From the Moon
I Watched Her

Named by BuzzFeed as one of Winter 2021’s Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books and Top 10 New Books To Add To Your Reading List!

“This poignant story of loss and self-discovery shines by showing the human desires for truth, community, and love under a church’s oppressive control.”
Publishers Weekly

“Emily English Medley’s heartbreaking novel From the Moon I Watched Her is filled with secrets and lies both about family and God.”
Foreword Reviews

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Emily English Medley

About the Author

Emily English Medley

Emily English Medley, MSN, APRN, FNP-C is a debut author from Houston. She has published several short articles in local newspapers and has one magazine article to her credit. She is a member of The Writers League of Texas and The Houston Writer’s Guild.

Note From the Author

Dear Gentle Reader,

This book deals with elements of sexual assault and mental illness that some readers may find disturbing. My intent in their construction was to debride pain. I carried the voices of these characters carefully in my hands, their memories and images safe with me. I was as sensitive and delicate as I could possibly be with the content while still allowing their voices to be heard. Sometimes, even the perpetrators are given a stage and permitted to speak—times when they are the last to have touched the innocence. When we hear the voices of the last to have touched innocence, we can better understand the scars children carry.

Below is a map highlighting, to the best of my ability, chapters that some may find triggering. As you navigate this map and terrain, know that I am with you. I have been down these roads I have asked you to travel with me, I know where they lead, I know the scary parts, and I am with you—in solidarity and in spirit—for all of them.

There are other thematic elements of religious, mental, and spiritual abuse woven throughout the landscape that are severe and could also be triggering. There is redemption in the end for not all, but some characters.

There is never a recovery of innocence once it has been lost.

Love always,

Emily

About the Book

From the Moon I Watched Her

It’s hot, Texas, and the year 1977. Jimmy Carter is in office.

The Walters are a good, churchgoing family who stand for holiness, purity, grace, and Christian love. Except when they don’t.

Family patriarch and fanatic preacher, Victor Black, knows many things for sure, including the fact that abortion is murder and should be punishable by death—a position he defends live in a televised debate. Black’s youngest granddaughter, Stephanie Walters, sits in the front row wearing her frilly Sunday dress, listening carefully to every word.

But it doesn’t take long for cracks to appear in the Walters upstanding family façade. Stephanie’s mother, Lily, begins telling unsettling stories about having a baby who died, and her story keeps changing. It’s clear Lily has a secret—one that righteous Victor Black would kill her for if he knew. This family secret burns more than the lies…

From the Moon I Watched Her is a coming-of-age tale about the skeletons that lurk under church pews and the little girl who goes looking for and finds them. Amid the dark and quirky terrain of camp revivals, burning crosses, and public shunnings, one child from the Southern Churches of Christ cries out.

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Praise

Resources

NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

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RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization...RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Press

October 2020

Book Review:
From the Moon I Watched Her

Publishers Weekly

January 2021

Book Review:
From the Moon I Watched Her

Foreword Reviews

January 19, 2021

Author Event with Emily English Medley

Interabang Books

February 21, 2021

Interview with Emily English Medley

Book Architecture

November 2020

Book Review:
From the Moon I Watched Her

Readers' Favorite

Lone Star

January 2021

January Texas Book Preview:
From the Moon I Watched Her

Lone Star Literary

January 2021

9 Best Books to Read on Spiritual Abuse

Pretty Progressive

May 14, 2021

Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Finalist - Regional Fiction
Finalist - Religious Fiction
Finalist - Best Cover Design

December 2020

Winter 2021's Most Anticipated
Historical Fiction

BuzzFeed

January 2021

10 Books You Need To Add To Your Reading List

BuzzFeed

January 28, 2021

Interview with Emily English Medley

Houston Matters

August 11, 2021

Interview with Emily English Medley

Reading and Writing Podcast

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