The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney “Some things in this world are meant to burn …” The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed. During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty. A whisper and an act of violence perpetrated during this visit by Mrs. Mayfield all converge to kindle Analeise’s fascination with the Mayfields. Analeise’s burgeoning obsession with the Mayfield family overshadows her own seemingly, ordinary life, culminating in dangerous games and manipulation, setting off a chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences—all of it unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song.
“Following in the magnificent footsteps of Carson McCullers and Harper Lee, Robert Gwaltney creates a wonderful snapshot of the friendship that forms between Analeise and Etta Mae, two eleven-year-old girls in ‘50’s small town Georgia. His prose is both precise and lyrical, and the loveliness of childhood and their friendship is shadowed by a sense of mystery and foreboding. There is no sound in English than that of Southern speech: there is poetry in every inflection, in every nuance. This is a book to love and remember, and every book club in America would be wise to snap it up.”–Robert Goolrick, #1 New York Times bestselling author “The gothic beauty of a relentless Georgia summer is brought to life through Gwaltney’s deliberate details and exquisite imagery, while all the while evil lurks beneath the surface; from where or what the reader does not know but is as convinced by Gwaltney’s expert storytelling as he is.” –Zoe Fishman, bestselling author of Invisible Air and Georgia Author of the Year 2020
You Belong Here Now by Dianna Rostad "Set against the harsh backdrop of Montana, You Belong Here Now is a novel as straightforward and powerful as the characters who populate it. I love this book, and I guarantee you won't find a finer debut work anywhere." -- William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land "You Belong Here Now distills the essence of the American spirit in this uplifting story. Perfect for book clubs looking to discuss the true meaning of family." –Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House “Rostad’s bighearted debut is full of surprises, and warm with wisdom about what it means to be family.”–Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to London In this brilliant debut reminiscent of William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land and Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours, three orphans journey westward from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life where beautiful wild horses roam free. Montana 1925: Three brave kids from New York board the orphan train headed west. An Irish boy who lost his whole family to Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won't talk, and a volatile young man who desperately needs to escape Hell's Kitchen. Fate guides them toward the ranch of a family stricken by loss. Broken and unable to outrun their pasts in New York, the family must do the unthinkable in order to save them.
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Hello Readers! Welcome to READING NATION MAGAZINE, THE magazine for readers and booklovers everywhere. This month’s issue is filled with more great books to add to your TBR list, new authors to follow, an introduction to Robert Gwaltney, Food for Thought with Laura Davis, Speed Round with Judith Teitelman, book trailers, pet interviews, and so much more. Enjoy! As of February 28th Reading Nation Magazine has received 75,212 views! PQ & TG Authors - standard pages to advertise your books are only $50 and go down when you purchase more than one - that includes customized graphics that are shared with 12K readers over several social media sites in addition to the views on Issuu’s site . If you’d like to advertise here email me at readingnationmagazine@gmail.com.
Mandy Haynes
Pulpwood Queen Author Creator, Editor, and Publisher of READING NATION MAGAZINE, Owner of three dogs write press 6
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OFFICIAL PQ BOOK CLUB PICKS
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READING WITH QUEEN MAMA KAT
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DEBUT AUTHOR YOU NEED TO MEET
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE
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TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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IF OUR PETS COULD TALK NETWORKING
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GOT STORIES?
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The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney WHEN AN ELEVEN-YEAROLD, WHISKY DRINKING, PIANO PRODIGY ENCOUNTERS A WEALTHY FAMILY POSSESSING SUPERNATURAL BEAUTY, HER ENSUING OBSESSION UNLEASHES FAMILY SECRETS AND A CATACLYSMIC PLAGUE OF CICADAS. The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence, Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed.
