In 2022, Joe Townsend coauthored the historical fiction novel Out of Texas with cousin Anne Hart Preus. The story was based on the historical feud between the Baltzell and Brantley families during the mid-1800s. The setting was mainly the new town of Winona, the now-abandoned hamlet of Greensboro, Mississippi. This self-published book garnered an impressive average of 4.8 positive reviews on Amazon and was well-received by book clubs and civic groups. At these gatherings, there was a sincere interest in a sequel to the novel.
Out of Texas ended with the main character, Rebecca Brantley, leaving Winona to find employment at Goldsmith's, a new department store in Memphis (Anne Hart's idea). In late 2023, Joe began to formulate some ideas about continuing Rebecca's story. When he shared those ideas with Anne Hart, she encouraged him to "strike while the iron is hot" and to get those thoughts into a preliminary manuscript.
Throughout the ensuing writing process, Anne Hart made many important observations about the story and the development of the characters. The new book, Boarding House Tales, evolved, and in the end, she felt that it would be best for Joe to finish it on his own. Even after that decision, Anne Hart worked tirelessly to edit and improve the final version of the book.
Boarding House Tales is also a work of historical fiction in which fictional characters interact with a real person, Ginnie Moon, who operated a boarding house in downtown Memphis in the late 1800s. Her boarding house was a popular gathering place for young intellectuals, and the characters of the new novel become participants in those get-togethers. Tales about Ginnie and her sister Lottie Moon (both were actual spies during the Civil War) and other recollections are presented during the entertaining evenings in the boarding house parlor. However, when a culprit stalks Rebecca from Winona to Ginnie’s boarding house, he must be dealt with.
This new novel is set mainly in Memphis but begins and ends in the Winona Train Station. Joe and his wife Marsha grew up in Winona and have lived most of their adult lives in Hattiesburg. Marsha took the cover photo of Out of Texas at an old cemetery located in the Greensboro area of Webster County. Their son Spence did the artwork on the cover of Boarding House Tales and several illustrations in the book. Davis Townsend made several game-changing plot observations that helped develop these stories. Considering Anne Hart's role, these two books are truly family affairs.
