Adrienne Ellis Reeves never imagined that after retiring at the age of 70, she would begin a new chapter in her life by writing chapters on the lives of others.

In the late 1980’s, after Reeves friend Martha, an employee of the Baha’i Publishing Trust, shared with her that more children’s books were needed containing Baha’i values, she suddenly found herself taking an eight week writing course and offering to write “Willie — And the Number Three Door and Other Adventures.”

Willie, published in 1988, contains four stories about a young African-American boy who begins school and learns to overcome his fears, while developing virtues such as honesty, truthfulness, responsibility and courage.

It was this small book that planted a large seed in Reeves heart for the art of writing. “I’ve been an avid reader all my life. It’s always been my biggest hobby,” she shares. “It took a while for me to finish Willie and afterwards I knew I wanted to try something else. I wasn’t especially interested in continuing children’s literature, so I decided to write a novel.”

Reeves’ first novel was ‘Change of Heart’ published in 1995, which tells the story of a young woman in her late 30’s who is widowed and spends her days caring for her son as well as her widowed and ill father.

Although she wrote the novel merely as a way of expressing her passion for literature, never believing it would be published, the opportunity to publish came knocking. After a friend pressed her to join her writing group, she came across a pamphlet containing a talk by an editor who was looking for some new manuscripts. She contacted her and received a response back requesting that she submit two to three chapters of her book.

“It was a big publishing company in New York City and they had decided that they wanted some black writers which they had never had before,” states Reeves. “I already had about eight or nine chapters done, so I thought, well I’ll see what she says. I sent it in never thinking she would take it. About three weeks later, my husband and I had just gotten back from our regular Friday afternoon date and I saw there was a message on the machine.  She said she wanted to offer me a two book contract with their new publishing line, Arabesque.”

When her two book contract was up, the publishing company continued to want more and more. Reeves has now published eleven different works.

Stories of conflict and triumph

“All of my novels are set in the county of Jamison, South Carolina and the characters deal with many conflicts. But they get through them with love, fulfillment, trust and courage. They overcome tests and trials.”

What is Reeves’ writing process? “The first thing I think about is the two main characters, who are always in their 30s and 40s. Then I think a long time about what kind of people they are, what their background is and what conflict they are having with the other characters.”

Reeves credits the inspiration for the plot line of ‘Change of Heart’ to a friend from South Carolina. “During the time that I was living in South Carolina, I was in a women’s group. One of the women in the group, Marguerite, lived next door to her father. He was ill and had a nurse that came every day, but he always wanted Marguerite to come and take care of him instead. She did it at a great sacrifice and I was so impressed by her,” Reeves shares.

“The theme of ‘Change of Heart’ is sacrifice. It is a contemporary novel about this woman who goes through a whole lot of conflict. Meanwhile, it is also a love story, as she meets a man and eventually they marry.”

In fact most of Reeves’ stories were influenced by strong women she has met throughout her life. Reeves, who holds a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) and built an early career teaching speech and drama in college, also had the experience of working with Traveler’s Insurance in Hartford, Conn.

“This was during the time after the civil rights movement and corporations felt they had to do something about black people,” she notes. “At Traveler’s, they worked with a black community agency called Modern Office Skills Training (MOST) to hire black women who had not had an opportunity to learn typing and filing. After eight weeks of training, they would hire them to work in their offices.”

Reeves notes that Traveler’s was very eager for the women to do the best they could, thus they let her teach other subjects as well, such as social studies. And knowing that her students had never been through a graduation ceremony before, Reeves always made a point to throw them one.

“I was so impressed by these women because a lot of them came right out of the deep south and had just done domestic work. It was marvelous for them to be able to work in an office. They were eager in the morning to get up and go to work.”

She recollects, “I still remember one of the ladies who had worked so hard to become an excellent typist; she and her husband came into my office one day and told me that they had just rented a house with a yard, and it was the first time they’d been able to leave the projects. I thought of those ladies and their children when I was writing my books.”