“Some things in this world are meant to burn …”
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Guesthouse for Ganesha by Judith Teitelman In 1923, seventeen-year-old Esther Grünspan arrives in Köln "with a hardened heart as her sole luggage." Thus begins a twenty-two-year journey, woven against the backdrops of the European Holocaust and the Hindu Kali Yuga (the "Age of Darkness" when human civilization degenerates spiritually), in search of a place of sanctuary. Throughout her travails, using cunning and shrewdness, Esther relies on her masterful tailoring skills to help mask her Jewish heritage, navigate war-torn Europe, and emigrate to India. Esther's traveling companion and the novel's narrator is Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu God worshipped by millions for his abilities to destroy obstacles, bestow wishes, and avenge evils.
Weaving Eastern beliefs and perspectives with Western realities and pragmatism, Guesthouse for Ganesha is a tale of love, loss, and spirit reclaimed. ISSUE NO 12
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What Seems True by James Garrison In 1980, the first black supervisor at a Texas Gulf Coast refinery turns up dead behind an abandoned drive-in theater. When a Texas Ranger comes to investigate, the refinery’s attorney, Dan Esperson, is drawn into the investigation—and into a tangled web of racial conflict, sex, and deception. Two refinery employees are arrested for the murder. One confesses that the other did it but will never testify. When the killer is released from jail for lack of evidence, Dan may be next on his list. What Seems True was inspired by a true crime on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1979. “Award-winning author, J. D. Garrison returns with East Texas mayhem in the crime fiction novel, WHAT SEEMS TRUE. These larger-than-life characters deliver an entertaining read of lust, oil, good old boys, and one femme fatale.”—Johnnie Bernhard, author of SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW 12
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Wayland by Rita Sims Quillen Set in southwestern Viginia in 1930, Wayland is the story of a perfect life interrupted by a chance encounter with pure evil. Eva and Andrew Nettles are a couple who found each other in the unlikeliest of circumstances and married in mid-life, now living a blissful country life with their adopted daughter--until one day a hobo happens by. Buddy Newman cannot believe his good fortune: this family has everything he needs, including the most beautiful little girl he's ever seen or dreamed of. Newman sets his plan in motion to charm and deceive the family and possess the object of his desires. Can they see through his elaborate deceit in time to save their daughter?
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Published by Brother Mockingbird and edited by Pulpwood Queen Author, Susan Cushman, this collection of essays by authors, book club members, and supporters of the Pulpwood Queens is a love letter to the founder and CEO, Kathy L. Murphy. An ode to the written word and the place that literature and reading play in all of our lives. 14
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Thank you Brother Mockingbird Publishing for letting us share some stories!
Tornado! Kathryn Casey
It’s the 2010 Girlfriend Weekend. I stand at the entrance to the Great Big Ball of Hair Ball and watch the Pulpwood Queens and authors arrive. The party’s theme is The Wizard of Oz, and the room fills with blue-andwhite gingham-clad Dorothys, raggedy scare crows, complete character sets with thick-maned lions and clanking tin men. A Glinda strolls by. Then Ad Hudler, one of my fellow authors, shuffles in with his head encased in a green cardboard box. A curtain covers the front. He pulls a cord and it opens. Ad’s face painted emerald green, he’s OZ, the great and powerful. A maniacal look in his eyes, Ad says with a whiff of pomposity, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think?” ISSUE NO 12
