Cindy K. Sproles is the author of What Momma Left Behind and the cofounder of Christian Devotions Ministries. A popular speaker, Cindy teaches at writers conferences across the country and directs the Asheville Christian Writers Conference in North Carolina. She is the executive editor of ChristianDevotions.us and freelance editor for Iron Stream Media. Cindy has a BA in business and journalism and lives in the mountains of East Tennessee with her family.
In this interview, Cindy talks with us about her new novel, This Is Where It Ends.
FF: Can you please provide a brief summary of This Is Where It Ends?
This is the story of Minerva Jenkins, an elderly woman living alone on a mountain in Kentucky, who made a promise to her dying husband that ruled her life. She is a faithful widow who comes to grips with a wasted life in her final days, until she meets a reporter who ends up being the family she didn’t know she had. The question becomes, How long do you keep a promise, even if it is detrimental? To the grave.
FF: What do you hope readers will gain from reading your book?
My hope is the reader will see the value found in our elderly. There is great treasure in our aging seniors—great wisdom, life experience, and strength. I hope that through this book, readers will experience aging, its joys, and its frustrations through the eyes of an elderly woman and that through that experience, they will find great compassion for the aging.
FF: What was the inspiration behind This Is Where It Ends?
The inspiration comes from my twenty years in the eldercare business and hundreds of senior clients who impacted my life by their own life experiences. I’ve held the hand of a dying senior who has no family by their side, and the impact that has made on my life is significant.
FF: What type of research was required to write your novel?
Of course, there is the historical research—we have Del, who is a reporter, and I needed to know the closest newspaper to Minerva and how reporters worked in that time period. The research on aging came from my experience in the eldercare business and working one-on-one with seniors and their families.
FF: How does your own background influence your writing?
My mountain heritage plays a huge part in my writing. I was raised in the mountains of East Tennessee, and my family carried those mountain values and abilities that make the culture so rich. I’ve learned from the experience of deep-rooted family members, and that is something they don’t teach in school anymore. I don’t want it forgotten.
FF: Can you share more information about Minerva Jenkins, one of the main characters?
Minerva was inspired by two sweet elderly women in my life, one named Rowena and the other named Aileen. Both were well into their nineties at their going home but were filled with stories, wisdom, humor, and sassiness, and they’d faced many hardships. Minerva is a classic example of a faithful mountain wife—so faithful that she ignored the obviously detrimental things in her husband’s life. Things that would affect her. She is stubborn, but that is how mountain women survive. She is determined and truthful—attributes that made her strong—but those same attributes force her to live a life she could have chosen to be different.
Readers will see repetition throughout this story, as well as some confusion, and rightfully so because I am telling it through the eyes of a ninety-four-year-old-woman. I want readers to experience the aging process in a very real way—the way Minerva would have.
FF: Minerva develops an unlikely friendship with Del Rankin. What is their connection?
In the beginning, Del is a problem who Minerva thinks she must rid herself of, but as time passes, Del befriends her and she grows to love him as a son. Is he family? You’ll have to read to find out.
FF: This Is Where It Ends follows a plot of holding on to secrets. What inspired you to explore this theme?
My own grandmother was married at the age of fourteen. She never loved my grandfather, and he never loved her. Theirs was a marriage of convenience. In her own writings, my grandmother stated she took a vow when she was married, and though she and my grandfather did not live together the last years of his life, they remained married and faithful to one another. She made a promise that when she said “I do,” it bore meaning and respect. Again, how long do you keep a promise? For my grandmother—to the grave.
FF: Are there any other lessons that you hope readers will gain from reading This Is Where It Ends?
I hope they walk away seeing the value in our elderly. Our country is one of the few in the world that have little respect for our aging seniors. We toss them into the care of institutions and strangers rather than stepping up and caring for them as we should—as our family. I hope readers will grasp the golden value in our seniors and, if they have seniors in their lives, that they will embrace them, learn from them, and love them to the end.
FF: What do you love about writing historical fiction?
I love bringing to light the hidden things of our past—those things that drop into the crevices of the forgotten but are golden nuggets that will enrich our lives. Our history is our guide to the future. We need to know what lies in the crevices of our past.
FF: What are you working on next?
In the works—mineral springs. I’m developing a story around the sulfur springs in the mountains and the healing benefits used by the mountain granny women. (A granny woman was that one woman on the mountain who knew all the medical benefits of roots, herbs, and and mineral waters. She was the midwife, the doctor.) The working title is The Eyes of River.
This Is Where It Ends
Cindy K. Sproles
Revell
Genres: Historical
Release Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN-10: 0800740793
ISBN-13: 978-0800740795
Book Summary:
How long is a body expected to keep a secret?
When Minerva Jane Jenkins was just 14 years old, she married a man who moved her to the mountains. He carried with him a small box, which he told her was filled with gold. And when he died 50 years later, he made her promise to keep his secret. She is to tell no one about the box or the treasure it contains.
Now 94, Minerva is nearing the end of what has sometimes been a lonely life. But she’s kept that secret. Even so, rumors of hidden gold have a way of spreading, and Minerva is visited by a reporter, Del Rankin, who wants to know more of her story. His friend who joins him only wants to find the location of the gold. Neither of them knows quite who they’re up against when it comes to the old woman on the mountain.
As an unlikely friendship develops, Minerva is tempted to reveal her secret to Del. After all, how long is one bound by a promise? But the truth of what’s really buried in the box may be hidden even from her.
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