Her fans have taken notice of this inspiration. Reeves shares that she has received mail from readers who stated that the lives and experiences of her characters have very much modeled their own. “They said that what happened to the characters in the novels was just like how it happened to them and how did I know that? Did I know a friend of theirs who told me about their lives and did I write it down?” she chuckles.

A touch of romance

Reeves also shares that she has received quite a bit of fan mail from readers saying how pleased they were to read a novel that didn’t have a lot of explicit sex in it. Her books have been categorized as romance novels and she notes that as time went on, a lot of the novels in the romance genre started to end with couples going to bed with each other.  Reeves, a Baha’i, simply couldn’t find her way to compromising her stories in this manner.

“As a Baha’i I do not wish to write that!” she exclaims. “I told my editor that Baha’is practice chastity before marriage. She said she thought it was good that I wouldn’t have my characters end up in bed, as she believes readers are looking for stories like mine.”

“Later on when I would have book signings I would say to the women that my books can be read by them, their daughters and grandmothers. They are nice love stories, but very clean.”

Reeves points to Baha’i teachings when asked what advice she would give to young women still looking for the love of their life. First, she stresses the importance of praying. “Baha’u’llah, [the Founder of the Baha’i Faith], knows the kind of person each of us should have,” she states. Secondly, she emphasizes the importance of keeping an open mind to people that you meet. Finally, as the Baha’i Writings encourage, one should always look at the quality of the person’s character.

“Don’t say I want him to be handsome and this and that,” she states. “You want someone with a good character because that lasts and lasts and lasts. A lot of marriages have problems, but if you have strong character you can always make it!”

Reeves reminisces about how she met her husband. “The Second World War had started and my husband, who was from New York City, was in the army and stationed in Greensboro, North Carolina. I made it clear to him that the Baha’i Faith comes first in my life and he was more than fine with that. He asked me to marry him and nine years later he became a Baha’i as well. We had a wonderful marriage and three marvelous children.”

A spiritual journey

Reeves first learned of the Baha’i Faith at the age of 18, while attending college in Phoenix, Ariz.  “I was involved in a spiritual singing group and the mother of the girl who had got the group together said we were invited to sing in the home of a Baha’i. Everyone there was so friendly and I just knew this was something spiritual. When we were getting ready to leave, the lady of the house said she wanted me to come back, so I did and continued to do so.”

Reeves explains that she and her family had been members of the Baptist church all of their lives, but the one thing that always kind of upset her was when the preachers would say that only Christians could go to heaven. “I thought to myself, even I know that most of the people in the world aren’t Christian and if God is who He says He is then how could that be?” she declares.

Upon learning more about the Baha’i Faith and beginning to understand the Baha’i concept of progressive revelation, Reeves decided to become a member of the Baha’i Faith. “I thought – this makes so much sense!”

“I’m so thankful that I became a Baha’i at such a young age, because it meant that during all of my growing up years the world made sense to me. I’ve always been so grateful.”

The best is yet to come

When asked what she feels her greatest accomplishment has been thus far throughout her career, Reeves states that teaching at Traveler’s Insurance was definitely one. The other is the book she has just finished writing.

Offering a sneak peak, she shares that the book is set in Charleston, South Carolina and is about a woman who was born in Charleston, but has been away from her home town for many years. Upon having a vision of a slave named Sudi, she returns to Charleston to unravel the mystery as to why these visions are occurring and discovers the many parallels between their two lives. “I call it “The Book of My Heart” because it just means so much to me,” states Reeves.

Along with her work as a professional novelist, Reeves also puts her writing talents to good use in service to her local Baha’i community. “I belong to two book clubs. One of them is ‘The October Writing Group’ and about two years ago we published our first little booklet called ‘Kaleidoscope’. We had an event to celebrate and sell copies of the booklet. By now we have probably sold almost all of those copies; we only have two or three left,” she says. Reeves shares that the group is working on putting out another booklet this coming October.

“When I started writing for the first time, I never really thought I would ever publish something. I just give all that to Baha’u’llah and, of course, I’m just thrilled that I’ve been able to do that.”