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A Wicked Witch laughs so hard tears spill down her cheeks ruining her thick black eyeliner. I’m an Oz aficionado. A display case in my office overflows with Wizard mementos, including a sign warning people that I have flying monkeys. I don’t see how the Hair Ball can get any better. Then Kathy L. Murphy walks in the room. Her long blond hair hidden beneath a knit cap that erupts into a spray of ominous black netting, the PQ’s matriarch wears a tented grey dress. Her eyelids painted dark, at her neck a Guernsey cow appears caught in a strong wind, a tractor on a chain dangles helplessly, and the pin on her chest reads: “I’d rather be in Oz.” The Pulpwood Queen has come to the ball as the tornado. It’s hard to imagine a higher-energy group. The enthusiasm at a Hair Ball flows like champagne spilling over a thousand champagne glasses stacked in tiers. The music pounds, the PQs toss off worries, dance and enjoy the night. One such evening, I was in a line of five authors who mimicked the Supremes dancing to Baby Love. Another year, I dressed as the Cheshire Cat and joined in on a pantomime routine while Jefferson 16
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Airplane’s White Rabbit bellowed through the room. Still, as important as laughter and good times are—the older I get the more vital I consider both—another aspect of my Pulpwood Queen adventure is even more satisfying: the camaraderie of readers and authors, the leisurely unstructured time to kick back and talk to folks who love books as much as I do. At Girlfriend Weekend, I listen to readers, who tell me what they look for in a book. They explain why they enjoyed one book, while they never finished another. We share stories about our families, our lives, our pasts and our presents, our wishes and our dreams. It’s a rare opportunity to connect with others on a very personal level. As a profession, author has a rather lofty image. When I tell folks I’ve written sixteen books, they see it as a glamorous life, picturing book signings and lectures. That happens, off and on. But the bulk of my existence is spent alone in my office, tethered to my computer, sitting in my worn desk chair. I’ve used my keyboard so much that some of the keys are blank, the letters worn off. ISSUE NO 12
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Writing is a lonely life. Many of us write in our pajamas in the morning and eat leftovers for lunch, at times while trying to figure out how our characters finagled us into a dead end. That’s a problem when we’re only a third of the way into a book. It’s enough to birth a migraine. So we writers suffer in solitude, stewing over the unfortunate turns our writing takes. At least, that’s the way my life used to be. Before Kathy and the PQ family adopted me. The Pulpwood Queens have become my secret support system. I’ve talked over plot twists with members. Some have done first reads on my books, given me feedback on whether or not the plots are coming together. These women from across America who wear tiaras and boas, cowboy hats with bedazzled bands, have been generous with their time and honest in their opinions, valuable gifts for any writer.
FIND OUT THE REST OF THE STORY HERE.
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A Woman’s Story by Francine Rodriguez Woman's Story tells the stories of Latina women's lives. Depicting conflict in gender bias, experiences of exploitation, violence, and powerlessness, sometimes resulting in pain and despair in their turbulent world. But these stories also tell of these women's celebration of life itself that empowers them and gives them the will to sustain. These stories resonate on a deeply emotional level. Rodriguez knows how to spin a narrative and keep it going with energy. She creates memorable characters who are compelling and unique. These are the stories of real women living hard lives, some at the poverty line, some a little better off, but all desperate in some way.
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My name is Francine Rodriguez, and I am an author, but I wasn’t always an author. I grew up in and around downtown Los Angeles. Later, I worked as a Civil Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity Investigator in the Federal sector. Altogether, before becoming Francine Rodriquez, Author, I worked in the fields of law and psychology for over thirty years. It is my experience as a professional in those fields that informs my writing. Throughout my career, I have had the good fortune to meet and spend time with people from all walks of life. My work has provided me with countless opportunities to witness human behavior and to learn about the motivations of love and loss and how they affect individuals’ behavior and prompt people to walk unique paths through the universe. I tell the stories that live inside us all, and endeavor to express our collective human values and identities. My stories often tell of pain and despair, but they also tell of celebration and triumph. I write fiction inspired by true events, and it is my privilege to share these extraordinary stories.
