East Brainerd resident Dottie Mingle's fascination with the world's first woman has led to the publication of her book "Ladies First: Biblical Women Speaking," out this week and full of epic poems about every Old Testament woman.
"I did not write this with the thought of having it published," said Mingle, who has drawers full of "lots of jotting" about family stories and children's stories.
Mingle said she began writing "Ladies" for herself in 1992 after retiring as a children's storyteller from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library.
"I had always wondered about Eve because she was never a little girl," Mingle said. "She was never a teenager. She had no mama. She had no grandmama."
East Brainerd resident Dottie Mingle published her first book, "Ladies First: Biblical Women Speaking," in May after a lifetime of writing.She said she wondered if Eve ever felt like a bad mother because her son, Cain, murdered his brother, Abel.
Soon she was meeting other Old Testament women while driving, gardening or washing dishes, she said.
"All of the sudden I would think of one of them," she said. "I wrote about the ones that are named and the ones that are unnamed."
She wrote her poems in the "epic style," the same vein as the Old Testament itself, and added her love of English romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and William Shakespeare.
Mingle assumes the person of Hosea's wife, the prostitute Gomer, to tell her story of nightly partying and illegitimate children only to be bought back by her own husband on the auction block.
"When you read it you're going to see the love of God," Mingle said. "It was pitiful, but really it was a mirror of God's love for us. Finally, in the end, he takes us home."
Mingle has included Bible references with each story and encourages readers to look up the original story and check her facts. She said some women's groups may enjoy using the book for a Bible study.
Mingle said she herself was bitten with the study bug while writing the poems.
"It has put in my heart a desire to read (the Bible) more," she said. Having a correlating poem for each Bible story "makes it so much plainer and readable," she said. "I think it will reach a lot of people."
Mingle said the publication of "Ladies" came about only because a relentless niece in Atlanta called her every day for two years, prodding her to publish.
"It just happened so fast that my head's still spinning," she said.
Mingle said next she will write a book about children in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
For more information or to buy the book visit www.amazon.com, www.borders.com, www.barnsandnoble.com or www.xlibris.com. Call Xlibris at (888) 795-4274.