Holly Hodder Eger

Split Rock is Holly Hodder Eger's debut novel. She began writing it when her youngest child entered nursery school, between drop-off and pick-up, but put it aside when her husband accepted an exciting job overseas. She managed subsequent international moves and enjoyed traveling with her family around Australia and Asia before settling down to finish the story once her three children were in high school. Her book was published the same month her oldest was married, when she was 55. Singer Carly Simon (Martha's Vineyard's royalty) loved her novel and offered to write a testimonial for the cover; it also won numerous prizes for Indy publishing, including "Best Women's Fiction" by the International Book Awards.

A New Englander from Belmont, Massachusetts, Holly has had travel articles and personal commentaries featured in several national as well as local newspapers and magazines. She graduated with honors from Harvard College, received an M.A. in English and American Literature from the University of Virginia, and worked as an editor and writer for magazines, public relations firms, and advertising agencies before starting her own freelance business. She and her husband of 35+ years now divide their time between Martha’s Vineyard and Northern California, where she teaches writing and is currently at work on a fictional autobiography of Jessie Donaldson Hodder, an early 20th-century pianist, feminist, and prison reformer who also happened to be the resilient wife of a villainous novelist and bigamist (Holly's great-granduncle), as well as dear friends with Alice and William James. Besides reading and writing, Holly loves classical music, art history, the outdoors, and taking care of her baby granddaughter, Lucy Elisabeth.