Emerging Author: Piper Huguley (A VIRTUOUS RUBY)

There’s an elegance that immediately draws a potential reader to the cover of A VIRTUOUS RUBY. The model is striking, graceful, and African American. All three provide a perfect compliment to a story that is equally beautiful and powerful.

The historical romance novel by Piper Huguley follows activist Ruby Bledsoe, the mother of an illegitimate child, as she fights for the soul of her prejudiced hometown. As with many novels, this one drew upon real events.

“I had long ago promised my great aunts and my grandmother that I would tell their stories of how they left Alabama and came to Pittsburgh for better opportunities during The Great Migration—the largest internal migration in the history of the United States,” Huguley said. “I think they all thought I was a bit touched—as the old folks would say.”

Her promise remained unfulfilled until after the 2010 publication of Danielle L. McGuire’s AT THE DARK END OF THE STREET.

“The book is all about Rosa Parks’ early activism advocating for black female rape victims,” Huguley said. “I saw these attacks as a reason The Great Migration got started—since no one knows. When Isabelle Wilkerson’s book, THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS, hit the bestseller lists at about the same time, I knew it was time to tell these stories.”

Huguley, who resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son, has made inroads in the publication of historical romance by telling stories of African Americans as Christian people of action and purpose.

“Historical Romance has long focused on a ten-year period of a certain class of people in the United Kingdom,” she explained. “The fabulous Beverly Jenkins led the pack of historical romance authors who are trying to bring forward stories in different time periods to different places with different people. There are so many other stories to tell and they are beginning to be told.”

Her writing research has also led to compelling and shocking discoveries. “The narrative of African Americans as complete victims is a flawed and outdated interpretation of history,” Huguley said. “I’m looking to create stories to highlight the new view of African Americans as human beings who possessed agency and made choices to benefit themselves and future generations.”

A traditionally publishing and an indie-published author, Huguley’s next goals include more novels-- and one particular project close to her heart.

“I would be happy if more people gave these new views of history a chance,” she said. “There are still too many people who are afraid and insistent on the old views. I now understand that changing that old view is a long-term project.”

About Piper Huguley

Piper G. Huguley is the author of the "Home to Milford College" series. The series traces the love stories at a small "Teachers and Preachers" college in Georgia over time, beginning with the love story of the founders. Book one in the series, THE PREACHER'S PROMISE, was a semi-finalist in Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write contest,and a quarter-finalist in the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. THE REPRESENTATIVE'S REVOLT will be published in the Spring of 2015.

Huguley is also the author of "Migrations of the Heart," a five-book series of inspirational historical romances set in the early 20th century featuring African American characters. Book one in the series, A VIRTUOUS RUBY won the Golden Rose contest in Historical Romance in 2013 and is a Golden Heart finalist in 2014. Book four in the series, A CHAMPION'S HEART, was a Golden Heart finalist in 2013. A VIRTUOUS RUBY will be published by Samhain in July 2015.

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About A VIRTUOUS RUBY

An unexpected love in a small, Southern town.

After fifteen months of hiding from the shame of bearing an illegitimate child, two words drive Ruby Bledsoe to face the good citizens of Winslow, Georgia. Never again. She vows to speak out against injustice. For her sisters. For her parents. For her infant son, Solomon.

When she comes to help an injured mill worker, she bristles when a tall, handsome man claiming to be a doctor brushes her aside. Despite his arrogance, Ruby senses he’s someone like her, whose light skin doesn’t quite hide who he is.

Up north, Dr. Adam Morson easily kept his mixed race a secret. Now that he’s in Georgia, summoned by his white father, he can feel restrictions closing in around him.

Something powerful draws him to the beauty whose activist spirit is as fiery as her name. And soon, Adam wants nothing more than to take Ruby and her child far from Georgia’s toxic prejudice. But Ruby must choose between seeking her own happiness and staying to fight for the soul of her hometown.

Warning: Contains a doctor learning there’s more to healing his patients than stitching a wound, and more to a woman than knowing her place—and it’s not in the shadows with her head down. Sorry, Buckeye fans, this hero’s a Wolverine—but we won’t hold that against him.