Tess current novel, "LIFE IN MULBERRY VALLEY" is based on true stories filled with intense relationships and full of emotion. Her book will enlighten women about the era when women were treated like property. Many of the women endured sad sex, power, fear, obsession, madness and grief and always struggling to survive. As the novel will tell you between 1902 and 1908 Nora's grandparents with their four children left North Carolina by train for Mulberry Valley located deep in the Ozark Mountains. Nora's grandfather felt sure he would be killed before leaving North Carolina because of living such a wild life and marrying a woman that was mostly Indian and wasn't able to read or write and spoke very little English. In the early 1900's their son Karl married Beth. This is how Nora's life began. Her fiance disappeared into thin air. Unexpectedly, Nora was left with her beauty and eleven children to rear. Later Nora married Paul who was ruthless and tormented Nora daily. Nora often had to flee late into the night climbing over barbed wire fences. With her legs bleeding she made her way through dark dense woods. Nora was certain she wouldn't survive Paul's bullet the night she curled up behind some bushes when a kitten started to meow while coming toward her. She could see Paul in the dark shining his three foot flashlight in every direction while his other hand held his pistol. Her heart pounded hard as she saw Paul move on into the night. Nora and Paul had spent their life living on stage of make believe for onlookers to see. Shortly before Nora reached her final winter, she allowed her heart to spill over the secret to her youngest daughter that had led to her loveless marriage to Paul. The secret Nora had kept in her heart for over sixty years, had kept Nora's heart in bondage and her four children in a house instead of a home. Sophie felt Nora's pain. Nora never knew sharing this secret with Sophie restored the turbulent relationship she and Sophie had encountered over the years. Her book will enlighten you about unacceptable relationships and how they affect a family. Then see how a child can tame a man acting like a mountain lion."