One of very few female Civil War authors, J. D. R. Hawkins describes the war from a Confederate perspective in her award-winning fiction series The Renegades, based on factual journals from the period and her extensive research. She is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the International Women's Writing Guild, the Mississippi Writers Guild, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Pikes Peak Writers. Her work has been published in numerous newspapers, magazines, e-zines, and blogs.