About the Author

Some stories demand to be told. Loose Here: A Story of Secrets, Sin, and the Blood That Binds is one of them — born from real events, real people, and a church where the truth was buried for over sixty years.

Elliott Oliver Williams grew up in the orbit of this story. The Favors sisters are fictional, but the world they inhabit — the pews, the whispered prayers, the secrets kept like sacraments — is drawn from life. Those who know, will know.

This debut novel is a labor of love — spanning years of reflection on the stories that families tell and the ones they don't. It is a testament to the resilience of Black women, the complexity of faith, and the enduring power of truth — no matter how long it takes to surface.

The brick church in the photograph is where it all started. Within those walls, a charismatic preacher held a congregation in his grip, and the lives of eleven sisters were changed forever. The sign out front still reads "Repent and Return." Some things never change.

"If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?"— Kendrick Lamar