Adele Myers Books In Order
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| The Tobacco Wives | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Adele Myers is a literary fiction author that is best known for her debut blockbuster novel “The Tobacco Wives.” The author grew up in the North Carolina town of Asheville and went on to earn a degree in journalism from the Chapel Hill based University of North Carolina.
As a young girl in tobacco country North Carolina, she was always fascinated by the tobacco wives stories that her mother told. Back then her mother was the go to hairdresser for some of the most powerful and wealthiest magnates in the county.
Several years later, she becomes a public relations executive and aspiring writer who goes on to pen a story about the women that so fascinated her.
After graduating from college, she moved to New York City, where she started writing her story. The fashionable southern women that had dazzled the young girl’s mind as a girl were even more dazzling as she realized how powerless they were despite their privilege.
When her writing teacher encouraged her to make her short manuscript into a longer work, the seed for her debut novel “The Tobacco Wives” was planted.
While Adele Myers had a lot of enthusiasm and passion for writing, it would take a while for his dream to become reality. The seed for the novel had been planted and germinated more than two decades before he published.
During that time, Myers had managed to build a successful advertising and public relations career and even got married to a Brooklyn, New York man. Together, they had one child who was fifteen by the time she published her work.
When Niko, her child was seven, she thought that she had enough time to write a novel. She was spurred on by the fact that her work was less demanding and her son was older, making it possible to focus on her passion.
The idea would go through several iterations that changed the title and plot several times. The early drafts were not only stories about the dazzling wives but also the friendship that developed between the daughter of one of the women and her lead protagonist.
When she started sharing the story with her former writing teacher, her critique group and her friends, she realized that she was getting similar feedback.
There were quite a few surprises that Adele Myers had to deal with when she was in the publishing process. She had a very solitary writing process which she liked a lot.
However, when she embarked on the journey towards getting her manuscript published, she found that much of it was collaborative. She had to be open to feedback and listen to her agent, early readers and editor all of whom played a significant part in improving the novel.
It was at this point that she was forced to become comfortable being uncomfortable as this was the only way for one to see improvements in their writing. When she submitted her work to her critique group, she found that most people were interested in the friendship of the girls.
As such, she got rid of Virginia Winston who was one of her leads so that she could explore the story of the girls more. She kept thinking she was done only to learn that there was a lot more to do.
One of the biggest changes was that she was told to make her lead older and more sophisticated than the 12 year old she initially was.
“The Tobacco Wives” by Adele Myers is an exploration of a range of topics and themes but at the center of it is one story. The work tells the story of a young woman that overcomes abandonment and loss, even as she takes on Big Tobacco.
It is from her fight with the evil tobacco industry that she finally becomes herself. Maddie the lead protagonist gets to learn all manner of questions in a summer that she spends in Bright Leaf.
Adele Myers hopes that her readers can be inspired and relate to the lead’s emotional journey. She has said that she writes in an effort to make her readers feel encouraged and empowered by Maddie’s story.
She intends to make her readers come to the realization that they can grow and learn from many adversities they may face.
Adele currently works as an advertising executive in Brooklyn, New York. She lives in a New York suburb with her son, husband and Chipper, their rescue dog.
She often interacts with her fans on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
“The Tobacco Wives” by Adele Myers is a work set in 1946 that makes for a vibrant debut. The work follows the life and times of a young woman working as a seamstress who learns some dangerous truths about the American South as perpetrated by Big Tobacco.
Maddie Sykes is a budding seamstress newly arrived to the small North Carolina town of Bright Leaf that happens to be the tobacco capital of the South. She has come to live with her aunt who runs a thriving sewing business in town.
After several years of war shortages and rations, the town has been experiencing a technicolor boom. The young woman is fascinated by the palatial homes, the crisp uniforms of the factory workers and the wives of powerful tobacco men that are some of her aunt’s most valuable clients.
When she is made lead dressmaker following several unexpected events, she finds that she has to produce some very ornate garments for the tobacco women attending the most elaborate party of the season.
It is not long before she learns that the small town is not the carefree paradise she believed it was. Many of the women are followed by a trail of misfortune with a significant number dealing with some severe health issues.
Even though she initially believed it was a coincidence, she soon unexpectedly unearths some evidence that seems to suggest that is not so. She has a strong desire to expose things she has unearthed but almost everyone in town is dependent on Big Tobacco.
Exposing the industry may just destroy the strong and proud women that have become her very good friends.
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I am a member of a book club at my church in Greeneville, NC. This month we are doing Adele Myers’ THE TOBACCO WIVES, AND IT IS MY TURN TO BE THE MODERATOR. It is such a great book that I am afraid I may not give it the justice it deserves. There are different ways to go, but I want to stick to the story most people summarize when telling the story. I need to get my notes in order and come up with some thought provoking questions. Wish me luck!
I loved the book, THE TOBACCO WIVES. i would thoroughly enjoy seeing it turned into a movie. I bet it would be a box office block buster!!! By the way I was born in Charleston, SC and am quite familiar with Southern ways. Unfortunately, I was not part of the wealthy society, but in a wonderful, Christian foster home, until I went to the Lutheran Children’s Home in Virginia. I was born in 1948.
I loved the book, THE TOBACCO WIVES. i would thoroughly enjoy seeing it turned into a movie. i bet it would be a box office block buster!!!
I am in two book clubs in Wilson, NC which really could have been Bright Leaf, NC back in the hey day of tobacco (1930’s-40’s).Both groups really enjoyed your book. We had so much to discuss. Joan