Kansas author Cynthia Mines ventures into new territory this month. Mines, founder of the Wichita Times and Travel Kansas magazine, is releasing her first novel, “Heaven in a Wildflower.”
It’ll debut June 20 during the Midsummer’s Festival in Lindsborg, which not incidentally is the prototype for the Swedish-settled, central Kansas town at the center of the novel. The story is set in the early 20th century and follows Kristen Thorsen, a young woman sent to live in a Kansas parsonage with her father.
In a news release, Mines said she attempted her first novel more than a half-century ago at the age of 12, writing on notebook paper. She got sidetracked by jobs as editor of the Wichita State University alumni publications and reporter at the Wichita Business Journal. Mines started the Times and Travel Kansas in 1993 and published them for more than 30 years.
Her nonfiction book, “For the Sake of Art: The Story of a Kansas Renaissance,” was named a Kansas Notable Book in 2016.
“I learned early that writing fiction was a lot more different than I realized from writing journalism and nonfiction,” Mines said.
“Since I love research and was most familiar with nonfiction writing, historical fiction made the most sense, and because I was most familiar with Kansas that seemed the logical setting,” she said.
The book is being published by Emporia-based Meadowlark Press. Pre-orders placed at meadowlarkbookstore.com by June 15 will be signed by the author. After that, the book — in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook — will be available through all booksellers.
