ORANGE COUNTY – Local author Barbara Claypole White is winning accolades for her second novel, “The In-Between Hour”—a story about a pair of families that come together in rural Orange County as one struggles with clinical depression and the other struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.

Released earlier this month, “The In-Between Hour” has already been named the Winter 2014 Okra pick by the Southern Indie Bookstores.

A 19-year resident of Orange County, White says Orange County provides more than just the setting—it also serves as the inspiration for the mood and the characters of the novel as well.

“You know, Orange County–it just speaks to me,” White says. “I feel this strong connection to the land, I love the forest, I’m a woodland gardener, I’m obsessed with beauty and dark hidden niches and light through the trees, and so this novel really is sort of–I know it sounds a little kooky–but it’s kind of my love letter, my love song to Orange County.”

White will be reading from “The In-Between Hour” at McIntyre’s Books at Fearrington Village on Saturday, January 25, at 11:00 a.m.