LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Local author Sheila Robertson has released a new biography, If… not for Grace, chronicling the life of Debbie Brown Edens, of Estill Springs.

Robertson has lived in southern Middle Tennessee her entire life and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in mass communications. She and her husband, Hubert Robertson, own and operate an engineering and construction company together, and Robertson previously owned and operated Heaven & Earth Christian Bookstore for more than eight years. She also serves as a lay minister leading the deliverance and prayer ministry at her local church.

The book follows Edens’ account of surviving a violent crime during her junior year at Middle Tennessee State University, and the trauma, PTSD and healing that followed in the years after. Robertson and Edens co-wrote the book, which Edens has said she hopes will help other victims of violent crime.

The book is published through Fairhaven Media, a small publishing company Robertson and her husband started in 2017. The couple had been under contract with another publisher when it declared bankruptcy, leaving them unable to obtain copies of their own books for bookstores or individual sale. Rather than sign with another outside publisher, they formed Fairhaven Media to publish their work themselves.

If… not for Grace is available through bookstores nationwide. You may purchase a copy on the Fairhaven Media website or on Amazon.

Robertson has written several other books, including the biography Valleys of the Shadow, the eight-book Fairhaven Forest series, the two-book June Bug & Kat series, Alzheimer’s… There is Hope, A Funny Thing Happened on my Way Through Life, and three books co-authored with her husband: My House, My Health and My Ride.

A book launch celebration is set for 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 16 at First Baptist Church of Estill Springs’ Christian Life Center located at 218 North Main Street in Estill Springs. •

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