Latest Project
Where the Bells
Still Ring
A Gracetown novel
In Gracetown, North Carolina, Bitsy Mitchell knows the rhythms of church and community life. But she keeps noticing seven-year-old Eden: the child left behind, again and again. As troubling signs accumulate, Bitsy can’t settle for the comfortable explanation that everything is fine. Keeping the peace has its appeal. So does believing the best of people. Neither answers the question Eden has put before her: what responsibility do you have to a child once you’ve begun to see that something is wrong?
There’s room here for laughter, doubt, and people who get on one another’s nerves. Faith is part of their lives; it doesn’t settle every question. And kindness sometimes asks more of them than they’d like.
What’s next ↓It started with my mother.
My mom wanted a novel with some of the warmth she remembered from growing up in small-town Tennessee: dinner with family, neighbors you could count on, people finding reasons to hope. That conversation stayed with me. Eventually, it became this book.
I had plenty to draw from. Between my four parents, I grew up with church music and Sunday singing, deep faith and sturdy skepticism—and one hard-boiled agnostic who gets misty over small kindnesses. They didn’t agree about everything. They taught me to make room for people anyway.
And Clara? That’s me.
Clara Virginia White is the pen name I used when writing the first of the Gracetown novels.
As Clara, I'm writing about the church world I grew up in and continue to cherish. I no longer play the handbells, but I'm part of my church choir, and it brings me so much joy. For some, organized religion conjures icky and limiting worldviews, but please don't be afraid! You'll find no didacticism here, just regular people doing their best.
Meanwhile, in Gracetown…
Gwen Baker has a church newsletter to write. Eileen has corrections to make. There are handbells to polish, opinions to offer, and neighbors whose business refuses to stay private. Oh, and Jell-O salad! SO! MUCH! JELL-O SALAD!
What’s next
Gracetown has a new home!
Where the Bells Still Ring and two more Gracetown novels are coming from Sourcebooks Landmark, with publication beginning in spring 2027. Editor Shana Drehs understood what I hoped these books could be. I’m so happy to be bringing them to more readers together.
Forthcoming trade edition · Spring 2027 · Sourcebooks Landmark