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Nov 16, 2004

Author, Attorney Laverne Gaskins holds a dual love for both the written word and the law. Yet, she hadn't had time to share her creative self until now.

"I had written and edited several legal articles. Most recently, an article I wrote on the Supreme Court cases involving the University of Michigan that were published by the Georgia Bar Journal," she states. "And I have written short stories here and there, but I was never at the right place in my life to share my work."

She serves as University Attorney for Valdosta State University. She earned both her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, with honors, and her Master of Education degree in Guidance and Counseling from Valdosta State University. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Florida State University's College of Law. Prior to beginning her career in education law, she held her own private practice.

Attorney Gaskins is also a member of the Georgia Bar and has practiced in all state courts of Georgia, the Georgia Supreme Court, the United States District Court of Georgia, the Middle District of Georgia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Currently Ms. Gaskins also serves on the Editorial Board of The Journal of College and University Law.

Moreover, she is a wife to Bernard Gaskins and mother to two daughters-Myah and Jasmine. Therefore, she rarely has time to write.

But God has other plans...He settled her life into a quieter phase, which gave her a little time to pen a novel.

"I would write during the morning hours or late at night and on the weekends. (This is perhaps why it took so long to finish.)" She admits.

Gaskins debut novel, Child Support and Other Guarantees about Jason, an aspiring CEO whose haunting past childhood experiences threaten his ascent up the corporate ladder. Jason and his wife, Olga, struggle through a quagmire of corporate scandal, mysterious deaths, and psychological instability that loom and threaten to destroy what they value most. The couples' journey takes the reader through North Carolina, Alabama and to a scenic excursion in Africa. Book reviewers reveal that this story has a little bit of everything and is a delicate weave of romance, mystery, suspense and religion.

Gaskins explains that "contrary to what the title suggests, this intriguing, thought-provoking book is not about child support as the characters are in reality tangentially affected by this issue. This deviation from the expected offers the reader examples of the power of faith and the resiliency of love."

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