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The Queen of Paris: A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen “Empathetic yet unsparing, The Queen of Paris is an engrossing historical novel that reveals another room in the House of Chanel: beyond the timeless elegance, simplicity, and jasmine-scented perfume was a desperate woman, trapped by a maze of circumstances and her own troubled mind.” - Foreward Reviews. “An electrifying novel based on the real life of Coco Chanel. The Queen of Paris reveals an unseen side to the celebrated icon as she trades fashion for espionage during WWII to protect her name, her business, and her legend.” - Net Galley
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Crazy To Leave You: A Novel – May 24, 2022 by Marilyn Simon Rothstein Forty-one years old, the last of her friends to marry, and down to a size 12, Lauren Leo is in her gown and about to tie the knot. There’s just one thing missing: the groom. With one blindsiding text, Lauren is unceremoniously dumped at the altar. In the aftermath, her mother is an endless well of unsolicited advice (Stay on your diet and freeze your eggs). Her sisters only add to the Great Humiliation: one is planted on Lauren’s couch while the other is too perfect. Picking her heart up off the floor, Lauren turns to her work in advertising as she gathers courage to move on and plan her next step. She should know by now that nothing in life goes according to plan. What lies ahead is the road to selfacceptance and at long last feeling worthy. With a new way to measure love and success, Lauren chucks her scale―and finds a second chance in the most unexpected place. ISSUE NO 12
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READERS' FAVORITE GOLD MEDAL WINNER Death By A HoneyBee is an enjoyable read which will capture the interest of most die-hard mystery fans!
sion writes with vi “Abigail Keam aves le am Ke g. ndin and understa e. or ” arning for m the reader ye k Review Midwest Boo
Finalist in the USA BOOK NEWS Best Book List
Death By A HoneyBee by Abigail Keam
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Murder Under a New Moon by Abigail Keam A Mona Moon Mystery - Book 8
Robert Farley is now a bonafide duke, and solicitors from the Duchy of Brynelleth have come to negotiate his marriage contract to Mona Moon. When the three solicitors demand that Mona relinquish Moon Enterprises and live in England full time, she threatens to give Robert back his engagement ring and call off the wedding. She says quite frankly, “I’m not going to give up one of the largest mining conglomerates in the world just so I can host dinner parties at Brynelleth for your snotty friends.” Robert, caught between the responsibilities demanded by Brynelleth and his deep love for Mona, is furious with his solicitors for not being more diplomatic. However, the matter resolves itself when the three English solicitors are caught visiting the notorious bawdy house of Belle Brezing, the most famous madam in the South. Ooops! Events are made worse when one of them turns up dead in the bed of a lady-of-the-evening. Now Mona and Robert must find the culprit before 30
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their reputations are torn to shreds by their enemies. Fast-moving events threaten to turn Mona’s world upside-down as she is confronted with seemingly impossible decisions to make. Should she marry Robert Farley or not? Abigail Keam is the award-winning and Amazon bestselling author of several series including the Josiah Reynolds Mystery Series about a Southern beekeeper turned amateur female sleuth. “I hope my readers come away with a new appreciation of beekeeping from my Josiah Reynolds Mysteries.” She also writes the Mona Moon Mystery Series–a ragsto-riches 1930s mystery series which includes real people and events into the story line. The series is about a cartographer who is broke and counting her pennies when there is a knock at her door. A lawyer, representing her deceased uncle, announces Mona has inherited her uncle’s fortune and a horse farm in the Bluegrass. Mona can’t believe it. She is now one of the richest women in the country and in the middle of the Great Depression! The Last Chance For Love Series tells of strangers who come from all walks of life to the magical Last Chance Motel in Key Largo and get a second chance at rebuilding their lives, and The Princess Maura Fantasy Series. ISSUE NO 12
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Sisters of the Vine by Linda Rosen "A novel about vineyard life and family, Linda Rosen's delightful and poignant Sisters of the Vine is for wine-lovers." -Laura Dave, author of Eight Hundred Grapes Housewife and mother with a loving husband to take care of her - that's all Liz, a Fifties gal, ever wanted. Over her father's objections, she drops out of college to marry Rick, who dreams of living off the land. They buy a farm on a verdant hillside in the Hudson Valley, but can't agree on what to plant. When they discover French-American hybrid grapes, Liz is confident they'll be happy. Grapes are classy. As the rich soil sinks into her soul and the vines begin to thrive, the marriage grows rocky. Refusing to disappoint her father again, Liz is determined to make her marriage work . . . until she discovers a photograph 32
