Gail Piner is a retired academic who is finally pursuing the career she thought she’d have when she was twelve. She doesn’t recommend waiting as long as she did to pursue your dreams. Gail is interested in strong women, resilience, and the humor and hope that can help us get through difficult times.
Her first novel, A High Courage, is about all those topics and is based on the best example she has known personally—her grandmother. When not writing, she spends her time obeying her little Maltese/Bichon rescue pup, Katie Pogo, who has a real attitude. Gail lives on the coast of North Carolina, where her main forms of exercise are dodging beach traffic, hurricanes, and alligators.
A High Courage is her first novel, based on a family story. Her grandmother was widowed and left homeless in 1928, not quite thirty years old, with six children ranging in age from 4 months to 12 years. The novel covers the 15 month period as she struggled to figure out how to take care of her family. It's a story of young woman who defies social norms and her husband's family to do what she believes is best for her children. It's a story of courage and resilience at the dawn of the Great Depression.
