About the Author
Author of Their Inheritance:
Stephanie Townsend Ayers is originally from Hickory and Greenville, North Carolina. Ayers currently resides in the northeast Georgia mountain area with her husband and family.
Ayers spent each summer and every holiday living with her grandparents, the late Glen and Susie Cannon of Greenville, North Carolina before finally moving in with them permanently as a teen. Their stability and Christian faith guided her in eventually finding peace and hope. Their influences can be found throughout her life and in her writing.
Ayers met her husband, Christopher, while attending East Carolina University. Together they have been committed to raising a family and doing their part in changing the world for the better. Their heart for children is apparent in the fact that they have home schooled their ten children, ranging in ages 26 to 5 years old, since 1990, as well as having nurtured more than sixty children in the foster care system. They also worked as counselors at a children’s group home. They took special training to work especially with drug-addicted babies and sexually abused children. They have been blessed to have adopted five of the children entrusted in their care. Ayers devotes time in advocacy for autism, children’s rights, and in support of aide for and the understanding of children with special needs. Her husband still works with children in the Department of Juvenile Justice. They also are now enjoying the blessings of their young grandchildren, spending time with their children, traveling, and spending bonding time with her father, Stephen and her only sibling, Suzanne.
Ayers has faced many adversities throughout her life; abusive relationships, medically difficult pregnancies, premature births of four of her children, suffering a miscarriage, of being diagnosed in 1999 with multiple sclerosis, losing their house and possessions in a devastating house fire in 2001, raising children with special mental and physical health needs, and recently coping with the death of her beloved grandparents. It was and is through these adversities that Ayers draws on her faith and the values taught by her grandparents to give her hope. Ayers was featured in the All You magazine June 2010 edition in an article detailing how Ayers dealt with losing her family’s home to fire.
Ayers began writing at an early age. She wrote school plays starting in fourth grade! She wrote her first full screenplay at age fifteen and received a handwritten note from director/producer Jerry Paris praising and encouraging her to keep writing! She began writing novels as a form of bonding with her children. Because of her multiple sclerosis, she suffers from insomnia and those alone and trying hours gave her the opportunity to write in order to pass the time. She wanted to write stories that both adults and teenagers could share and discuss. Ayers creates all her stories to provide inspiration, hope, and real life guidance. She writes her storylines to deal with events that will prompt discussion opportunities between parent and child, teacher and student, and amongst each other. Her stories encourage through biblical references and resources in dealing with the tribulations and trials of life.