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hidden in the old barn. Faced with impossible decisions, Liz is desperate. She has a vineyard ready to harvest and no idea how to accomplish the task. Does she have the moxie to flourish? Or will she and the land turn fallow? Linda Rosen’s books are set in the “not-too-distant past” and examine how women reinvent themselves despite obstacles thrown their way. A central theme is that blood is not all that makes a family– and they always feature a piece of jewelry! Her debut novel, The Disharmony of Silence, released in March 2020 and her sophomore novel, Sisters of the Vine, one year later, from Black Rose Writing. Linda was a contributor to Women in the Literary Landscape: A WNBA Centennial Publication for the Women's National Book Association and has had stories published in online magazines and print anthologies. She is a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association and the Women’s National Book Association where she is Selections Coordinator of the Great Group Reads committee which curates a list, published annually, of novels and memoirs perfect for book clubs. ISSUE NO 12
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“This effervescent historical novel paints a richly detailed portrait of the enterprising Veuve Clicquot. The twinned plots of Clicquot and Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise and fall are filled with detail that give life to this far-off time. The prose is light, yet detailed, and peppered with moments of wry humor. Napoleon's characterization is well-crafted and give his character new life. Clicquot’s character is charming, and readers will love ge�ing to know her. Rosenberg has a superb eye for blending humor with drama.” Publisher’s Weekly BookLife Prize
Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg
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Sugar Birds by Cheryl Grey Bostrom WINNER of the 2021 American Fiction Awards in Literary Fiction, General Fiction, and Cross-Genre Fiction categories, and FINALIST in Religious Fiction WINNER, AWARD OF MERIT in the 2022 Christianity Today Book Awards in Fiction BOOK OF THE MONTH for February 2022, The International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club SILVER MEDALIST in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite Awards in Inspirational Fiction WINNER of the 2021 Best Book Award in Inspirational Fiction “Bostrom’s prose is propulsive and detailed . . . a true page-turner all the way to the end. An engrossing tale of survival and redemption in the Pacific Northwest” ―Kirkus Reviews 36
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Beyond the Song by Carol Selick Beyond the Song is an autobiographical novel based on the author's coming of age in the 'sixties and early 'seventies. A singer-songwriter like her alterego Carol Marks, Carol Selick begins each chapter with lyrics she wrote and still performs today. Taken together, the songs introduce the themes of her story and trace the development of her character as she rebels against her strict suburban upbringing to join the counter-culture in hopes of fulfilling her dream of making it in the music business. The narrator relates her tale in a warm, vulnerable, and irrepressibly zany voice as Carol goes to school in Washington DC, drops out to take a pilgrimage to Berkeley, and eventually winds up living in New York in pursuit of making it in the music business. Torn between romance and career, she continually wavers. ISSUE NO 12
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Walking The Wrong Way Home by Mandy Haynes Walking The Wrong Way Home takes you inside the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Where hidden secrets are brought to light and burned with past regrets in brush piles in the mountains of East Tennessee or used to set fire to the mass produced tall and skinnies taking over East Nashville. Between the pages you'll meet Penny, an eighty-seven year old widow who sleeps in her red shoes, Jimmy, a quiet auto mechanic whose memories are never silent, Jewel a young girl who sees beauty everywhere, even though she's lost almost everything, and Willie, a thirteen-year-old who faces his worst fears only to find out that the truth is scarier than any haint or ghost story he's ever imagined. There's Elma and Roy, a couple who've been married for over forty years. Elma realizes on her sixty-third birthday that it's not too late to live her life, but it takes Roy two weeks to notice. Spanning nearly twenty decades, the struggles and victories these characters face are timeless as they all work towards the same goal. A place to feel safe, a place to call home. 38
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Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth: Eva and other stories by Mandy Haynes Some of the characters you'll meet. Eva, the young daughter of traveling Pentecostal preachers, who catches snakes while her parents hide behind the bible and a large wooden crate. Eva's life changes when she makes her first friend and realizes there is more to life than fear. Junebug Fischer is ready to set the record straight and let you know what really happened the summer she turned fifteen. It's true, she killed someone, but she never killed nobody on purpose. That was purely accidental. In Plans for Sweet Lorraine, you'll meet Lorraine's mama, Cordelia - a fiery red-head with a temper to match, and a mind as sharp as the sting from a leather strap. She'll do anything to keep her daughter safe. Even if she has to beat the devil himself. ISSUE NO 12
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CONTRIBUTORS IN MUDDY BACKROADS Dorothy Allison, Hillary Behrman, Henri Bensussen, T.C. Boyle, Elizabeth Bruce, Ulrick Casimir, Michael Darcher, George Drew, Stephanie Dupal, Michael Gaspeny, Roger Hart, David Hartshorne, Suzanne Heagy, Jen Knox, Mark Lammers, Robert McBrearty, Jayne Anne Phillips, Heather Mateous Sappenfield, Lee Scharf, Misty Skaggs, August Tarrier, Melanie Rae Thon, Luis Alberto Urrea, Siobhan Wright, Paula Younger NO MUD WAS ACTUALLY REQUIRED.
