Bio
My dream of writing a book began in my twenties, and some forty years later, I saw that dream come true. Millicent Glenn’s Last Wish—part contemporary family drama and part historical fiction—was my debut novel. I love stories set in the present and that dip into the past. Maybe that’s because my family had five living generations upon my birth, and when my own grandchildren came along, my family had five living generations again. This experience has given me a sense of what we observe in those who've come before us ... and what we pass down from one generation to the next.
I was born in the suburbs of Cincinnati, where my first novel takes place. I mostly grew up in Indiana and later spent a decade in metro-Detroit with my husband’s career. My second novel, A Matter of Happiness, is partly set in that city during the 1920s—an era of great change with Prohibition and the motorcar boom.
My husband and I now reside outside of Atlanta near our children and grandchildren. We’ve been married for forty-eight years.
My writing journey officially began when we became empty-nesters. While still working as the chief marketing officer for a national law firm, I would write on the weekends, evenings, and during vacations to draft pages for fourteen hours a day. Now that I’m retired, I only write ten to thirteen hours a day, LOL. I love it.
Over the years, my work has appeared in Bookmarks Magazine, Strategies & Voices Magazine (the flagship publication of the international Legal Marketing Association), Antiques and Collecting Hobbies Magazine, Parade Magazine, and Southbound Magazine. As a member of the Historical Novel Society, I have presented on panels for their national conference. HNS's Historical Novels Review featured my article, “Multi-Period Novels: The Keys to Weaving Together Two Stories from Different Time Periods."
I graduated from Indiana University where I studied marketing and English. I’m also an alum of the Yale Writers’ Workshop.
No matter my schedule, I thrive on spending time with family (where my grandkids are growing up way too fast!). I also make room for reading or listening to books, going for long walks, doing a little cooking, playing in the sunshine, traveling and touring art museums, and indulging in Friday Night-Date Nights at home . . . and letting my hubby serve me a classic whiskey sour cocktail made with good Kentucky bourbon.
I'm currently working on a story of love and art that's not historical fiction but that's deeply rooted in a fascinating event in history . . . one that reverberates across time and affects my characters today. Stay tuned!
The best place for readers to find me is on Instagram. You can also reach out to me here: Contact - Tori Whitaker. Thank you for visiting my website!
