An autograph party for Millie Nunnelee Johnson’s book, “Taming Katie” will be from 5:30 until 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Chapman House in Troy. The public is invited to have a cup of coffee with the author and hear, first hand, how she “tamed Katie.”

“Taming Katie” is Johnson’s first book in “The Pickens Ranch Series,” through which she shares her love of horses and the Old West.

Although Johnson is “not much of a romantic,” she has penned a romantic book.

“I’ve written several books for children and youth and I write poetry,” Johnson said. “Right now, I’ve got outlines for about 10 books. I love to write fiction but ‘Taming Katie’ is my first book that is a romance novel.”

Johnson has several favorite authors who have influenced her writing, with Zane Gray at the top of the list.

Johnson said anyone who gives her a Zane Gray book is a friend for life.

Gray’s influence is quickly evident in “Taming Katie” in content and style. But the story is Millie Johnson’s.

“Katie Spencer is alone on the tobacco farm she inherited,” Johnson said. “When she is injured trying to plow, her handsome, long-lost neighbor, Josh Pickens, arrives just in time.”

And, that’s the way the story begins.

Johnson said “Taming Katie,” like all of her writings, began and ended in her thoughts and even her dreams.

“That’s the way I write,” she said. “I will have a story spinning around in my head for months before I begins to note it.”

“Sometimes, I’ll be driving down the road and I’ll have to stop and write down a thought or I’ll wake up five or six times a night with thoughts. There’s always something going on inside my head.”

“Taming Katie” is set in east Tennessee and on a tobacco farm.

“I know a lot about horses but I didn’t know much about tobacco farming, so I had a lot of research to do,” Johnson said. “I learned a lot writing ‘Katie.’’

When Johnson completed “Taming Katie,” she offered it on Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.

“I was shocked,” Johnson said. “It just really took off. It was only then that I began telling my family and friends about ‘Katie.’”

The cover of the hard copy of “Katie Spencer” is especially meaningful to Johnson.

“It’s a photograph that my friend, Beth Madison, took not long after she lost her daughter in a tragic vehicle accident,” Johnson said. “That makes the book even more special.”

Johnson, laughingly, said she’s not sure where her love of writing will take her or even if it will take her anywhere.

“I don’t have thoughts of writing a number one best seller,” she said. “That would be nice but that’s not my goal in writing. I just want to share my stories and there are so many of them spinning around in my head. They come from my heart and that’s what’s most important.”