All writers embark upon their own journey when they set out to tell a story.

For me, it has involved events and circumstances leading to discoveries of information which lent shape and color to the as-yet, unknown, untold narrative history I was compelled to tell. I sometimes wondered whether I would ever finish. Early on, I donned an investigative reporter approach (my girl-hood dream no less), one discovery leading to another.

And early on, the project took on a life of its own.

From the beginning, it seemed to unfold before me through a power all its own. Instead of me finding the story, it was always finding me. And with it reigniting my passion to tell it. At critical times, just when things seemed to warrant an acceleration of writing, life events would curtail my attempts, for sometimes months at a time. And then, out of nowhere, another infusion of discovery, excitement, and connection.

For that reason alone, I knew this account was not dependent on what I thought the timetable should be for completion. Because of that, I had confidence that one day the story would see the light of day and be published.

Now, after more than eight years, the series of serendipitous and timely events too numerous to recount all, A TIDE OF DREAMS: The Untold Backstory, will be published by Koehler Books, scheduled for release in June of 2022.

I invite you to join me as I look back and remember how this project began – from the return of the ‘ring'(read the story about the ring, written by Tommy Ford, then acting director of Alumni for the University of Alabama for Alabama’s A-Club newsletter below) to my own re-discovery of the South, college football, and to the personal discovery of why lost stories are so important to find and tell.