Back when I was a little girl, I loved the scenes in the Disney movies where Prince Charming rides up on his beautiful steed and rescues the girl. Fast forward fifteen years, and I preferred a shirtless Prince Charming with great abs riding on his trusty steed to save the girl. But, today, some of my favorite stories are about women helping others find their happily ever afters.

My husband won’t admit it to me, but if there were an out and out battle of the sexes (excluding physical tests,) he’d lay his money on us folks with the X chromosomes to win.\

Case in point; our daughter once asked him the proverbial question, “If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want with you?” (Keeping in mind that twelve-year-olds don’t throw whom around much.)

He said, “Your mom.” After he got a great big AWWW from our daughter, he explained. “She would find a way to feed us, keep us happy, and get us off the island and back home in no time.”

I’m not too sure about that, but exploring women flat out saving the day has always fascinated me.

In my new novel, Palmetto Moon, Vada’s friend, Claire, helps Vada find the gumption to stand up for herself and choose the life she wants over the marriage that was arranged before Vada’s birth. The big sticking point for Vada is, the elderly servant couple that raised her may suffer repercussions if Vada doesn’t return home.

“My father keeps a portion of the servants’ money—he says he invests it for them. When he learns Desmond and Rosa Lee helped me run away—” Vada shakes her head.

“Eggs break. Families break. But one thing I know for certain is, Vada, you and I don’t. You had the courage to choose a different life for yourself, and you’re thriving. This is what growing up is.” Claire pushes a strand of silky blond hair away from Vada’s tearstained face. “If your father turns Desmond and Rosa Lee out, you’ll take them in and somehow you’ll make do. And when the time comes, I have no doubt you’ll stand up to your father.”

Of course I have no scientific data that suggests women are genetically engineered to save the world. And, while the prince or one of his buddies is quite capable of riding to the rescue on a white horses, when you get right down to it, women are just better at it.

Kim Boykin was raised in her South Carolina home with two girly sisters and great parents. She had a happy, boring childhood, which sucks if you’re a writer because you have to create your own crazy. PLUS after you’re published and you’re being interviewed, it’s very appealing when the author actually lived in Crazy Town or somewhere in the general vicinity.

Almost everything she learned about writing, she learned from her grandpa, an oral storyteller, who was a master teacher of pacing and sensory detail. He held court under an old mimosa tree on the family farm, and people used to come from all around to hear him tell stories about growing up in rural Georgia and share his unique take on the world.

As a stay-at-home mom, Kim started writing, grabbing snip-its of time in the car rider line or on the bleachers at swim practice. After her kids left the nest, she started submitting her work, sold her first novel at 53, and has been writing like crazy ever since.

Thanks to the lessons she learned under that mimosa tree, her books are well reviewed and, according to RT Book Reviews, feel like they’re being told across a kitchen table. She is the author of The Wisdom of Hair from Berkley, Steal Me, Cowboy and Sweet Home Carolina from Tule, and Palmetto Moon, also from Berkley 8/5/14. While her heart is always in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, she lives in Charlotte and has a heart for hairstylist, librarians, and book junkies like herself.

About the Book

June, 1947. Charleston is poised to celebrate the biggest wedding in high-society history, the joining of two of the oldest families in the city. Except the bride is nowhere to be found…Unlike the rest of the debs she grew up with, Vada Hadley doesn’t see marrying Justin McLeod as a blessing—she sees it as a life sentence. So when she finds herself one day away from a wedding she doesn’t want, she’s left with no choice but to run away from the future her parents have so carefully planned for her.  In Round O, South Carolina, Vada finds independence in the unexpected friendships she forms at the boarding house where she stays, and a quiet yet fulfilling courtship with the local diner owner, Frank Darling. For the first time in her life, she finally feels like she’s where she’s meant to be. But when her dear friend Darby hunts her down, needing help, Vada will have to confront the life she gave up—and decide where her heart truly belongs.

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