Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award Winner
A Writing Upon the Sand is a compelling novel of love and intrigue set against the backdrop of the worst hurricane in U.S. history. Fiction inspired by real historical events.
GALVESTON, TEXAS, 1900. Twenty-year-old Emily Cleburne seizes the offer to become governess, but following her dream places her in the path of a devastating storm.
Emily is desperate to succeed after her father thrusts her from home with no lifeline. With little experience, what she lacks in confidence, she makes up for in grit.
Nathan Chambers, a reporter with a secret, pursues Emily’s affections. Drawn in, Emily agrees to keep what he reveals confidential, thereby threatening her position, and clashing with her integrity. Colin Hensleigh, a young minister, challenges her while proving himself a trusted friend.
Emily’s alarm grows as the catastrophic storm bears down on the island. She cannot foresee what will happen and who will survive.
When the Great Storm reduces Emily’s plans to rubble, adversity tests her character and faith in unimaginable ways. Will the teacher stand firm when all else gives way, or will she fail the test?
~Grief, faith, and resilience themes
~Love story with closed door and clean romance
~Book club discussion questions for readers who enjoy well-researched, faith-filled historical fiction with emotional depth
~Author historical notes
Meet the Author
J.M. Kirkley is an Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award Winner and a faith-based grief and trauma counselor. Her debut novel, A Writing Upon the Sand, was awarded Best Christian Historical Romance in 2024.
By trade, she’s a storykeeper, listening to clients tell of loss, faith, and reslience. By night, she researches and writes historical fiction with emotional depth, merging page-turning true historical events with inspiring faith and clean romance.
For two decades she researched the Galveston 1900 Storm, which remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history. Combining painstaking research with clinical experience, she brought authenticity to a Texas historical tragedy and explored healing and coming to peace with the past in ways that are relatable to the reader.
She calls East Texas home. Her favorite pastimes include visiting museums and art festivals, refinishing furniture, touring coastal offices of the National Weather Service with her meteorologist son-in-law, and making memories with family and friends.
“Draped in southern charm, cloaked in mystery and belted in real tragic history, J.M. Kirkley’s A Writing Upon the Sand is a prize Christian Historical Romance debut.”