Meet your PK Neighbor: New York Times Best Selling Author, Geri Williams

Story and photos by Andrea Ozier

Beingathird-generationPossumKingdom“lakerat”scored Steve Williams a spouse who happens to be a New York Times bestselling author – and Geri Williams, his wife, admittedthatshemarriedherhusbandbecausehehadaPK lakehouse.

Andthere’snothingwrongwiththat.

After more than four decades of marriage, PK is now home forthiscouplethatgrewupinWichitaFalls

They married just as they graduated from Texas A&M University (Class of ’79), and Geri Williams worked selling advertisingforanewspaperbeforestartingafamilywithher husband

She said she always was an avid reader and thought she couldwritebetterthansomeoftheauthorswhoseworksshe read, so she joined the Trinity Arts Writers Association and tried her hand at writing a book. “The Texan’s Bride” was published in 1993 under her maiden name, Geralyn Dawson, andherfirst15bookswerehistoricalromancenovels.

After a chance encounter with a “bad luck” wedding dress thatshesawinamuseumattheFortWorthStockyards,Geri Williams let her imagination run wild, and it led to her first nationally acclaimed book “The Bad Luck Wedding Dress” supercharged her exploits as a writer, and a copy of her bestselling book is now displayed next to the dress in the stockyards.

She admitted there was one point in her writing career whenshewasreadytotossherpenasideanddosomething else, but that’s also when her husband told her, “Geri, you ’ re a writer” So, instead of quitting, she shifted her focus from historical fiction to contemporary tales and began crafting romancenovelsunderthepenname“EmilyMarch”

ShedescribedthoseworksasHallmarkChannel-typebooks, and they’re set in the made-up Texas town of Brazos Bend Many of her books under that nom de plume touch on familiar places for those who frequent the PK Lake area; for example, the local grocery store is The Trading Post, Possum Kingdom Lake is the setting in several books, and Wichita FallsandFainElementarySchoolarealsopointsofinterest.

Shesaidshetriedtousenamesandplacesthatarefamiliar to her so she wouldn’t get confused when writing After all, shehas41novelsandahalf-dozennovellastohercredit.

It was during a writing dry spell that her character Celeste Blessing, the heroine in Geri Williams’ “Eternity Springs” series,madeherdebut.

“Readersloveher,”shesaid “Sheresonateswiththem

The series is set in a small Colorado town where “broken heartsgotoheal”andrejuvenatetheirsouls Itwasintended tobejustthreebooks,GeriWilliamssaid,butitprovedtobe sopopularthatitturnedinto19novels.

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New York 'Times Best Selling Author

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Thatpopularity,inturn,ledtotheseriesbeingoptionedfortelevision and film. “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey and “7th Heaven” writer Brenda Hampton have teamed with Virgin River executive producers Roma Roth and Christopher E. Perry to be the executive producers on a series adaptation of the “Eternity Springs” series,shesaid,withthefirstlookgoingtoAmazonPrime.

Geri Williams’ novels are a delightful escape from reality, whisking readers away to picturesque towns and charming characters But what sets her works apart from other writers is her ability to tackle real-life topics within the cozy romance genre Her characters grapplewithissuesrangingfromgrieftoaddictiontopost-traumatic stress disorder, making her novels both heartwarming and thoughtprovoking.

She said she does plenty of research as she’s writing because her readers hold her accountable when she gets something wrong. She consults with medical workers, firefighters, glass blowers and more asshewritesto“keepitreal.”

In one of her books, Geri Williams has a character that makes differentsoaps,soshevisitedasoapmakingbusiness,AnAncientArt SoapCo (theninStrawn),andspentadaylearningaboutthecraft Shethencommissionedthecompany,nowownedbyPKlocalSandy Winkleman,tomakeprivate-labelsoapsthatshehandedoutatbook signings

Geri Williams said she writes about family, love and laughter. She lights up when speaking of her dad, John Edward Dawson, referring to him as “the best storyteller I ever knew” Judging by her literary success, she seems to have inherited his ability to spin a story, thoughshereadilyadmittedthatshecan’ttellastorylikehecould

Her works have been published by Penguin/Random House, Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, Harlequin, Hachette Book Group and Audible Originals, but despite that impressive list she is hesitant to speakofherawards ShealsohasreceivedaccoladesfromtheNew York Times, Publisher’s Weekly and USA Today, and one honor she is most proud of is being named a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award, the most prominent award for Englishlanguageromancefictionfrom1990to2019

She and her husband raised their three children – Steven, John and Caitlin – in North Richland Hills. They bought their lake house in Sportsman’sWorld11yearsagoandbecamefull-timeresidentsthere duringtheCOVID-19pandemicthatbeganin2020,andtheyadded thattheydon’tmisslivinginthebigcity.

Steve Williams works for Donovan Marine, a marine supply distributor.

Thecouplehasfourgrandchildren–Blake,JD,MaddieandEmmie–who enjoy visiting Possum Kingdom and are fifth-generation “lake rats”

After a chance encounter with a "bad luck" wedding dress that she saw in a museum at the Fort Worth Stockyards, Geri Williams let her imagination run wild, and it led to her first nationally acclaimed book. "The Bad Luck Wedding Dress" supercharged her exploits as a writer, and a copy of her bestselling book is now displayed next to the dress in the stockyards.