Jennifer GrahamGrowing up on California's central coast, Jennifer Graham listened with fascination to stories of her ancestors' everyday joys and struggles as they arrived, settled, worked, and raised families in the Golden State. The story of great-grandmother Zorda, described by the family as a "mail-order bride," who left her city life in Nashville to marry a man she'd never laid eyes on-a rancher in rural San Benito County-was particularly compelling. In Ruffling a Few Feathers, Jennifer has sought to bring this courageous woman's story to life and to highlight how leaving the familiar and daring to adopt the ordinary life of others leads to unexpected challenges, tragedies, and triumphs. In the spirit of her pioneer ancestors, Jennifer, in her late thirties, followed a compelling desire to try somewhere new, and moved to Scotland to work "for a while." She surprised herself by settling, marrying, staying. Though her new island home is beautiful, she often yearns for the filtered light in a redwood forest, the neon yellow of wild mustard against a purple sky, the heady scent of vast strawberry fields in the summer sun, and the insistent scream of a Steller's Jay as it greedily eyes your picnic lunch.Ruffling a Few Feathers is Jennifer's first novel. A sequel is already swirling in her mind and demanding to be released on paper. Read More Read Less