2:30 p.m., Wright Memorial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood
Grace Carter now makes her home in Iowa, but the author grew up in Yellow Springs, graduated with a B.A. in Literature from Antioch College, and lived in Dayton for eight years before heading west for her career.
Her fascination with Dayton’s history, however, followed her, and became the inspiration for her debut novel, “City of Three Rivers,” set in Dayton between the years of 1876 and 1924. Part of Grace’s fascination with this time period is the various floods that threatened to destroy the city.
According to Grace’s website and press release, “City of Three Rivers” follows the life of one extraordinary woman, Susan Burke, during a time when women were confined to the roles of wives and mothers. But Susan chooses her own journey, pursuing her passion to become a healer. When her father confesses to a less than perfect past and asks her to help him if he ever gets “another chance,” Susan begins to explore unconventional beliefs about life and death, and to uncover family secrets. Susan’s quest takes her across the country to her father’s childhood home and leads her to a deeper understanding of herself.”
Grace shared in an interview that she’s always had a fascination with creating stories. “I loved cutting out paper dolls as child and making up characters,” she says. “Then I’d go on to create whole villages and towns for them to live. After that, I’d start thinking about family trees and how the various relationships affected my characters!”
Though a love of writing followed Grace through her work in various jobs post-college — from waitressing to copy editing and other positions — she says that now that she’s retired, she can focus more intently on her creative writing.
Her debut novel, she says, required a great deal of research, particularly given its sweeping time span.
“I’ve spent many years working on this book, including a great deal of research,” Grace says. “I loved finding pictures of Dayton’s buildings from various points in the past. I’ve included some of those pictures on my website, and include a caption stating which chapter includes the building pictured.”
“City of Three Rivers” was endorsed by Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton, who said, “A wonderful novel, with many fascinating tidbits of Dayton’s history. I loved it!”
Learn more about Grace, her novel, and see historical pictures of Dayton at her website, www. cityofthreerivers.com — Writers’ Café, a casual hang out for writers ages 18 and up and of all experience levels, meets the first Friday (7 p.m.) and third Sunday (at 2:30) of each month.
Sunday, May 21, 2-3:30 p.m., Books & Co. at The Greene
— Antioch Writers’ Workshop at University of Dayton presents a free mini-seminar on setting and characters. The program will be led by novelist Rob Boley, author of a series of dark fantasy novels for teens and adults. Learn more about Rob at