Souls on Fire

I am very pleased and proud to announce the publication on May 22, 2026, of my sixth novel - SOULS ON FIRE AND LONESOME DREAMS — The Autobiographies of “Hazel and Erie” — America’s Beloved Bluegrass Lesbians

I began this novel in mid-2018 and brought it to its conclusion in April 2026 — eight years. Before Hazel Lattisaw and Erie Slocomb, it was rare — nearly unthinkable — to see women headlining in bluegrass music. What made their partnership even more extraordinary: Hazel and Erie were not just musical collaborators but lovers, together since their teenage years in the late 1940s and early '50s in the coal hills of Mercer County, West Virginia. And for eight years, they were my closest companions.

I still cannot fully explain why I wrote a novel about two gay bluegrass women. I am a straight native Bostonian whose musical tastes run to jazz, classical, and the Beatles. My best answer lies in my mother — a classical pianist and Southerner, a child of Dan River Cotton Mill workers who came North to Boston as a teenager. Family trips to Danville, Virginia in the 1960s felt like journeys into a world as fascinating and strange as any exotic film. I don't feel at home in the South myself. But my spirit does. And somehow, Hazel and Erie were waiting there for me.

Souls on Fire and Lonesome Dreams tells their story in two distinct voices — duel narrative fictional autobiographies that unfold side by side, chapter to chapter.

My method of beginning a novel is unusual. I open myself like a huge window in my consciousness and invite character candidates to introduce themselves. Hazel floated into view first, then Erie. It was like a blind date that immediately becomes something intimate and honest. They smiled at me and I smiled back at them. From that moment, investing myself in them as much as they invested themselves in me became one of the most challenging, satisfying, and fruitful relationships of my life.

From backwoods porches to national stages, Hazel and Erie forged a bold, unforgettable path across the cultural landscape of America — as beloved, groundbreaking singer-songwriters and as one of the first openly lesbian couples in Southern music history. Survivors of brutal Appalachian childhoods, they carried their wounds and their music into a world that wasn't ready for either. Their decision to come out in the 1970s sparked a firestorm of backlash — but also marked a turning point in visibility, voice, and representation for women and LGBTQ people in the South.

When Hazel and Erie sang together, the chemistry was electric — Lattisaw's emotive birdsong anchored by Slocomb's haunting tenor. As a novelist who writes exclusively in the first person, I method-act my characters. I am in every scene, every thought, every emotion just as much as they are. And I knew from the opening pages that this was a love affair — the three of us committed to one another for the journey.

From childhood trauma to early fame, from motel-room heartbreaks to Grammy wins, from silence to defiance, from collapse to grace — Hazel and Erie live their truth on and off the stage. Hazel, with her quiet wisdom. Erie, with her fire and demons. Together, they created a perfect, imperfect whole — and became rightful feminist, lesbian, and country music icons.

Method-acting two Appalachian bluegrass lesbians could have been the greatest challenge of my writing life. It wasn't. It was a privilege and a joy from word one.

Hazel and Erie are really something else.

My very best to you…

JTM