In October 2007, 11 days after her divorce was final, Sara Evans released a greatest hits collection. Since then, nothing.

So where has one of country music’s most beautiful people and longtime hitmakers been hiding?

“I really wasn’t taking time away from my career,”; explains Evans, who appears at the WKIS Chili Cookoff in Pembroke Pines on Sunday. “It was more that my career was in a weird spot.”

And more than just her career.

As a celebrity contestant on the popular television show Dancing With the Stars, Evans shocked the audience in October 2006 when she suddenly quit the show and filed for divorce from Craig Schelske, her husband of 13 years. Evans knew the demands of the show would keep her away from her three children, who really needed her now that their world was spinning out of control. Unfortunately, she also had to make a very public announcement, which whipped the tabloids into a frenzy that made dozens of sordid details public.

Divorce turned out to he the right decision, too, even though, Evans says, “I am someone who is totally and utterly against divorce. I hate that I had to go through a divorce, but sometimes you just have no other choice. But you still have an opportunity to make it all okay for your kids, and that’s by behaving properly after your divorce, and how you talk about your ex and not putting the kids in the middle of it.

“I’m constantly concerned about how my children are doing and they’ve all been in counseling. One thing I don’t do is talk bad about their dad, because I think that’s the worst thing a parent can do, and ultimately it hurts the parent who’s doing the talking. Despite divorce, the parent-child relationship should stay intact.”

As Evans healed from the nastiness of her break-up, which included paying Schelske a reported $600,000 in support, something totally unexpected happened. Evans’ marriage counselor turned matchmaker and introduced her to Jay Barker, the star quarterback of the University of Alabama football team in the early nineties and now a sports radio broadcaster.

“The counselor waited until everything was done and both our divorces were final, and he said, ‘you need to meet if for no other reason than you have a lot in common. I’ve never counseled two people who are more alike,’ and he was right. Our divorces were final on the same day which is so bizarre.”

Once burned, twice shy, Evans took it slow. “We talked and emailed for a good three weeks before we met in person. He was just so gorgeous, so sweet and our first date was throwing a softball. I think I fell in love on that first date.”

Friendship blossomed into love, love into marriage, and in June of 2008, Evans and Barker were married, uniting his four kids with her three in a new home in Birmingham, Ala., where Barker’s ex-wife and kids live. “It was hard for me to leave my friends,” Evans admits. “I had a group of friends (in Nashville) that I call The Desperates. We had a big party and I announced that I was moving to Birmingham because I wanted Jay to be able to see his children. We all cried.

“But I don’t want people to think I’ve moved to Birmingham and stepped away from my career. I had gotten to the point where I had just let my management team make all my decisions, and it felt like the roles were reversed, like they were the boss. I’d been with them for my whole career, and it was a really difficult change. It put everything I was doing on hold. It was more about me making a professional decision that would make my career stall for awhile.

“Jay really helped me see that I’m the CEO of this company, and every decision needs to be my decision and if that means making some people mad, at the end of the day, what you’re doing is making these choices for our children and for our future.”

One of those choices turned out to be a pleasant detour from her main job. Evans was contacted by book publisher Thomas Nelson to write a four-book series. Book one, The Sweet By and By, written with Christian romance veteran Rachel Hauck, was released Jan. 5. Evans says the book is geared to the teen market.

“I think country music is storytelling, and I knew I had some really memorable characters to write about. Book signings are nice because I don’t have to sing, and I don’t have to worry about my voice. You go and sign autographs and thank people for buying the book.”

Evans looked at her own life and drew on her Christian values for inspiration.

But don’t worry, music fans, Evans has been back in the studio readying a new album for release later this year.

“I’ve written most of the songs with my producer and my brother Matt. We have five more songs to track, and the single should be done and out by the end of February.”

Line-up: Sara Evans, Gloriana, Zac Brown Band, Rodney Atkins and Montgomery Gentry

When: Gates open at 8:30 a.m. The concert begins at 10 a.m. Sunday .

Where: C.B. Smith Park, Flamingo Road, Pembroke Pines.

Tickets: $40 in advance, $45 day of the show.

Contact: Call C.B. Smith Park at (954) 437-2650 . Call Kiss FM at (305) 654-1700 .