This historical novel grows out of V.L. (Ginny) Purvis-Smith’s desire to portray the forever-present tensions between America’s immigrant groups, in this case, in the life of a rural community enduring the stress of World War II and the construction of a nearby Japanese internment camp. Ginny grew up on a Colorado farm replete with coal stove, outhouse, and milk cows. Her aunts cautioned that, because women were too often widowed at a young age with children to support, education and a profession might guarantee survival.
She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and a Master of Divinity degree from McCormick Theological Seminary. She served churches in the Midwest and on the East Coast, worked as a hospital and university chaplain, directed an English language program in Sénégal, West Africa, and taught English composition in Michigan and The Bahamas. Prior to graduate school, she was a special education teacher and administered employee insurance programs.
Ginny lives with her husband near Denver, Colorado.