By Margaret Damghani
Dolly Sickles knew she wanted to be a storyteller ever since she was in Melody Sear’s class at Garner High School back before she graduated in 1991. A former student council member and co-editor of the yearbook for two years, she now has a degree in English and a variety of writing credits to her name, including children’s books and other novels.
She fondly remembers how much she loved the pastor at Aversboro Baptist Church back when Garner was such a small town that every adult knew every kid. Among her favorite memories of Garner is learning to drive a stick shift in Vanstory Hills in the old Datsun her aunt gave her, and how exhilarating it felt to drive in fifth gear for the first time𑁋 something she only had the chance to do when she went out onto Highway 401 with a friend. Though she was a varsity soccer player herself, she enjoyed going to football games even if she didn't love football, because everything in Garner revolved around community.
“I never felt like I was being strangled by a small town, like I think a lot of people do. To me it was a safe place, a good place to grow up,” she said. “You kind of have a sense of place and belonging.”
Her latest writing endeavor, a romantic suspense novel titled “Mine By Design”, written under the pseudonym Becky Moore (released on February 3). It’s the first time she’s been published in over 8 years, after recovering from a traumatic brain injury, and she says she has a lot of excitement and hope surrounding the book’s release.
She’s currently an adjunct professor and has been a columnist and a book reviewer, worked in marketing and as a grant writer. She’s traveled to Italy, Spain, Barbados and Belize𑁋 to London, Paris, Geneva and the Swiss Alps. Throughout the various jobs and travels, she says she still loves coming home to a small town.
“I’ve traveled all over the world, I’ve traveled places where I'm the only person who looks like or speaks the way that I do. Any time you have an opportunity to be the only something, you should do it,” she said. “I always seek out people who are outsiders or different. I like odd birds. I like people who are unexpected. They always have something to say.”
“Mine By Design” is available at the retailers listed here.