About Eva Gerber
I'm Eva Gerber, a lifelong resident of a small town in the foothills of Appalachia. I grew up where creeks run clear, neighbors know your stories, and a neighborhood store can be the center of the world. The voices that shaped me—great-grandmother to grandmother to mother—carried recipes, remedies, and tales that traveled our kitchen tables like heirlooms.
Watermelon Winter is my first novel, a piece of historical fiction set in southern Ohio at the tail end of the Great Depression and on the cusp of World War II. It follows Pearl, a sharp-witted young woman working in her father's store, learning the stubborn math of love, duty, and freedom. The book is my love letter to ordinary families, especially the women whose steady hands kept communities stitched together. I still make my home in the Appalachian foothills, where I write, read on the porch, and listen for the old stories that refuse to be quiet.
Why I Wrote Watermelon Winter
This novel began with family voices—stories passed down across four generations—about a neighborhood store, cold winters, and a town that could be both tender and unyielding. I wanted to honor the women who made do, made beauty, and made a way: midwives, mothers, daughters, and the neighbors who stood with them. Writing Watermelon Winter let me set their courage on the page, in a place I know by heart: the Ohio River valley, where a blue hole could be holy and a loaf of bread could feel like mercy. I wrote it to remember, to reconcile, and to celebrate how a young woman learns to choose her own life without losing where she comes from.
What Inspires My Writing
- The Appalachian landscape—hemlocks, creek beds, first snows, and the hush after a storm.
- Women's work and women's wisdom: steady hands, quiet bravery, everyday sanctuaries.
- Small-town rituals—porch talk, church suppers, the bell over a shop door.
- Family lore told around kitchen tables, where truth and memory braid together.
- Ordinary moments that reveal extraordinary grit.
