Local author, Ann McCauley’s “Mother Love, Willow Lane,” Book Two, was recently honored as a Notable Top 100 Book in the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition for 2019.

The award was presented by Sarah Kloth, who is publisher of Shelf Media Group and a National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Member and 2015 and 2016 Maggie Award Winner for Best Digital Magazine.

In commenting on the award, Bradford resident McCauley said, “I write because I must write, and that’s something only writers understand. Writing is a solitary process and often my characters become almost real to me.

“And since I create my characters, I often like them better than some of the real folks I’ve encountered during my life,” she shared. “And I can rewrite as often as it takes to make the scenes blend together as I want them to. In real life, there are no rewrites. What you see and do the first time in any situation is our one and only chance. No wonder I prefer books!”

The book is set in 1996 when a courageous nurse, Barbara Malone, age 52, joins the Peace Corps despite her family, friends and Willow Lane neighbor’s shock and disapproval.

Mother Love is an intense story of family ties fraught by distance and doubt, a dual story of Barbara’s work in Central America, and her family back in the USA. Her life in Honduras proves to be an adventure as she balances the demands of injured drug-running rebels, corrupt military officers, and the peace-loving villagers caught in the middle. In her mountain village, phone service and electricity are sporadic, yet life proves to be exciting, though exhausting. Barbara begins to realize Willow Lane no longer feels like home; and wonders where she really belongs.

McCauley’s books are available at the Main Street Mercantile, On the Side Books, and Singer Country Store in Bradford. It can be found online at Amazon, B&N and most bookselling sites.