“Paule�a Hansel’s poems were born in the hardscrabble mountains of Kentucky. The splendor of their moments of beauty that spring up like “ironweed purpling/ the spent fields” seems earned, deserved.” —Michael Simms, author of American Ash, and editor of Vox Populi
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The Art of Traveling Strangers by Zoe Disigny It's the 1980s, and art historian Claire Markham reels from a series of heartbreaking losses. Desperate to escape her shattered reality, she becomes an art guide in Europe for quirky stranger Viv Chancey and embarks on a lifechanging journey through the art-filled cities of Milan, Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Siena, Rome, and Paris. Once abroad, Claire tries to hide her woes by focusing on Viv's art education, but Viv--who is not who she seems--has a different learning experience in mind. Frustrated and wanting to reimagine her life, Claire embraces the idea of reality as illusion and finds herself slipping into the tales of art and history. When threatened with one more crushing loss, Claire must learn from the spirit of her eccentric companion and the lessons from the art they encounter to take charge of her life or lose the most precious thing in it. The Art of Traveling Strangers is a journey of selfdiscovery and personal empowerment inspired by the 42
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great art masterpieces of Italy and France. It's a tale of female bonding and the amazing powers of perception. After all, reality, like art, is just an illusion. “Easily digestible and intelligent…brimming with artistic insights…[Disigny’s] command of the history of European art is formidable, and readers are treated to an impressively astute tour of it…[at] a buoyantly brisk pace.” — Kirkus Reviews “Locations are described with sumptuous appreciation…in The Art of Traveling Strangers, a warm, empowering novel in which a woman recovers her sense of worth.” — Foreword Clarion Reviews “The Art of Traveling Strangers will delight readers who treasure European art, culture, and travel; readers who value exploration and discovery of oneself and the world; and readers who celebrate unlikely friendships. Zoe Disigny’s debut novel tells a powerful and unique story of loss, love, hurt, and forgiveness with a grand tour of Italian masterpieces thrown in for good measure.” —ROMALYN TILGHMAN, award-winning author of To the Stars through Difficulties ISSUE NO 12
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In the thir d Bridge t o Death Mystery b y R.J. Lee , Bridge expert an d small to wn investigativ e reporter Wendy Winchester must put her amateur sl euthing sk ills to the test w hile invest igating the death of a flamb oyant psychic...
