Annetta P. Lee

Major Works

• Light Encounters (2011)
• Haven for Marriage (2010)
• Secret Thunder (2007)
• Small Whispers (2007)
• Scent of Rain (2006)
• Path of Thorns (2005)
• Fragment in the Sand  (2003)
• A Bitter Rose (2000)

Biography of Annetta P. Lee

by Brittany Gunter (SHS) 2003

Annetta P. Lee was born in Illinois on September 21, 1954, but she considers Starkville, Mississippi, to be her hometown. Lee grew up on a farm near Starkville owned by her maternal grandparents Eddie and Daisy Harris, who raised her from the time she was only a few months old until she was nineteen.  She therefore considers her grandparents to be her parents. She did move for a short time to Ohio to live with her mother while she was in high school, but she returned to graduate from Alexander High School in Mississippi.  Much later (1997), she studied at  the Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut.  In Oklahoma City, which she currently lives with her husband Kenneth, she also took classes at a vocational-technical school.  For over 30 years Lee has worked as an administrative assistant for a worldwide accounting firm. She has previously worked as a chiropractic assistant. She is also an editorial assistant.

Her novel Bitter Rose, was published by Milligan Books in 2000, and is listed as inspirational fiction. It is semi-autobiographical–a story of a young girl getting to know and love a mother who gave her up at birth.  Fragment in the Sand,  published by Genesis Press, Columbus, Mississippi, in 2003, is described as inspirational romantic suspense.   Lee received a Self-published Book Award from Writer’s Digest for A Bitter Rose.

In addition to writing,  Lee also enjoys playing with her dogs Gangster (a Great Dane) and Gus (a mixed lab), horseback riding, and traveling .

Return to Top

Reviews

A Review of Fragment in the Sand 2003

by Brittany Gunter (SHS)

 

As a super model, Alex  has many fans, one of whom is a psycho-stalker.  Alex receives threats from the stalker, who has been  hired by someone who desperately wants Alex dead.  Alex’s brother Zeke has a best friend named Casey Oliver who is a US Deputy Marshall who lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  Can Casey save Alex without falling in love?  Find out for yourself. Fragment in the Sand is one of the best books I have ever read.  I very much enjoyed this Christian romance.  I would consider Mrs. Lee my favorite author now!

Summary of A Bitter Rose

by Jennifer Agnew (SHS)

A Bitter Rose by Annetta P. Lee is a Christian fiction book.  It is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Anna Rose Harris, who was given up by her mother Joyce to her Aunt Ethel and Uncle Charlie,  a minister.  The story takes place in Muldrow, Mississippi, and moves on to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1987.

Anna is very happy and pleased with her Aunt and Uncle.  She makes good grades at school, has good manners, and has a best friend named Betty.  Her Uncle and Aunt had already had two sons named James and John, who are sixteen and seventeen years old, when she came as an infant.  Her Uncle Charlie is the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Muldrow, which the family attends.  Her Aunt Ethel is a teacher that teaches home economics at her rural school.  She has an enjoyable life but sometimes mopes around school wishing that she were as fortunate as her friend Betty, who has a father and mother.  She sometimes asked Betty what it is like to be able to call someone mom and dad.  She is very happy with her Aunt and Uncle, but she feels it’s not her family, and she’ll never be able to call her Aunt mom and her Uncle dad.  Anna’s mother always keeps in touch through the phone and once came to visit them  when she was smaller, but then all she did was fuss over her.  Aunt Ethel saw how lonely she looked in school and around the house and made arrangements with Joyce for Anna to come to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with her for a while.  One day Anna was washing dishes and her Aunt and Uncle called her to the table to tell her the news.  After hearing this news, she was very angry because she thought her Aunt and Uncle were trying to get ride of her like her mother did.  But her Aunt was trying to let her try to ask her mother all the questions that she was building up inside.

Anna was on the bus to Cleveland  On her way there, she had many talks with an old white Christian woman named Mrs. Taylor, who told her, “I hope you won’t allow unanswered questions to hinder the real you from shining through.”  This helped Anna a lot, her Uncle told her its okay to talk to the lord any time she needed to, and she did.  Anna was very scared to meet her mother because she was angry with her for what she did and Anna didn’t know why.  When Anna’s mother arrives at the bus station, Anna is even more scared because she doesn’t know whether to call her mother, Joyce, or just Miss.  As the days went on with her mother, Anna meet a little girl the same age as she who is sitting on the stairs to the apartment building ( called the White Castle by Anna) she lives.  The little girl has a small, soft voice.  Something was also wrong with her left foot due to a birth defeat that caused her to limp a little.  The girl’s name is Margret Strothers.  She lives with her father and Nana Strothers; her mother died giving birth.  Margret and Anna became such good friends that Anna had given Margret the nickname, Mo.

Later on in the story, Joyce is sitting in the living room reading and Anna came in to ask her a question.  Joyce asks her why she doesn’t call her mother or Joyce.  Anna got very angry and started to let those bottled up feelings come out saying things like, why should I call you mother when you have never been a mother to me, before she knew what she was saying.  Joyce slapped her and she ran down stairs to the park, Mo saw her and followed her.  After she and Mo talked about it for a while, Anna went home and her mother sent her to her room. Later the next day Anna felt sorry for the things she said to her mother and realized that she didn’t feel that way anymore and decided to make Joyce dinner.  That day when Joyce came home from work, she brought someone named Dan with her who was dying to meet Anna.  Anna and her mother Joyce grew very close and later in the story she meets more friends named Pat and Pete.  Her mother Joyce (Anna is now  comfortable about calling her mother) marries Dan.  So now Anna  has a father and a mother.  More months passed and now it was summer and Joyce wants Anna to go visit her Aunt and Uncle back in Mississippi.  Anna was happy but she realized she was going to be leaving more friends and had grown attached to her mother.  Her mother told her that if she wanted to come back home she was welcome, but if she also decided to stay, she understood.  Her friends were sad she was leaving and wanted her to come back when the summer was over.  On the bus leaving, she realized that Cleveland, Ohio, was her home now and she was coming back.  Even though Anna loved her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins; she knew her place was with her mother.

