. This rural world is far removed from Jenna's life in downtown Manhattan, but when several shocking events and marital betrayal come her way, Jenna - a previously sheltered girl - decides to take Sam up on his offer to visit his cabin in the mountains.

At Sam's place in Townsend, Jenna meets many new friends, including her good-looking neighbor, artist Boyce Hart. A quick attraction sparks between Jenna and Boyce, proving to be both exciting and confusing at this time in Jenna's life. It is not the right time for a new relationship for either Jenna or Boyce. However, as spring blooms in the Smokies, Jenna blooms. She gains a new appreciation for unselfish love and simple pleasures, develops confidence in herself and her talents, and begins to find new understandings about faith. Just as she is finding happiness and beginning to heal, an unexpected tragedy forces her to return to New York City. Here she has to test out her new-found strengths, resolve the problems in her life, and decide on the direction for her future. Choosing the right course proves to be more difficult than expected - as two very different lives vie with opposite allures for Jenna's heart.

For Six Good Reasons - Book Three

A young woman with six foster children, under twelve, hopes for patience, peace, and a bigger
house – but love? Not hardly. However — sometimes fate deals an unexpected hand.

When Alice Graham came back to look at the sale property at the base of the Smoky Mountains in Greenbrier, it was absolutely not because of that recurring dream of the cowboy. She’d seen him high on the ridge top in the winter and felt a peculiar drawing and attraction flash between them – but she never expected to see him again.

When she did, a month after buying the rural property, that odd attraction still sizzled in the air. However, it seemed unlikely that anything romantic would develop, because Alice had bought the property and its house as a home for herself and the six Stuart siblings she’d agreed to foster. Six kids were enough to scare any man off – especially a confirmed bachelor like Harrison Ramsey with unsolved mysteries and unpleasant rumors floating around in his past.

Delia's Place - Book Four

Just when Delia Walker’s life reads like a fairy tale come true, the bottom falls out of everything, leaving her desperate, devastated, and directionless—worrying through a rush of anxious fears and tears whether life can ever turn right again.

Delia Eleanor Walker’s life is perfectly planned—the wedding date set, the invitations mailed, and her family gathered at the North Carolina beach house ready to celebrate—when Delia receives Prentice’s unexpected fed-ex announcing he’s married someone else! What on earth will she do? She’s centered every aspect of her future around her upcoming marriage and Delia knows her family will somehow blame the break-up on her. They always do. They’ll call it one more immature botch-up by the baby of the family.

In her lap, among the mail just received, Delia seizes on an answer—an invitation from Maureen Cross for a last visit to her Aunt Dee’s old cottage behind Gatlinburg. It’s cowardly to run, but Delia does, hoping to find in the mountains time to heal and space to chart a new direction for her life.

Instead of peace and quiet, Delia finds a troubled cousin she’s never met hiding out in her aunt’s house and an old childhood playmate and heartthrob, Tanner Cross, back in town, reminding her of yet another time she made a fool of herself romantically. To top it off, a criminal is soon on the loose, along with an increasingly complicated array of new problems that Delia never, in a million years, expected to encounter.

Come see how Delia finds her way… and follow her through surprising twists of sorrow, suspense, and sweetness—amid the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains and the charm of Gatlinburg—in this warm, contemporary romance.

Book Tour & Appearances

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I will be making a number of stops in the South-Eastern United States this year. Here is the current schedule of appearances:

Current BOOK TOUR - Information & Dates

Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, book two in the Smoky Mountain Series, is due for release in 2010.

 

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