We're launching the Book Tour for LIGHT THE WAY by Lin Stepp

What inspired you to write Light the Way?

My novels are mainly set in the Smoky Mountain area near where I live. However, about five years ago, when talking to my editor at the time, Audrey LaFehr at Kensington, I told her about an idea I had for a three-book series set at our favorite vacation beach - Edisto Island, South Carolina. “I know I write mostly mountain books, but do you think my readers would also enjoy some beach set books?” She laughed and replied, “Everyone loves a trip to the beach, Lin, and I’m sure your readers will, too.” So, around continuing to write a mountain book every year, I also began to work on my new Edisto books. The first in The Edisto Trilogy, titled CLAIRE AT EDISTO, published in 2019… with RETURN TO EDISTO and EDISTO SONG publishing in the two years following. To my joy, readers loved my new Lowcountry stories, and CLAIRE AT EDISTO received the 2019 Best Book of the Year Award in Fiction: Romance in American Book Fest’s national contest. The popularity of the new Edisto books—and the push from readers and book sellers for more—gave me the idea for a new coastal series: The Lighthouse Sisters. Each of these four books will feature one of four sisters—Burke, Gwen, Celeste, and Lila—who grew up at the Deveaux Lighthouse and Inn at the north end of Edisto on small Watch Island. LIGHT THE WAY is the first of these books and it is Burke’s story.

What do you love the most about this story?

My family has been going to Edisto Island for summer vacations since my children were toddlers. It’s a small, lovely, quiet island halfway between Charleston and Beaufort on the South Carolina coast. I loved bringing my readers to this beautiful Lowcountry area in my earlier beach books … and the new Lighthouse Sisters books, set again at Edisto, have been a joy to plan and work on. As a girl I was always fascinated by lighthouses and often wondered what it must have been like to grow up at a lighthouse. In travels, I’ve seen how many of the old lighthouse keeper’s homes have been made into bed-and-breakfast inns for tourists now … so I decided it would be fun to create a story of four sisters growing up at a family inn and lighthouse like one of these. I love how writing books allows you to live out old dreams!

What challenged you about writing it?

The biggest challenge in writing LIGHT THE WAY was the extensive research needed to learn about the operation of lighthouses and about the history of lighthouses for my story. I also spent many hours planning the Deveaux Lighthouse and Inn. The old inn the family operates and lives in, was once the Lighthouse Keeper’s home and it has been in the Deveaux family for generations—so I had a lot of history to create. Since the island is surrounded by water, I also had to research about water travel, boats, the Atlantic coast and its wildlife, marshes and estuaries, seabirds, and all the locale around the island, like trips to nearby Charleston and Beaufort. I use as many real places as possible in all my books, so accuracy was really important to my story. Readers often travel to look for the places I write about, so I wanted to make the setting rich and inviting.

Which character do you most relate to and why?

The main female character in LIGHT THE WAY is Burke, the oldest of the four Deveaux sisters. The story mainly revolves around Burke, who with her mother, keeps the light and helps to run the inn and family business. Her father has recently died and Burke has taken over many of his duties. She works hard and carries heavy responsibilities, which I related to. She is serious and responsible—and has to be, but I loved letting new joys find her as the story progressed. I always “get into the heads and hearts” of my main characters and come to love them as I write my books and this was true with Burke.

What do you hope readers will take with them after they’ve read it?

I hope readers will feel they have visited the beauty of the South Carolina coast after finishing LIGHT THE WAY, and that they will have learned more about this beautiful region, the coast, the marshes, and the life people enjoy who live near the ocean. I also hope they will have learned more about the history and operation of lighthouses …and will have been entertained and blessed coming to know the characters in the story. I also hope readers will be excited to know they can revisit the Deveaux Inn and Lighthouse in three more books to come!

What do you enjoy doing when you're not writing?

My husband and I love the outdoors, hiking and exploring. We write regional guidebooks together and have three published guidebooks, a hiking guide to Smoky Mountain trails and two state park guidebooks—one to Tennessee state parks and one to South Carolina parks. We hiked the trails to write our hiking guide and we visited and explored all the parks in Tennessee and South Carolina to write our parks guides. This spring or summer, after Book Tour, we hope to start working on a new parks guidebook in North Carolina…. I also love to walk in the parks and neighborhoods near my home, love to read, and love meeting my readers and fans at book signings and events. If your book club reads my book LIGHT THE WAY, I’d be happy to chat with your group on Speaker Phone … and if you don’t live far from me, I love speaking for clubs, organizations, groups, churches, libraries, and at literary festivals. It would be a joy to meet or talk with you!