Sudye Cauthen

Hello, Reader,

I don't know all of you, but I have heard from individuals as far away as Paris. I am in Florida, my home state, but when I first became aware of your presence in my life, I was in Mississippi where I had settled in to finish this book that haunted me day and night for five years.

As I struggled through many starts to write the book's second section about the town of Alachua in North Florida, I came to believe in you. I had finished the countryside section and that was a very different experience. Although throughout the book I deliberately made myself a human screen through which many emotions fell, writing about the town somehow terrified me. I started and stopped, started and stopped again.

One evening, as i struggled to find a way into the town part of the book, I was crying. I asked myself why I should go on, who would care. And then I felt that someone was waiting for a few of these words and wanted to share the understanding I was struggling toward. That was you, dear reader. Thank you for being there.

In the movie of his life, C. S. Lewis is played by A. Perkins who says "I read to know I am not alone." I understand that and now that Southern Comforts: Rooted in a Florida Place is in your hands, I can tell you: I write to know I am not alone.

Thanks more than you could ever guess,

Sudye Cauthen