Our Civil War novel, THE THREAD COLLECTORS, began in the most unlikely of places – Las Vegas.  Standing off to the side at a lawyer’s conference, we bonded over standing out in a sea of dark-suited men and our mutual love of books. Shaunna J. Edwards: As an avid reader, I admitted to Alyson that I had always aspired to put pen to paper.  Saying that to an established bestselling author was intimidating to say the least. Alyson Richman: I assured Shaunna that as a Harvard Literature major, she undoubtedly had a book in her! Over time – and over wine – we began to muse about writing something together. However, it took ten years and a global pandemic for our dream to become a reality. While the world stopped, we began to mine the depths of our family histories and heritage to create The Thread Collectors. We wanted to explore the Civil War experience through two underrepresented lenses and illuminate not just the tragedies and injustices of this era, but also, on a more positive note, how music and creative enterprise can spark and sustain a friendship in the most challenging of times. In The Thread Collectors, you will…