Christy Landers Tallamy
Christy Landers Tallamy is a writer whose work explores the beauty and complexity of ordinary lives and whose style has been compared to the Italian novelist Elena Ferrante Her poetry and essays have been published in several creative writing anthologies, and she has also worked as a ghostwriter, blogger, and essayist, earning small but meaningful accolades for her work. Her debut historical novel, Sugarcane Saint, draws on her Southern roots and examines family loyalty, faith, and the legacies that shape who we become.
In addition to her writing, Christy is an accomplished composer and music educator, currently serving as President of the Virginia Music Teachers Association. Growing up in rural Georgia as a minister’s daughter, she first learned music by ear and, at seventeen, became a lead vocalist for Dolly Parton Entertainment. She has since performed internationally, composed original works, taught countless students, and produced Conversations at the Piano Bench, a published collection of student compositions and observations about music teaching.
An engaging speaker, Christy offers a range of author programs, from in-depth group discussions on literature and family dynamics to lighthearted meet-and-greets that connect readers with her characters and creative process. She believes the world is beautiful even when it is not—and that both music and the written word hold the power to heal, illuminate, and transform.
In addition to her writing, Christy is an accomplished composer and music educator, currently serving as President of the Virginia Music Teachers Association. Growing up in rural Georgia as a minister’s daughter, she first learned music by ear and, at seventeen, became a lead vocalist for Dolly Parton Entertainment. She has since performed internationally, composed original works, taught countless students, and produced Conversations at the Piano Bench, a published collection of student compositions and observations about music teaching.
An engaging speaker, Christy offers a range of author programs, from in-depth group discussions on literature and family dynamics to lighthearted meet-and-greets that connect readers with her characters and creative process. She believes the world is beautiful even when it is not—and that both music and the written word hold the power to heal, illuminate, and transform.
Sugarcane Saint: The First Book of Ruth
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Historical Fiction
Born in 1912 beneath the shadow of Stone Mountain, Ruth Shurlington is an imaginative but unremarkable child growing up in a middle-class Georgia farm family. She idolizes her father and watches her four older sisters model the quiet strength of Biblical womanhood. Ruled by evangelical faith and Southern tradition, the Shurlingtons weather a changing world—until the sudden death of a beloved patriarch shatters the family’s foundation. In the aftermath, Ruth is left navigating a servant-like role in a household divided between a failing rural farm and the expanding city of nearby Atlanta. When Quillan Johnson, her childhood friend and the preacher’s son, proposes marriage, Ruth believes her future is finally secure. But a chance encounter with Leonidas Brantley, a dangerously charming migrant worker, awakens a darker curiosity. A chain of tragic choices leaves her isolated and vulnerable, setting in motion a brutal cycle of violence that will echo through generations. Spanning fifty years in the segregated American South, the Book of Ruth trilogy begins with Sugarcane Saint, an unflinching exploration of family, faith, patriarchy, and the painful legacies that shape who we become—and what we pass on. 
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Sipping Mercury: The Second Book of Ruth
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Historical Fiction
Sipping Mercury is the much-anticipated continuation of Sugarcane Saint, the epic story of one woman’s life in an abusive marriage. In Sipping Mercury, Ruth Shurlington, having defied her family, is swept into a whirlwind marriage with Leonidas Brantley, a man whose charm hides a violent hunger for control. Their impulsive honeymoon in the North Georgia mountains exposes the first cracks in his façade, and by the time they return to Atlanta, Ruth is already caught in his tightening grip. Isolated from her family and surrounded by Leonidas’s adoring sisters, Ruth is lured by comfort and false promises—but some see the truth: her sharp-eyed sister Lola and a meddling yet loyal neighbor, Elmira Keen. When Leonidas’s brother commits a devastating act, Ruth realizes the darkness consuming her marriage runs far deeper than she ever imagined. As civil unrest rises and tragedy strikes the Brantley household again and again, Ruth—now the mother of four—faces an impossible choice: stay and be swallowed by Leonidas’s control, or summon the courage to take her children and run. A story of resilience, sisterhood, and the dangerous silence of a woman trapped, Sipping Mercury follows Ruth toward a choice that will shape the future of her family in ways she can't begin to imagine. 
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