Lydia Holley

Lydia Holley's first job was working at a bank. The bank’s priority was secrecy, and their motto was: “People who have money don’t want anyone to know; people who have no money don’t want anyone to know.” She learned that everyone has secrets, most beyond their checking account status.

These secret histories changed lives. Many times, these secrets would have played out differently if the people were living in another period of time. Lydia likes to take stories of people with secrets and place them at a point in history which impacts their actions.

Writing is Lydia’s way of learning about subjects she’s interested in, then weaving those facts into stories about characters that drift into her imagination. Whenever her characters have led her into a seemingly impossible situation, Lydia retreats to her garden. There, the solutions come to her as she cuts away briars or breathes in a flower’s scent.

Lydia has written weekly gardening articles for local newspapers since 2014. Some have said she writes about plants as if they have their own personalities. She believes they do.

Lydia lives in Texas with her husband on land that has been in her family for five generations. It is ripe with history—and buried secrets—just waiting to be unearthed. If Lydia digs them up, she’ll write about them.