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By Kris Harrell

Greenville native Susan Lincoln has recently published a second book, “When the Pink Clouds Come Out.” The column compiles 40 years of her editorial newspaper writing. 

Lincoln received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Auburn University, jumping into her career as a columnist for different news publishers such as the Valley Times News in Lynnette and West Point, Georgia. 

“After a while, you realize you have 1,000s of newspaper columns, and so I decided [around] 2007 to write my first book,” Lincoln said. “It was just a collection of my newspaper columns, just some of the favorite ones that I had that I wanted to spotlight.” 

That book, “When Mimosas Bloom,” features columns focusing on family, values and the humor in ordinary life. 

Her newest book, “When the Pink Clouds Come Out,” focuses on her life in the McKenzie and Greenville areas. According to the Amazon listing for the novel, the book features stories of sweet tea, old churches and Lincoln’s children growing up. 

“It’s a personal column on tiny events in life that have made a large impression on me. Because I love small towns, I don’t need large cities or large events to impress me,” Lincoln said. “I am just dazzled by county fairs, camellia shows and church pageants at small Baptist churches. I find inspiration there, and that’s often what I write about.”

During the writing of her second novel, Lincoln faced different hardships in the form of the unexpected loss of her husband, Don Lincoln, and natural disasters hitting Florida.

In the past 13 months, Lincoln said her surrounding area was hit with three hurricanes, including a direct hit from Hurricane Helene. 

“I have found that very often tragedies within life can paralyze you in the sense that it is difficult to write,” Lincoln said. “It is difficult enough just to move forward and go to the grocery store, it is more difficult to have the inspiration to sit down and feel like you have anything to say, so that was one of my large challenges.”

One of the stories found in “When the Pink Clouds Come Out” is from the evacuation during Hurricane Helene. 

In the column, Lincoln writes about returning to Greenville to evacuate and finding comfort in crisis. 

“’Church Pew’ was the one I wrote about coming back to Greenville and sitting in First Baptist Church when we evacuated for that last hurricane and how we sought the comfort of a family [and] faith,” Lincoln said. “There was a point in the service when the beautiful girl sang the beautiful solo, [and] it was almost like the tidal surge came down that front pew and washed over us.
“Those writings are not the happiest within the book, but they are probably those that others will relate to given their own challenges and tragedies within their own lives.”

“When The Pink Clouds Come Out” is on the best sellers list for Amazon, ranking No. 29 in the Rural Life Humor category. 

The book is available in paperback on Amazon.