www.WriteAsRains.NET

Sally Rains' upcoming book, The Making of a Masterpiece The True Story of Margaret Mitchell's Classic Novel
Gone With The Wind was based in part on a scrapbook just discovered and owned by a Mitchell cousin.
Production is set to resume in May on the upcoming television documentary based on the book.

The book takes a look at some of the people who may have been inspirations to Margaret Mitchell as she
wrote Gone With The Wind. Also, through the help of the sons of David O. Selznick's executive assistant,
Marcella Rabwin and the many living actors, collectors, historians, experts and authors the book contains much
information about the movie production. It is a fun book, with a book club section in the back...we hope you
enjoy it.

These pictures will give you a preview. Go to www.bookpubintl.com to buy the book--or Amazon.com or
BarnesandNoble.com.

In the picture, Sally Rainsis being shown the original scrapbook by Margaret
Mitchell's cousin. The scrapbook was written by her great grandmother whose mother
was a sister of Annie Fitzgerald Stephens (Margaret Mitchell's grandmother) and lived
at Rural Home during the Civil War. There are some stories in the scrapbook that
are similar to storylines in Gone With The Wind. This scrapbook is new evidence.

Lon and Al Harper. These
"read-headed" twins came from a
family who owned the largest horse
and mule business in the Jonesboro
area. Could they have provided the
inspiration for The Tarleton
Twins? Margaret Mitchell was
friends with their mother and she
gave them an autographed copy of
her book when it first came out.
She told them she based the
Tarletons after their family--they
had relatives who fought in the
Civil War and the generation that
Mitchell knew had the red-headed
twins.

The Actors I have interviewed have been so much fun---and so nice! They have great stories
to tell. We've heard about Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh--although their stories are in the
book too--- but now we get to hear about Gone With The Wind from a new perspective.
The three men above played Beau Wilkes at various stages of his life. Mickey Kuhn (far left)
got the speaking lines near the end of the movie, Patrick Curtis got to be held by Melanie
(Olivia deHavilland) and Greg Giese played the infant, newborn Beau as well as Bonnie Blue
Butler. The pretty lady above is Cammie King Conlon, who got to be kissed by Clark Gable
in her role as Rhett and Scarlett's daughter Bonnie Blue Butler.

Herb Bridges is one of the
foremost experts on Gone With
The Wind, he has written books,
lectured, and collected
memorobilia, once having one of
the largest collections in the
world. He has been very helpful
to both the book project and the
documentary. Parts of his
collection can be seen at the
Road To Tara Museum in
Jonesboro, GA and at the
Margaret Mitchell House.

Dr. Christopher Sullivan is a fascinating
wealth of knowledge on Gone With The
Wind and the actors and actresses from
it. His collection is displayed at the
Marietta Gone With The Wind Museum,
Scarlett On The Square in Marietta,
Georgia. He is seen here getting ready
to be interviewed for the documentary.

This is where it all began for Margaret Mitchell.
She and her husband John Marsh rented a small
first floor apartment in the back of this building,
now known as The Margaret Mitchell House. It
is open to the public for tours. Mitchell was laid
up with a sore ankle and after having read most
of the books in the library, she set to work on a
book of her own.

I appreciate the help from historian and author Tom Barnes. When PBS decided to do
the TV Series Georgia's Heritage he was hired as host narrator and writer. He was to
write two episodes for the series The Battle of Atlanta and The Battle of Chickamauga,
but he and the camera crew ended up trekking all over Georgia-- filming, writing stories
about Georgia and interviewing local historians.

After what he calls "tons of research" he decided to write a fact based fiction called
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone. In this book he talks about the close friendship that
Doc Holliday had with one of his cousins---also a cousin to Margaret Mitchell--- named
Mattie who eventually became a nun and took the name of Sister "Melanie."

That effort was followed by a nonfiction story based on his navy experience and called
The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle and
his third book is a novel based on the Nazi plunder of art during World War II, The
Goring Collection.

Tom Barnes has shared some of his research for the book. For more information on his
books you can look at his website or his blogs at www.goodreads.com.

John Lynch is the administrator at the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife Museum in
Fayetteville, Georgia. He is shown here in period costume at an event at the
Stately Oaks Mansion in Jonesboro, GA where he gave a lecture on the
similarities between Margaret Mitchell's great-grandfather Phillip Fitzgerald
and Scarlett O'Hara's father --the fictional Gerald O'Harra.

Lynch's ancesters knew the Fitzgeralds and he has studied the family over the
years. We appreciate all his help and insight with the book.

I interviewed over 70 people for this book. It was one of the most pleasant experiences I
have had as an author. I really appreciate all of the people who took the time to help me
and I hope people enjoy it. While I spent several years researching my topic, it is not meant
to be a scholarly serious book, but rather a fun book...a light hearted look at Gone With
The Wind.