Falling Down the Research Hole APR 22, 2024 With all historical fiction and really most writing, you have to research. On my current manuscript, I’ve researched extensively. I had to find out much about World War II, life in the 1940’s, when transistor radios were invented and what ‘revenuers’ drove. It’s a good thing, because I want my reader to drop into that story and feel like they are living it. My short story in the upcoming anthology, Feisty Deeds: Historical Fictions of Daring Women, came about due to an article in my local paper about a military base on Topsail Island. I grew up in North Carolina and I’d never heard…
-
-
Are you part of a book club? Do you like to read books? Can you commit to reading at least one book a month? Those are some of the things you need to consider before joining a book club. Although, most book clubs meet once a month, some meet less often. Some pick their books for the whole year at one time and some pick one month ahead. Some read only fiction, some read only non-fiction. What sounds good to you? That’s what you must decide. Size is important, too. Do you want an intimate small group, a medium size group with a chance for discussion, or a large group…
-
I’ve been to Moonshine Distilleries and sampled a few flavors here and there. They make everything from Apple Pie to Salted Caramel, and many more. I discovered while researching information for my current book that the origins of moonshine produced today started with the first Scot-Irish people who immigrated here in the 1700’s. Fast forward to today and there are large operations like Copper Barrel in North Wilkesboro, Howling Moon in Asheville, and Call Family Distillery in Wilkesboro. Moonshine got its name from bootleggers who made their product under “the light of the moon. In the book I’m currently writing, one of my characters is a young moonshiner. He falls…
-
Find you read certain types of books? JAN 28, 2024 Some people read only one genre of story. They love romances or historical fiction and that is the one type of books they choose to read. Kind of how I used to read Nancy Drew when I was younger. Nothing could touch a Nancy Drew Mystery and I lived for every other Friday night. My parents would take my sister and I to “town,” I’d pick out the next book in the series, and buy it with my allowance. Of course, my mom took us to the library, too. But those books were just fillers until I got my hands…
-
by Harriet Cannon Lizbeth Gordon’s husband doesn’t come home one day. He dies in a one-car auto accident. That’s not the shocking part. He had a hidden gambling addiction and accumulated a large pile of debt. At least it was hidden from Lizbeth. She’s left with only answers and empty banking accounts, so she put the family home up for sell, helped her two sons return to college, and headed for the family cottage on Folly Island, SC. She needed a quiet place. This started Lizbeth’s search for healing and understanding that leads her along a winding road ending in the discovery of the long-lost branch of the Gordon family.…
-
This book opens the story in Bryson City, North Carolina. A town that’s always had it’s challenges. The train comes through on a regular schedule each day and shakes the trailer where we meet Barbara at a turning point in her life. She’s ready to escape her hometown and it’s lack of opportunity for her. One fateful night, in 1960 her life is changed forever. As the story weaves back-and-forth between 1960 and 1976 we meet her daughter, Carole Ann, and her mother, Pearlene. They are three women struggling just to survive. As their choices intersect, all the secrets that Barbara has been swallowing alone, come to the surface. The…
-
This book started off with me asking who grows up in an insane asylum? Dove Jarrod escaped from Pritchard Hospital in 1934 where she was born. After she dies, Eve goes back to film the donation that her grandmother left to revitalize the asylum. Eve is ready to move on with her life and stop propping up her mother and brother, but she needs to take care of this task first. She knows her grandmother, the well-known faith healer was a fake and she wants out of the web of lies that she has to pretend are true. Lured outside before the event starts, Eve is attacked and threatened. Someone…
-
This story started with Jolene. A child left by her drug-addicted mother on the front steps of her aunt’s home. She was a good person that struggled her whole life to overcome her personal insecurities. One mistake cost her a lot, but she still found a way to make it work against big odds. Step in Chuck & Cash and a score of other people to help her pick up the pieces. These good people strive hard to beat the world as it’s stacked up against them. Difficult and rocky days are ahead for these group, but they fight on and work to find a happy ending for their situation.…
-
This is a picture of the night we opened the box to pass out our bound manuscripts of Karen White’s new book, “Dreams of Falling”! My book club was excited to be able to read a new book before it was introduced to the public and we were going to Skype with the author, Karen White, during one of our future book club meetings! It just don’t get any better than that! I have loved Karen White’s writing since being introduced to her by the lovely ladies at Pelican’s Bookstore in Ocean Isle Beach. One weekend I found myself in there trolling for new books and they recommended Karen White’s…
