Celebrating 10 Years of Selma
On March 16, my husband and I will celebrate the tenth anniversary of a decision that changed everything in our lives. That was the day we purchased Selma. At the time, Selma was not the elegant historic property many of you have visited or seen in photos. It stood abandoned, weathered by time, its once-grand presence fading into ruin. Most people saw a lost cause. I saw a story waiting to be told. Ironically, Selma found me first.
An old college friend had posted a photograph on Facebook of a crumbling mansion sitting alone on a hill. The house looked haunted by time—windows broken, paint long gone, the bones of a once-beautiful estate barely holding on. The caption simply asked if anyone knew what house this was. Even though I had grown up only a few miles away, I didn’t recognize it at first. All I knew was that I had to save it.
Within days I was telling my husband about the house and confidently assuring him that the restoration would be simple. “All it needs,” I told him cheerfully, “is a little wire brush and some paint.” Ten years later, we still laugh about that.
The house, of course, needed far more than paint. It needed vision, stubborn determination, and more than a little faith that the stories embedded in its walls were worth preserving. And what stories they were.
Selma’s past stretches back more than two centuries, touching moments that shaped American history. One of its earliest residents, Armistead Mason, returned to Selma after the Battle of Craney Island during the War of 1812. The events that happened on the banks of Hoffler’s Creek near the mouth of the Nansemond River near Norfolk serve as part of the backstory in both Masque of Honor and Bargains of Fate (releasing June 23, 2026).
Later generations lived through the upheaval of the Civil War, when Union General Wesley Merritt’s troops swept through the region in late November 1864. Family legend tells of Selma’s loyal butler who, when he heard the Yankees… were coming to burn the barns, hurried into the woods and buried the household silver to keep it from falling into enemy hands. Tragically, he was shot by Federal soldiers on his way back to the house before he could reveal the hiding place to the Bentley women waiting inside. To this day, no one knows where that silver lies.
Selma also witnessed quieter moments of American life—generations raising families, managing farms, and even breeding prize-winning Percheron horses that once made the estate famous.
Selma changed my life in another unexpected way. The more I learned about the people who lived here—their triumphs, tragedies, and everyday lives—the more I realized these stories deserved to be told. Those discoveries eventually inspired my first historical novel, Masque of Honor, which debuted five years ago and will be re-released in paperback on March 24, 2026. From there, the stories continued to grow.
Selma’s past helped inspire the Fields of Honor series, including Bargains of Fate and Swamp of Lies (2027). The house and the people connected to it also influenced the characters of Powell Harrison in my bestselling novel Veil of Doubt, and his daughter Lala Harrison White, who lived at Selma for over forty years and whose story continues in my 2028 release Storms of Rage.
In many ways, Selma is the quiet thread running through all of them.
Looking back now, it’s hard to believe that ten years have passed since we first walked through those doors and imagined what Selma might become. What began as a rescue mission for an abandoned historic home turned into something much larger. Selma didn’t just give us a restoration project. It gave us a purpose. It gave us a connection to the past. And for me personally, it opened the door to a writing journey that continues to unfold—one story at a time.
If Selma has taught me anything over the past decade, it’s this:
There are still many stories here waiting to be discovered.
