Can you tell us about your main character? Olivia Westerly is the protagonist in Spare Change. She is an independent woman who was ahead of her time in believing she did not want to get married, settle down and raise children. When she finally got married in her fifties, she never dreamed she’d inherit her late husband’s orphaned grandson.

What character from your books do you think you are most like? Probably Olivia. I’m independent, but not so independent that I don’t need love in my life. Also, like Olivia, I’m a little quirky in the way I look at life and tend to see things through my own rose-colored glasses.

If you were not an author, what would you be? Most likely an artist. In college I studied art, so when I write it’s as if I am painting a picture with words rather than colors.

Tell us a bit about your family. It consists of a wonderful husband and a furry white dog who is the boss of the house.

What is your favorite quality about yourself? I am a kind person with an open heart.

What is your least favorite quality about yourself? That I am absolutely anal about perfecting my work; one little mistake and I beat myself over the head with a baseball bat (figuratively not literally).

How has your upbringing influenced your writing? Although I spent much of my childhood in New Jersey, my parents were from the South. Hearing the words of my parents, aunts and uncles in my ear all my life has enabled me to not only write in a southern voice, but to also think as a Southerner. I think that’s what makes my Southern characters come to life as vividly as they do.

What is your favorite part of being an author? Delving into the complexities of relationships. All of my books are very character-driven. However, I must say that meeting with book clubs runs a close second.

What is your least favorite part of being an author? Editing! Although it is my least favorite part, it is absolutely crucial to producing a quality book. I will edit a book several times, then turn it over to an outside editor.

Reviewer’s Choice 2012 Award Winner! In a story that’s been compared to John Grisham’s The Client, eleven year-old Ethan Allen Doyle has witnessed a brutal murder and now the boy is running for his life. In the time-tested tradition of Southern Fiction, Crosby unveils the darkest side of human nature and then rewards her readers with a beautiful tale of love, loss and unexpected gifts.

Olivia Westerly is the only person Ethan Allen can trust, and he’s not too sure he can trust her. She’s got no love of children and a truckload of superstitions–one of them is the belief that eleven is the unluckiest number on earth. Olivia avoided marriage for almost forty years. But when Charlie Doyle happened along, he was simply too wonderful to resist. Now she’s a widow with an eleven-year-old boy claiming to be her grandson.

With a foul mouth, dark secrets and heavily guarded emotions, Ethan Allen Doyle is not an easy child to like. He was counting on the grandpa he’d never met for a place to hide, but now that plan is shot to blazes because the grandpa’s dead too. He’s got seven dollars and twenty-six cents, his mama’s will for staying alive, and Dog. But none of those things are gonna help if Scooter Cobb finds him.

Winner of Five Literary Awards,BookBundlz Finalist, Voted Goodreads Best Unknown Fiction, FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal Finalist

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Genre – Literary Fiction

Rating – PG13

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