Alana White

About the Author. . .

Alana White holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Journalism and a Master’s Degree in English with an emphasis on literature from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Upon graduation from college, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and a feisty Schnauzer named “Fedo” (pronounced “Feeedo”). And sometimes called “Speedo.”

A member of the Historical Novel Society, she is currently on the Board of Directors for the 2011 HNS U. S. Conference. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Authors Guild and is a past president of the Middle Tennessee chapter of Sisters in Crime, an international organization for mystery writers and readers.

More about me

I was born in Paducah, Kentucky, but grew up in a military family. By the time I was eighteen, I’d traveled a lot and attended school in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; New Mexico; the Azores Islands (Portugal); and San Antonio, Texas, where I graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. Since we did travel so much and I was shy, libraries became my refuge—school libraries, the bookmobile, public libraries, I loved them all. My favorite books were those like The Man in the Iron Mask and Ivanhoe. Today, historical novels still bring me joy; probably that’s why my first novel, Come Next Spring, is set in 1949, and why I decided to write about Sacagawea, whose story takes place in the early 1800s. (Now, Sacagawea was a real traveler!)

As Margaret Mitchell once said, “In a weak moment, I decided to write a book.” Me, too. I discovered how hard it is when I was eleven and gave it a try; I wish I still had those pages! In college, I minored in journalism and worked on the newspaper staff, writing feature stories. I graduated with honors and moved to Nashville, where my love for country music and writing prompted interviews with progressive bluegrass and new acoustic bands. My favorite interviews were with banjoist Bela Fleck (that was back when Bela performed bluegrass music more often than jazz).

And then one day in an old copy of National Geographic Magazine, I read about the infamous Sunday morning in April 1478 when in Florence Cathedral assassins attacked Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, the young, de facto rulers of Florence. That Easter Sunday, Giuliano fell to the church floor with his skull split in two, while Lorenzo drew his sword, leapt the altar, and escaped. Enthralled, I dashed to the library and read every book I could find written about that era in Italian Renaissance history. This led me to Guid’Antonio Vespucci, a real-life lawyer and ambassador for the Florentine government during Florence’s golden age, and his adventurous nephew, Amerigo.

I have completed my first historical mystery novel with Guid’Antonio as my eminent Florentine ambassador/​detective; Amerigo serves as his Dr. Watson/​Captain Hastings. I’ve published several Short Stories with the Vespuccis as my protagonists; the first, “The Lady’s Not for Dying,” was nominated for the Macavity Award given by Mystery Readers International®. My Nonfiction prose and book reviews have appeared in magazines including Historical Novels Review, Renaissance Magazine, and Mystery Readers Journal.

These days when I travel, I enjoy going to Italy, especially Florence and a small town in Tuscany, Castellina in Chianti. I collect books on the Italian Renaissance, particularly those about Lorenzo de’ Medici and his circle, which includes my Guid’Antonio and Amerigo, along with their friends and neighbors Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, poet Angelo Poliziano and other fifteenth-century luminaries who provide the grist for my story mill.

If you’d like to contact me, please do. I’ll enjoy hearing from you.