Return to Top

An Interview with Annetta P. Lee (2003)

by Brittany Gunter (SHS)

I saw in the book Fragment in the Sand that you were born in Starkville, Mississippi.  How long did you live here, or are you still living here?  If not, where are you living?  How long?

Hello Brittany,  Thank you for writing me.  I’m honored that you chose my book for your project.  Yes, I call Starkville my home, but I was born in Illinois.  I grew up in Starkville from the age of a few months until I was nineteen.  I grew up in the home of my grandparents, Eddie and Daisy Harris.  I attended Alexander High, out on Sixteen Section Road.  As mentioned, I left Starkville in 1974 at age nineteen…got married and moved to Washington State.  I now live in Oklahoma City.

When is your birthday?

September 21, 1954 (ouch!)  that hurt a little.

What are you parents’ names?

I consider my grandparents my parents because they were there.  Of course,  my mom and dad are still living,  and I love them very much but when asked about parental contribution, I answer, Eddie and Daisy Harris.  They are both deceased.

Was their childhood a good or bad one?

Their childhood, I’m told was difficult because they grew up poor, but they were happy and worked hard.

Yours?

My childhood was absolutely wonderful.  Accept those times as a teenager when I wanted to go out more.  My grandparents were staunch, so there was very little of that.  It was also a lot of hard work…living on a farm, but I learned the value of  hard work, as well as honesty, faith, and a love.  I wouldn’t trade for all the gold in Ft. Knox.

What high school and college did you go to or are going to (college-wise)?

Alexander High in Starkville – Attended a vo-tech here in Oklahoma City, and Graduated from Institute of Children’s Literature in Connecticut.

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

Started writing back in Jr Hi.  Mostly poetry.  But novel?  Not until the Oklahoma City bombing did I decide to branch out.  I worked downtown a few blocks away at the time.  So we all had these therapists telling us to write down our feelings.  I did…in the form of a letter to my sister, who encouraged me to do something with the skill.  That’s when I wrote “A Bitter Rose.”  

Do you enjoy writing?

Brittany, for me its the great escape.  I enjoy creating a world I can dance in.

Is the book Fragment in the Sand based on someone you know or something you have experienced or is it just a fragment of your imagination?

Love the way you put that.  Almost all fiction has fragments of the author’s experience woven in, but for the most part, yes.  It IS just a dramatization of a newspaper article.

Who was your favorite author as a child?

Victoria Holt

An adult?

Now I have several…Nora Roberts, Dee Henderson, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jeanette Oak…and the list goes on.

Are you married? If yes, how long and how many children do you have (if  you don’t mind, name and ages please)?

Yes.  Kenneth and I have one daughter and four grandchildren.  Daughter: Taiquitta 27, Grands: Akia 9 mos., Alexus 8, Kaprice 4, Nia 6.

Who do you look up to?

My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Unfortunately, those moments I chose mentors, I found they couldn’t live up to my expectations.  The Lord , however, has never let me down.

Who has influenced you the most in your life?

My Grandfather

I have had a best friend for thirteen years.   Have you had best friend for at least that long or longer?

My best friend still lives there in Starkville; her name is Betty.  We’ve been friends for over thirty years.  

Are you working on a new book?

Always.

If so, what is it about and how long before I can read it?

Hopefully, next year.  Keep your fingers crossed.  However, I have another already scheduled for next year called “Path of Thorns.”  If you like Fragment…You will love Path.

Have you received any awards?

Yes. I received “Self published book award for A Bitter Rose from Writer’s Digest  

Besides writing, what are your other hobbies or interests?

I enjoy my dogs, Gangster (A Great Dane) and Gus ( A Lab mix), horseback riding, traveling, writing, reading, writing and writing.

Do you have any advice for future writers?

Write in the passion and for the pure joy, nothing else…read a lot (preferably in the genre you wish to write), research the subject, and be patient.

Do you have any advice for students such as myself?

I’m now merely a student of life, Brittany.  Somehow I get the idea you assumed I was a lot younger than I actually am.  My advice:  Reach for the stars…

What kind of student were you in high school?

After I got over the fact that it was no longer acceptable to goof a little, I was pretty good.

All A’s I’m sure!

Nah…more like B’s

Do you ever get any inspirations to write?

I am inspired to write at every waking moment.  Even in my dreams.

Or does everything just “pop” in your head?

Even the things that pop into my head are inspired.  However, when it comes to putting them into my computer or on paper, I need to back away for a while and seek the real message I believe the Lord wants to get across.  That will be my theme.  Then I must structure the ideas in a mode that will  encapsulate the theme.  It can be quite a long journey, but an enjoyable one..

I realize that you write a lot of Christian books.  What is your religion background?  I am Christian….I go to the Starkville Church of Christ.   What church did/do you go to?

I grew up in a Baptist Church that is no longer in existence.  I now attend Northwest Christian Center, a Pentecostal Holiness Church here in Oklahoma City

Return to Top

Related Websites

• Official home page for Annetta P. Lee.

Bibliography

• “Annetta P. Lee; Books by Annetta.” Online Internet.  16 December 2003.
• Lee, Annetta P.  E-mail interview.  December 10, 2003.
• Lee, Annetta P. Fragment in the Sand.  Mississippi: Genesis Press, 2003.

Return to Top