Local Author Shares Debut Novel

By Damon Stone,
Staff Writer

Hope Gibbs Cummiskey recently published her book, “Where the Grass Grows Blue,” which is set in a small town in Kentucky, being similar to Scottsville and Allen County.

Cummiskey explained that the story centers around a woman’s journey to accept forgiveness or risk losing another chance at love in a small town, while centering around family, friendship, food and the “power of forgiveness.”

“When I graduated from college, I started working at the Dollar General Corporation, and I did that up until my first son was born, and before I knew it, I ended up being the mother of five and I was a stay-at-home mom,” Cummiskey stated, explaining where her inspiration came from. “A few years ago, it hit me that I was going to be an empty nester at 50, so I wasn’t going to go back to my television production days or back to Dollar General. So, a friend of mine suggested that I try journaling, and I did that for about a week, and it wasn’t for me, but it was so exciting though, just that act of writing.”

Cummiskey explained that when she was growing up, she always had written TV scripts, and had several stories when she was a child, influenced by her mother being a writer.

“Before I knew it, I had this character that ended up being my main character, Penny Crenshaw,” Cummiskey expressed. “I never meant for it to ever be published, I never thought I would have a story. And then one day, of all places, at Brentwood Methodist Church, the minister said the name Bob Dylan, and I thought that was a little odd, and then he said the words ‘tangled up in blue.’”

From that spark of inspiration, Cummiskey was able to write the first draft of the book, and to go through the editing process, and finding a publisher.

“I thought the hard part was writing the book, but it’s not, it’s actually getting it out and published,” Cummiskey explained. “In the last 10 years, publishing has changed quite a bit, and a lot of people self-publish, or they do hybrids, or they do the traditional path. I knew that self-publishing wasn’t for me because I didn’t think I had those skill sets, so I joined lots of writing groups, and I sent out query letters, and the publisher I went with, most of the writers have agents, but they also accept work without an agent.”

Cummiskey had directly submitted to her current publisher, Red Adept, who had offered her a contract, and had heard from other writers about great experiences with the publisher, along with positive praise from the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

After being accepted, the editing process took 18 months for the book to see the light of day, because of the slow process of publishing a book.

“Editing is kind of like, you have this big beautiful base, and you’re so proud of it, and your editor and your publisher are like, ‘we love your story,’ and then they smash it, and then you have to put it back together, because you do all the editing” Cummiskey explained. “They tell you what to do, but you actually have to do it, and you don’t have to take all their suggestions, but because they own the story, I did take most of their suggestions.”

Cummiskey expressed that she hopes to give a similar level of love to small town Kentucky like that of what Elin Hilderbrand gives to her books set on Nantucket Island, being romance or rom-com women’s fiction that express the beauty of their settings as well as their characters in the stories.

“I wanted to show the beautiful and interesting characters, the small town and loving community that Penny goes back to, after having lived in the big city of Atlanta,” Cummiskey explained. “I wanted to show the food, so I really wanted to focus on the beauty of Kentucky.”

Cummiskey added that the town in the book, while being the fictional town of Camden, is heavily inspired by Scottsville, mentioning locations like Fountain Run, Tompkinsville, Bowling Green and Barren River.

“If you’re writing, you’re a writer, there is no aspiring, you’re actually a writer,” Cummiskey explained. “I think that every person has a story in them, and you’ll never know unless you try.”

Anyone interested in reading “Where the Grass Grows Blue” can find it through locations like Walmart, Barnes & Noble, along with Amazon through its Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Recently, the book was listed as the number one most read book of all time for Red Adept through Kindle Unlimited, being number three for the publisher’s top-grossing book of all time.

Additionally, an audiobook is available, having been done by an award-winning narrator, with the book and audiobook being available at the Allen County Public Library.

Cummiskey is scheduled to speak at the University of Louisville for a book conference on March 1, along with being the keynote speaker for the Junior League of Nashville summit on March 8.

Cummiskey’s website can be found at https://www.authorhopegibbs.com/, and the book’s page can be found at https://redadeptpublishing.com/product/where-the-grass-grows-blue/.