Every author has a place that quietly finds its way into nearly every story they write.
Mine is Cartersville, Georgia.
Long before I was writing novels, these streets were shaping the way I see the world. They’re where I learned about community, second chances, and the quiet ways God shows up in everyday life. It’s only fitting that they became home to so many of my fictional characters, too.
If you’ve read the Grace Series, you’ve already wandered through downtown Cartersville. You’ve stood beneath the historic courthouse, passed familiar storefronts, and maybe even recognized a landmark or two.
People often ask why I chose my hometown as the backdrop for my books.
The answer is simple.
It’s a community built on relationships, faith, and the kind of neighbors who show up on your porch with a casserole and a prayer when life gets hard. A lesson I didn’t realize until I moved back after college.
Growing up, I couldn’t wait to leave. Like a lot of teenagers, I dreamed about bigger cities, bigger opportunities, and life somewhere else. After college, I moved back thinking it would only be temporary.
Somewhere along the way, Cartersville changed—or maybe I did.
Today, I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home, because it’s a place where history and modern life sit side by side.
I wanted my readers to feel that same warmth. I wanted the setting to be more than just a stage. I wanted it to be a character in its own right.
Writing about your hometown is a bit like sharing a family secret.
It feels vulnerable. It feels personal, but it also feels right.
I often talk about how our surroundings shape our souls. Cartersville has certainly shaped mine.
When I close my eyes and think of “home,” I hear the rhythmic rumble of the CSX train passing through the center of town. I see the faded red brick of the old storefronts. I smell the hint of rain on the pavement near Friendship Plaza.
These are the sensory details I weave into the lives of my characters.
Sometimes grace looks like a quiet afternoon sipping sweet tea on a porch.
Sometimes mystery looks like the shadows stretching across the Grand Theatre marquee.
And hope often looks like the people in Cartersville every day trying to make a difference.
By using real places, I am inviting you into my world. I am not just telling you a story. I am welcoming you to the neighborhood.
Cartersville is a railroad town at heart. The tracks don’t run around town, they run through it.
There’s something fitting about that.
Trains are always going somewhere. They symbolize departures, fresh starts, unexpected arrivals, and lives changing direction.
My characters are often standing at those very crossroads, too. Sometimes the rumble of a passing train says more about a scene than pages of description ever could.
Having the sound of the train in the background of a scene adds a layer of reality that I could never fully invent. It is the heartbeat of the town.
And then there is the history. A long, rich history of not just my past or my family’s, but generations that came before me.
Take the world’s first outdoor painted Coca-Cola sign on the side of Young Brothers Pharmacy, now a delicious fudge shop. The sign has been there since 1894.
When my characters walk past that sign, they are walking through history. Reminded that some things are meant to last.
This is a vivid reminder that stories continue long after we are gone.
When I write about the rolling hills or the charm of the downtown square, I am drawing from my own daily life.
When a character finds a moment of peace, they often find it in places that have brought me peace, too.
Maybe it is a quiet corner of the library. Maybe it is a walk near the Etowah River.
One of the most meaningful scenes in Restoring Grace takes place inside the Booth Museum of Western Art.
I didn’t choose that location because it was beautiful, although it certainly is.
I chose it because it holds one of my favorite memories.
Before my grandmother passed away, my mother and I spent a day exploring
the museum with her. Every time I walk through those galleries, I think of that afternoon.
That’s the beautiful thing about writing fiction in real places. Sometimes the locations carry pieces of our own stories with them.
In Trusting Grace, the setting reflects the internal struggle of finding a place to belong. Bailey, a chef at a thriving restaurant in Colorado Springs, finds herself uprooting her life over one weekend and moving to Cartersville to start over. She knows only one friend when the book starts, but by the end of the story, Cartersville has special meaning in her life, too!
Cartersville offers that sense of belonging to many, not just me.
Whether you live here or have never been to Georgia, I want you to feel like you have been welcomed into our community.
I want you to feel the weight of the history and the lightness of the hope that lives here. Even though I grew up in the town, I still learn new things about the area and its people that make me fall a bit more in love with it each time I take a moment to look around me.
The Grace Series is about finding God’s grace in the middle of life’s messiest moments.
And in Cartersville, I have seen that grace in action time and time again.
I have seen this town rally around those in need. I have seen neighbors help neighbors during the hardest seasons, and I have seen the power of community to heal and restore.
One of my favorite landmarks is the Friendship Monument.
It tells the story of a man who never forgot the people who showed him mercy when he couldn’t repay his debts. Rather than remembering what he owed, he remembered the grace he had been given.
I can’t think of a better picture of the Grace Series.
Every one of my novels asks the same question:
What happens when grace is stronger than what we’ve done?
People often think authors need to travel to exotic locations to find inspiration.
I find mine at the local coffee shop and while watching the sun set over the historic courthouse dome.
I find it in the conversations I overhear at the grocery store and the men gathering at a local breakfast spot to catch up on the news.
Writing is my way of paying attention.
It is my way of saying, “Look at this beautiful, broken, wonderful place we call home.”
I want to capture the way the light hits the brick in the late afternoon. I want to describe the way the community feels during a festival at Rose Lawn.
These small details are the building blocks of a story. They are the things that make a book feel “lived-in.”
I am just a storyteller who happens to be in love with her hometown.
And I suspect that if you look closely at your own town, you will find stories waiting to be told there, too.
Whether you experience Cartersville through the pages of one of my books or visit our little corner of Georgia someday, I hope you leave believing what I’ve come to know:
Home isn’t just a place.
It’s the people who welcome you.
It’s the history that reminds you where you’ve been.
It’s the grace that carries you forward.
If you’re ready to visit Cartersville, I’d love to introduce you.
Start with Restoring Grace. Walk the streets with my characters. Listen for the train. See if you recognize a landmark or two.
And maybe, somewhere along the way, you’ll fall in love with this town just like I did.
Until our next story,
Anna
Sharing Stories of Grace, Mystery, and Hope