Cold Reading Murder by R.J. Lee
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Work In Progress edited by Mandy Haynes Have you ever finished a book and wondered, "What made the author think of that?" Or wondered if there was a chapter in the original manuscript that didn't make it through the final edits? Maybe you'd like to get a sneak peek at what an author is currently working on. Work In Progress includes fifty-nine excerpts from some talented authors' works in progress in different stages of the writing process, followed up with the story behind the story of the piece, and the story behind the author who wrote it. Where did the idea come from? What were they thinking during the writing process? Why did they delete a chapter, or change a character? Find out the answers to these questions and more inside... 46
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Featuring: Laura McHale Holland, Kathleen M. Rodgers, Mandy Haynes, Tom Shachtman, Kathy Ramsperger, Jeannette Brown, Mary Sheriff, Claire Fullerton, Susan Wingate, Julia Carol Folsom, Scott Semegran, Linda Liebowitz Rosen, Suzanne Kamata, Carolyn Haines, Debbie DiFulvio Thomas, Debbie Johnson Baldwin, Johnnie Bernhard, Judith Teitelman, Joe Palmer, Brenda Sutton Rose, Nancy Martin, Janet Oakley, Eileen Sanchez, Jessica James, Rebecca Rosenberg, Zoe Disigny, Trace Conger, Jan Moran, Anjana Gattani, J Lawrence Matthews, Jim Garrison, Teresa K Thorne, Rebecca Barrett, Jodie Cain Smith, Patricia Sands, Kimberly Packard Walton, Debbie Bowling, Susan Cushman, Carol Van Den Hende, Laura Davis, Lovelace Cook, Stephanie Chance, Francine Rodriguez, Joanne Kukanza Easley, E.V. Svetova, Mickey Dubrow, Joe Formichella, Suzanne Hudson, Robert Gwaltney, Heather Frese, Grace Sammon, Beverly Willett, Susan Tanner, Linda Carrillo, Barbara Conrey, Claire Matturro, Penny Hagner Koepsel, Ruthie Landis, and Kathy L. Murphy ISSUE NO 12
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kindness and “Told with amazing gripping, agonizing, compassion. It was a t touched my heart on tha k boo ing end rt-r hea hor!! Thank you!” aut an at Wh e. every pag 5 stars -- Amazon Reviewer,
A soldier fights for his soul in the trenches of France. A field hospital nurse battles death every day. When duty and honor are not enough of a reason to go on in the hell of a world at war, love gives purpose to their lives.
By the Hands of Men: Book One: The Old World by Roy M. Griffis
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Saturday, March 19th, 10:00 a.m. CST, Mama Kat/ Kathy L. Murphy welcomes author/illustrator, Lisa Anne Cullen for a TEA TIME WITH LISA to celebrate her book! Click here for the Zoom link.
Little Orange Honey Hood: A Carolina Folktale by Lisa Anne Cullen Orange Honey Hood brings a Carolinian spin to the classic Brothers Grimm Little Red Cap and Charles Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood folktales. Illustrated and written by Lisa Anne Cullen, this story follows young Blossom on her journey through the river 50
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swampland to deliver mosquito-fever medicine to her ailing grandmother. During an unexpected encounter with a hungry alligator, Blossom realizes that she must fight to save Grandma from more than just mosquito fever. Cullen introduces young readers to the charm and culture of the Carolinas, highlighting places such as the Congaree River in the South Carolina midlands while incorporating some of both states' symbols, such as the state flower, tree, insect, fruit, and boat. She also offers educational tables and maps of North and South Carolina. Young readers, with the help of an adult, will delight in Little Orange Honey Hood's recipes for peach pies, black tea, and gator nuggets. Cullen's colorful illustrations and lyrical storytelling are entertaining and enlightening, making her rendition a staple for personal and educational libraries throughout the historic and beloved south.
