Ida Mayhew, the enigmatic artist known as Aunt Ida throughout the close-knit, southern community of Mimosa, Mississippi, is normally the picture of self-control and not-so-quiet confidence about her level of expertise. But her world is turned upside down when a flamboyant new artist arrives sporting an outrageous look, loads of talent, and a name that instantly involves his idol, Vincent van Gogh.

            Ida, both amused and repulsed by this sham of a man, swiftly moves to show him who’s boss following the glowing newspaper coverage he receives from neighbor and college student Beth Brinkmann, a fledgling reporter and budding artist in her own right whom Ida mentored. But the more Ida is around the man who calls himself Vin-SENT VAN-Go, the more familiar to her he seems. Could he have a connection to a past that Ida shares with no one?

            The final volume of the trilogy that began with Forsaking Mimosa and continued with The Dance Between, Valerie Winn’s A Glaring Error is a gripping coming-of-age story that returns much of the cast from her first two novels, including beloved photographer Max Brinkmann, Beth’s father. When Aunt Ida has the perfect chance to establish herself once and for all as a Mimosa treasure, a careless mistake in a crucial painting forces her to decide what kind of person she wants to be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in New Orleans, I grew up in McComb, a small Mississippi railroad town just twenty miles north of the Louisiana state line. My father, a professional photographer, and my mother, who managed the studio in addition to retouching and hand coloring portraits, fed my imagination with their lively stories of growing up during the Great Depression. They also encouraged me in my pastimes of drawing, reading, and writing.

Those early affirmations were reinforced through my first published pieces which were cartoons for my junior high school newspaper. Editor of my junior college yearbook, I later worked as a staff writer for The Reflector, the student newspaper of Mississippi State University. At State I earned a bachelor’s degree in art education and studied communications. Later, I was certified to teach journalism. After graduating from college, I taught art and journalism for four years at St. Joseph High School in Jackson, Mississippi, where advising the yearbook and newspaper was part of my job. I then returned to my hometown to write for its local newspaper, The McComb Enterprise-Journal. That next year I married Frank Winn, a dentist, and we moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where we have lived since 1982.

Throughout the years I was very fortunate to work as a writer and editor for several coastal newspapers, most recently as arts editor for the Ocean Springs Record. I covered myriad news events, took photographs, and wrote hundreds of feature stories. In addition to freelancing for mostly regional, and a few national magazines, I created various artworks in acrylics, watercolor, and pen and ink.

I also began to write fiction, something I’d wanted to do since my early teaching days. During a second stint as an educator—this time seven years at Resurrection Catholic Middle/High School in Pascagoula, Mississippi—I earned a master’s degree in art education and participated in three fiction-writing workshops at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. That’s when my novel took root. Thus began a long-lasting agenda of conferences, workshops, and seminars, all of which helped to form me as a writer.

I spent nearly eleven years submitting query letters to literary agents, being rejected, rewriting, submitting more queries, being rejected again, and rewriting again, again, and again. There were, however, times of celebration when an agent asked to read a full or partial manuscript. I was always grateful and encouraged whenever I received a personal response.

I have also been privileged to be part of a remarkable writing group. We call ourselves Women of Words (WOW). Interacting with these fine writers has been the most rewarding and educating experience for me. It was one of our members who encouraged me to query Joe Lee, the editor/publisher of Dogwood Press back in 2009. That query yielded a request for the first fifty pages, then the entire manuscript. Nearly eighteen months later I got the telephone call I’d been waiting for—publication at last!

Recipient of Literary Arts Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission, 2008

Finalist in the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, 2002

Finalist in the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society Creative Writing Competition, 2001

Winner of several feature writing and photography awards from the Mississippi Press Association, 1984-1990

Freelance credits include publication in Mississippi Magazine, Mississippi Coast Magazine, Mississippi Coast Business Journal, Mississippi State Alumnus, Today’s Catholic Teacher, and others

Other work-related writing : News editor of the Ocean Springs Record and Gautier Independent, staff writer for the (McComb) Enterprise-Journal, staff writer for the (Pascagoula ) Mississippi Press, staff writer for the (Catholic Diocese of Biloxi) Gulf Pine Catholic. Stringer for The (Biloxi) Sun Herald

Editor of NMEA News, the quarterly newsletter of the National Marine Educators Association, 2004-2013

Former voluntary literary arts director for the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center for Arts and Education, Ocean Springs, Mississippi