The Letter (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780985550516)

Charna Michelle Ainsworth was born in Lumberton, Mississippi, on August 30, 1967, the second daughter of Charles Lee Burkhalter (b. July 1945) and Barbara Faye (Herrin) Burkhalter (b. July 1948). Her only sibling is Charlotte Faye Henley (b. May 1964). As a child, she lived in Dallas, Miami, and New Orleans, finally settling in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at the age of eight. She lived in Hattiesburg through high school and chose to travel in lieu of attending college. After traveling for over two years living in places such as Pensacola Beach, Florida, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Los Angeles, California, she moved back to her home state of Mississippi. She then began to attend college, majoring in Accounting. She and her first husband William Horne (b. March 1965 d.Oct. 2010), met through mutual friends and were married in July 1993. While living in Hattiesburg, she wrote many award winning poems and began to write short stories. She worked a variety of jobs over the next several years including insurance sales, retail sales, and started her own skin care business. After the death of her first son, Andrew Horne (d. 1997), she became a homemaker and began to explore different genres of writing. She continued her first love, poetry and began writing longer short stories and screenplays. She wrote the first of her three novels, The Letter in 1999, over a period of six weeks. Within a year, she had a literary agent and her work was presented to major publishers, though it wasn't published. She remarried in 2003 and her first daughter, Maria, was born in May 2004. During this time she wrote two collections of poetry and one children's book. After her daughter began attending school, she reread The Letter. Pushing aside all normal paths of publishing, she chose to self-publish through the median of e-books and in paperback through CreateSpace. Her ancestry is German and American Indian. Charna is an avid reader, usually reading 2 to 4 books at one time. She is currently taking on-line classes through The University of Southern Mississippi and attends church regularly at The Church of God in Purvis with her daughter, Maria. She also contributes to a variety of local charities in her community. Charna Ainsworth lives in Mississippi with her young daughter and their dog and cat, Lakota and Buddy.