Member News & Announcements
Looking for a good read to shake off the doldrums?
Check out these titles by some of our SWA members.
Ginny Shephard
Ginny Shephard, who publishes under the name of L.N. Passmore, shares the news that three of her Appalachian pieces -- short story “Mountain Roads, Mountain Secrets,” essay “Pittsburgh . . . Appalachia?”
and the poem “With All the Trimmings” have been selected for inclusion in the The Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Anthology 2023 Write Across America.
The anthology is scheduled for release in March.
The Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Anthology 2021 Writes of Passage, which published her short story “You Can’t Feel the Protons, Honey” and an essay “God Bless the Ambushes,” won First Place in The BookFest Awards 2022 for anthologies. Ginny said she is grateful to the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers for the opportunity to publish in these anthologies.
Micki Berthelot Morency
Morency’s debut novel, The Island Sisters (BHC Press), is scheduled for release June 20, 2023.
It is the story of four women from Haiti, St. Thomas, and Guam who meet at a college counseling session for first-year students and learn they have a shared history of abuse.
Dubbing themselves the “island sisters,” their unyielding friendship is their touchstone across oceans, through labyrinths of forced marriages and violent men, motherhood, and their dreams of freedom.
They share an unbreakable bond of friendship that serves as their anchor, helping and supporting each other through and through. To succeed, each woman must make choices that will challenge her long-held cultural beliefs, choices that will come with consequences, in the pursuit of her own individual freedom.
The book can currenly be preordered from BHCPress, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, Waterstones, Chapters/Indigo, GooglePlay, Kobo, and Apple Books. (www.mickimorency.com)
Caleb Wygal
Wygal’s new book, Death on the Causeway (Franklin/Kerr
Press) is scheduled for release May 9, 2023. It is Book 4 in theMyrtle Beach Mysteries,
In this 4th book, Clark Thomas has a lot on his plate. A new book.
A beautiful woman far from home. A missing fiancé. And a mysterious dead body plunges him headfirst into his latest real-world Myrtle Beach investigation.
As he unravels the case involving renowned food bloggers, restaurant reviews, and The Grand Strand, Clark learns that there is more to the story than meets the eye–and more to his wife’s death.
And the one dead body may not be the last.
With his world turned upside down after uncovering new information about Autumn’s death, Clark must get to the bottom of this mystery while he still can... before it’s all too late.
The book, available in hardback, paperback and Kindle format, may be purchased on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Wygal’s website: CalebWygal.com
Cabot Barden
Barden’s newest novel was released this month. The Vendetta (Independently Published) is Book 2 of his Drew Brand Series.
In The Vendetta, Captain Drew Brand and his military intelligence companions must stop a Japanese plot to provoke war between Russia and the U.S.
After they have completed their mission, Drew finds out that his wife and son have been killed by a crime family that had sworn revenge on him, for interfering with their fencing of stolen military weapons years before.
Drew and his companions, along with the FBI, must now find the killers and bring them to justice.
It’s available from Amazon, Kindle, Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. The first book in the series -- The Chameleon -- was released last year.
Cappy Hall Rearick
Rearick's fifth book in her Glad Girls Mystery series (Amazon.com Services LLC) was published in October 2022.
Madhouse Murders is now available for purchase on Amazon.
The Glad Girls are back and getting into even more trouble.
Darlene Funderburke, former 1960 Mountain Laurel Queen, is convinced she saw a UFO in her driveway. The trouble is nobody believes her. She tells the local shrink about it, but that is a bad idea. He plunks her shapely tush in the hospital for mental observation where Darlene makes friends with a woman who thinks she’s Princess Diana and another woman who thinks she is Mary Magdaline and holds regular conversations with Mother Teresa. The remaining three Glad Girls, Claudette, Bailey, and Aunt Polly launch a rescue mission to save their friend, but not before patients at the Habitat for Tranquility are murdered.
Louise Stanton Warren
Warren did a Lit Chat January 14 at the Jacksonville Public Library. On January 21, she will have a book signing at San Marco Book Store from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 1971 San Marco Blvd., Jacksonville FL 32207.
On March 28, at 6:30 p.m., she will be at the Beaches Branch Library, Jacksonville Beach Library.
Katherine Nichols
Katherine Nichols’ new book Trust Issues (Black Rose Writing) is scheduled to be released December 15, 2022.
The book is about Claire Kincaid, a rising star in a prominent Atlanta public relations firm and a self-proclaimed fixer. From high-profile clients embroiled in scandal to shady political campaigns, Claire can handle it.
Her personal life? Not so much.
Her fiancé, Rob Evans, shows more interest in her job than in her. Her mother, Janis, and grandmother, Jams, are feuding because Jams refuses to reveal the identity of Janis’s biological father. When her sleazy client, Judge Harrision, orders her to gather dirt on his opponent, Claire uncovers more than she bargained for, but it’s on her judge.
Those complications are nothing compared to her connection to the murder of a focus group member and the grieving daughter she leaves behind.
Claire must determine who she can trust and unravel the mess her life has become, or she could be the next on the killer’s list. www.kathy-nichols.com
C. Hope Clark
Clark's new book, Badge of Edisto (Bell Bridge Books), Book 9 in The Edisto Island Mysteries, was released on October 28, 2022.
When a shocking murder leaves more questions than answers, retired police chief Callie Jean Morgan feels guilty about abandoning her citizens and officers. She must decide whether to stay safely retired, or save Edisto from an unforeseen criminal element by reclaiming her true purpose -- solving big crimes in a small town.
Clark’s book may be purchased on Amazon, B&N, Google, Kobo, Apple, and from her web- site: www.chopeclark.com
Randy Mazie
Mazie had two books of poetry published in 2022-- Itches Inside My Head, Vol. 1, released in April; Itches Inside My Head, Vol 2, released in August, published by A Year of Encouragements Press LLC.
The books contain a series of classically inspired and fun family-focused children’s poetry, written for everyone ages 5 to 105, with or without children.
Illustrators include Luke Valentine, Garrett Madlock, Rachel Fichtel and student illustrators.
Many pieces explore family issues, growing pains, relationships, questioning the world around us, and encouraging children to write poetry.
Lynne Hesse
Lynne Hesse’s new crime novel A Matter of Respect (Scribblers
Press) was released November 22, 2022. It is Book 2 in her Murder in Mobile Series and the sequel to the Well of Rage.
In Book 2, Officer Carly Redmond witnesses a robbery in progress and makes an off-duty arrest of a mentally ill man that leads to the death of a fellow officer by the suspect, Joshua Randall, in the jail’s intake sally port.
During interrogation by her department’s Internal Affairs and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Carly learns the jail’s video of Joshua murdering the officer with a switchblade is missing, and the radio printout is altered. She is sure she patted down Joshua and bagged the knife, but “the powers that be” accuse her of negligence.
A Matter of Respect can be purchased on Amazon.com or Scribblersweb.com
Melinda Farris
Farris received an Honorable Mention from the Writer’s Digest 91st Annual Writing Competition for her short story “The Secret of Harper Lee.” An excerpt from her unpublished novel, The Fourth Degree, won an award and was selected for publication in The Seven Hills Literary Review, available from Amazon in March.
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