Local author Eylene Pack says she has always loved to write. In fact, she has written a handful of books over the years, but it took a special story for her to finally go through the painstaking process of marketing her work through her first published book, “The Haunted Banks of the River Rue,” she said.

Tuesday, July 23 Pack will be signing copies of her book at Atmore Public Library.

“I’ve been writing for a long time,” Pack said. “But this is my first book to be published.”

Pack said she has been writing off and on since she was a teenager, but when she sat down to work on the story of the River Rue, she knew something was different this time around.

“I just sat down with the intentions of writing a book and I just started from scratch with anything that came to mind and I was just able to build on those words,” she said.

Without revealing too many secrets of her Christian-fiction novel, Pack said the story centers around a man who believes he has perpetrated a terrible act and sets off on a journey to decide whether he will own up to his actions or live forever with his guilt.

“There are some twists and turns throughout the book,” Pack said. “You find out things about the man you really didn’t know as the book goes on.”

Pack said her decision to self-finance the book’s publication through RoseDog Books was a product of the combination of the right story at the right time.

“I did not know how to type at the time I began writing,” Pack said. “In 1995 I took a class at Jefferson Davis Community College and learned how to type. I decided, ‘I have a computer. I want to write a book.’”

Eylene has continued her writing sporadically since her college days and says she is excited about her first official offering to the literary world. She said local writers and teachers have helped her immensely along the way.

“I’ve been very blessed,” Pack said. “I joined a critique group in 95 and at that time Lisa Jackson, who worked for the Mobile Press-Register, was living and she did a story and was in charge of the group and I learned very much. When she died, Jackie Harrison took over the group and we held it down there in the Kyle building by the railroad tracks. Mr. Cook, an English teacher in Brewton at JDCC, would come and help as well. They all knew little things that I didn’t know. We exchanged information and it was just a lot of fun and I learned a lot.”

Pack, a 22-year resident of Walnut Hill, said the community is the perfect place to write.

“My husband is retired Navy,” she said. “We were living in Pensacola and wanted privacy and in Pensacola you can’t get any such thing.”

Pack said she spends her time writing and taking the occasional visit from the couples’ many children.

“When we got married, I had six kids and he had five,” she said.

Pack said she is looking forward to sharing her book at Atmore Public Library where copies will be available for purchase.

“We’ve already sold quite a few,” she said. “I just had to order some so I’ll have some available.”

Pack said copies can also be purchased online or by calling 1-800-788-7654 and asking for RoseDog Books.