Goodreads asked Ann Werner:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Ann Werner I got the idea for Cooper's Grove when I visited my hometown on the east coast to attend a wedding. I grew up next door to the person who would become Billy Joe Dean and knew the woman who would become Lucinda Mae Hawkins in the novel. Of course, the characters bear no resemblance to the real life people, but one event took place that provided the inspiration for the novel.

For the longest time I had been wanting to write a ghost story but could never come up with a platform upon which to build it. When I went back for the wedding, I stayed with the groom's sister, who is my best friend. The person Lucinda is modeled after had been widowed and my friend told me the last words her husband spoke to her were: "You watch out for (name withheld). He'll be coming around you now." And voila! I had the platform.

My narrator, Miss Aggie, just seemed to come alive in my head and would not be quiet - which is how she became the voice of the story.

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