Where awesome book readers meet awesome writers.
Meet Autumn Rivers, an inspirational romance author crafting heart-mending stories about ordinary people choosing courage, kindness, and second chances. Her novels are clean and wholesome (closed door), hope-forward, and rooted in community, found family, and quiet acts of love. Think porch conversations at dusk, handwritten letters tucked in kitchen drawers, and a well-worn quilt folded at the end of the bed.
Meet Autumn Rivers
Autumn has written two novels in her Willows Creek world The Dawn Within and The Dawn Within: Finding Light After Darkness with Hope at Willows Creek in progress. Expect slow-burn chemistry, faith-tinted healing, and endings that exhale.
She is a sunrise person and a slow-coffee believer. Most writing sessions begin after an early walk and a page of scribbled prayers. When not drafting, you might find her tending a tiny herb garden, baking something citrusy, browsing antique shops for vintage teacups and old letters, volunteering at local projects, or rewatching feel-good shows while outlining the next chapter.
What you will find in her books:
- Clean, uplifting romance with lots of heart
- Second chances, forgiveness, and healing after loss
- Found family and strong community threads
- Letters, recipes, gardens, and porch-swing wisdom
- A promise that light follows even the darkest night
About the Latest Book: The Dawn Within – Finding Light After Darkness
The Dawn Within: Finding Light After Darkness honors the quiet courage of people rebuilding after grief, disappointments, and plans that did not survive real life. The story follows a guarded heroine returning to a small town that remembers her kindly, a patient carpenter who shows up with work gloves and a steady heart, and a fixer-upper full of hidden letters that teach them how to hope again. There is a porch to rebuild, casseroles arriving like clockwork, and a sunrise that always shows up eventually.
Inspiration threads:
- Real letters and thrifted history – vintage postcards inspired the found-letters storyline
- Acts of service as love – showing up with soup, mending a step, listening without rushing
- Home as a verb – healing unfolds both inside the house and inside the heart
- Faith-tinted hope – sunrise walks, small mercies, and the kindness of community
If you love clean small-town romance with found family, past letters, slow-burn connection, and a bright, redemptive finish, this one is for you.
Quirky Writing Habits That Work
- Dawn pages and slow coffee right after a sunrise walk
- Index-card storyboard with goal, conflict, and an emotional color for each scene
- Pomodoro sprints at 25 on and 5 off to stay sharp
- Letters from the characters before major turning points
- Read-aloud pass to tune rhythm and flow
- Senses pass for sight, sound, scent, touch, taste
- Soundtrack and scent trigger to lock in focus
- Teacup and lemon loaf because cozy fuels courage
- Porch test for dialogue while pacing outside
- Blue-pen paper edit for the final polish
Literary Influences
- Jan Karon for small-town grace and neighborly humor
- Francine Rivers for redemptive arcs and tender, closed-door romance
- Charles Martin for quiet service-first love and steady-hearted men
- Becky Wade, Denise Hunter, Joanne Bischof for emotionally rich, clean romance
- Lisa Wingate for found family and healing the present through the past
- Wendell Berry for the holiness of work, seasons, and shared tables
- L. M. Montgomery for wonder, wit, and choosing joy
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for the warmth of epistolary voices
- Jacqueline Winspear for gentle strength and post-war resilience
- Julie Klassen, Lynn Austin, Roseanna M. White for historical atmosphere woven with faith
- Mary Oliver for sensory detail and attention to the ordinary
- Anne Lamott and Stephen King for craft courage and clear prose
- Ursula K. Le Guin for sentence music and rhythm
What Autumn Is Working On Now
1) Hope at Willows Creek – Willows Creek Series Book Two
A new heroine, a riverside town under the willows, a bundle of old letters, a struggling family cafe, and a patient craftsman. Expect found family, porch-light hope, and a slow-burn, closed-door romance that earns its sunrise.
2) The Dawn Within – New Formats
A glossy hardcover is nearly ready, with audiobook production outlined. Newsletter subscribers will receive a short bonus epilogue.
3) Reader Extras and Book-Club Kit
A free packet with discussion questions, behind-the-scenes notes, a cozy recipe for lemon loaf, a printable quote page, and letters from the characters. Perfect for buddy reads or community book clubs.
Practical Advice for New Authors
- Protect a tiny daily window – 45 to 90 minutes beats waiting for a full free day
- Use 25 and 5 sprints and stop mid-scene to give tomorrow a runway
- Plan lightly, draft fast – index-card scenes with Goal, Conflict, Outcome
- Revise in layers instead of all at once
- Pass 1: Story logic and timeline
- Pass 2: Character, motivation, and chemistry
- Pass 3: Pacing with chapter-end hooks
- Pass 4: Senses pass for lived-in scenes
- Pass 5: Read aloud, then line edit
The Best Writing Wisdom She Lives By
- You cannot edit a blank page. Draft messy, then polish.
- Write the truest thing you can say today. Honest beats clever.
- Small kindnesses change whole stories. Let love show up with actions first.
- Make it smell like rain. Engage all five senses so scenes breathe.
- Leave the light on. Even in hard chapters, give readers a glimmer of hope.
What She Is Reading Now
- At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
- Before I Called You Mine by Nicole Deese
- Where the River Begins by Charles Martin
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
What Is Next
- Hope at Willows Creek – drafting continues for Book Two in the Willows Creek series
- New formats and extras for The Dawn Within – hardcover, audiobook, and a free book-club kit
- A cozy novella bridge story – a gentle weekend read that links Books One and Two
Desert Island Book Stack
- The Bible for steady hope and wisdom
- At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon for morale and small-town warmth
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for letters and found family
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott for craft courage and honest laughter
Final Welcome
If you enjoy clean, small-town romance threaded with found family, vintage letters, porch-swing wisdom, and faith-tinted hope, Autumn Rivers wrote these stories for you. Pick up The Dawn Within and The Dawn Within: Finding Light After Darkness and stay tuned for Hope at Willows Creek. May these pages meet you exactly where you are and leave you a little lighter than they found you.
