Hello readers of the blog (and FB/Twitter, where this automatically posts as well), ????????
For those following the blog, it’s been a while! It’s been pretty busy around here. I hope the remainder of your summer was wonderful, and here we are at the verge of Halloween, (!) with Thanksgiving, and Christmas peeking ’round the corner. This is so trite, but where did the year go?
Anyway, I’m dropping in to let everyone know about a few things that have been going on:
Earlier this year, The Saints of Swallow Hill sold to the publisher, JOTA, in the Czech Republic. Publication is in the summer of 2023. This is/was my first international sale! ????
Then, a few weeks ago, three of my books, The Road to Bittersweet, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, and The Saints of Swallow Hill, sold to Arkadia Publishing in the Russian Federation. Publication for these is likely sometime in the summer of 2024.
Also, my publisher has been knocking it out of the park with the Goodreads Giveaways and there’s ANOTHER one going on right now with 100 books up for grabs!????
And, one of my backlist books, The Moonshiner’s Daughter, is a Kindle Daily Deal! ????
In other news, in case you missed it out on my Facebook Author Page/Instagram, I just sent Book #6, currently titled The Rebellion of Joetta McBride, to my agent for a read through. It’ll be a while before I know the publication date on that.
Soooo, what’re you reading? I’m finally reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. I’ve had the book for several years, and I’m trying to be “good,” and not buy any more until I make something of a dent in my TBR pile. Good luck to me, (and anyone else) not allowing fingers to wander to the “buy” button. ????
Regardless, happy reading – always!
I have read a lot of your books but was disappointed with Saints of Swallow Hill. Yes….we still live with racism but now we are faced with gay & lesbians in TV, commercials, movies, Disney, and our schools & churches. Why do we have to see & explain these lifestyles to our children? I was a fan of your writing but I see you have jumped on the gay bandwagon too.
Thank you for commenting, and for reading my work.
Out of the five books published thus far, two involve a character who is gay. The Saints of Swallow Hill is one. Maybe you haven’t read The Forgiving Kind? That story published in 2018, and has a young boy living in 1955 North Carolina. He’s best friends with my main character, Sonny Creech. Daniel is “different,” and his story is harrowing. His story is also a big part of the book. The Saints of Swallow Hill isn’t about that. Actually, it’s such a small part of the story, although that’s what you focused on, but really, it’s more about what people had to do in order to survive. It’s about the history of a long ago industry many don’t know about.
As an author, I enjoy exploring all facets of life, and how differences might impact my characters. While my novels are considered Southern fiction, they’re also historical fiction, and that means I sometimes look back in time and explore the effects of social issues and dynamics of the day.
I don’t expect children to be reading my books work as they’re adult fiction, and because of that, I always err on the side adults understand there are many different topics authors might choose to work with. When I choose a topic, it’s not meant to imply anything. I only want to tell a good story about a certain place, at a certain time, and how humanity reacted.