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Introducing Robert Gwaltney
“This is Southern Gothic with a vengeance—a dark blast of family secrets, strained loyalties, and bitter betrayals. We follow young Analeise Newell with fear and hope, dreading what may happen to her even as we turn the pages. Robert Gwaltney is a writer to watch.” –Christopher Swann, author of Never Turn Back 52
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A graduate of Florida State University, I presently reside in Atlanta Georgia with my partner. By day, I serve as Vice President of Easter Seals North Georgia, Inc., a non-profit organization strengthening children and their families at the most critical times in their development. Through my non-profit work, I am a champion for early childhood literacy. In all the hours between, I write. Raised alongside three feral, younger brothers in the rash-inducing, subtropical climate of Cairo Georgia, I am a lifelong resident of the South. A circumstance, no doubt, leaving an indelible mark upon my voice as a writer. Aside from sense of place, my writing is influenced and inspired by the literary work of others. As a boy, it was with great obsession, I turned the well-worn pages of Charlotte Brontë’s, Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights? Yes, another source of adoration. And Truman Capote’s debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, I admire with equal reverence along with everything ever written by Tennessee Williams. Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham is one of my all-time favorite characters. Many hours I spent playing her, ISSUE NO 12
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wrapped in an old lace tablecloth borrowed from my mother’s linen closet—my tattered, makeshift wedding dress. Locked away in my boyhood room, I haunted the place, plotting revenge, shooing rats from the wedding cake. “Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy,” I would whisper into the impressionable ear of my lovely Estella. Break their hearts. As an adult, my literary palate is diverse, reading everyone from the sublime Michael Cunningham to the gifted Jesmyn Ward to the incomparable Ron Rash. Though my tastes have evolved through the years, one constant remains: the impact of literature and art and music upon my writing. And my unrelenting quest to make and find beauty in this world.
My work has appeared in the following:
The Signal Mountain Review: Robert Gwaltney – Signal Mountain Review – Volume III, Issue II The Blue Mountain Review (pages 61-67): The Blue Mountain Review Issue 16 by CollectiveMedia 54
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The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature: Robert Gwaltney: Ash : Fiction : December 2019 – The Dead Mule School Work in Progress, An Anthology: “In That Quiet Earth” Additionally, I hold the privilege of serving as Fiction Editor for The Blue Mountain Review.
I have made appearances on the following: Dante’s Old South (Chattanooga NPR): Episode 08 Dante’s Old South (Chattanooga NPR): Episode 27 DESIDERATUM This Business of Music and Poetry: How To Gain Power & Resilience From Childhood Trauma (Interview with Robert Gwaltney) by This Business Of Music & Poetry Podcast • A podcast on Anchor Writers in the Round (Chattanooga NPR): (No available link) Scenic Roots (NPR Chattanooga) Desideratum The Storytellers ISSUE NO 12
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Press Release for The Cicada Tree (Ann-Marie Nieves Get Red PR)
A jewel of the Southern Gothic literary genre, The Cicada Tree is the story of two young girls whose friendship sparks obsession, manipulation, and a chain of life-altering events during the sultry Georgia summer of 1956. Infused with superb imagery, the lyrical poetry of Southern speech, and a mysterious sense of foreboding, The Cicada Tree is the captivating debut novel by Robert Gwaltney. The Cicada Tree is the much beloved novel The Secret Life of Bees meets We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In it, the friendship of two 11-year-old girls ignites obsession, manipulation, and a chain of life-altering events – all set against the lush backdrop of a sultry, mid-century Georgia summer. 58
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A Synopsis of The Cicada Tree: It’s the summer of 1956, and a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence, Georgia. It’s a natural event with supernatural repercussions, and unhinges the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed. During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty. A whisper and an act of violence perpetrated during this visit by Mrs. Mayfield all converge to kindle Analeise’s fascination with the Mayfields. Analeise’s burgeoning obsession with the Mayfield family overshadows her own seemingly ordinary life, culminating in dangerous games and manipulation, and setting off a chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences—all unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song. ISSUE NO 12
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‘An Unrelenting Quest to Find Beauty In this World’ While some writers’ processes are driven by intellect, Gwaltney says his process is informed by feeling. “I am an emotional writer,” he says. “My writing is also influenced and inspired by the literary work of others. As a boy, it was with great obsession, I turned the wellworn pages of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. And Truman Capote’s debut novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, I admire with equal reverence along with everything ever written by Tennessee Williams. Though my tastes have evolved through the years, one constant remains: the impact of literature and art and music upon my writing. And my unrelenting quest to make and find beauty in this world.
“Gwaltney’s Southern Gothic, THE CICADA TREE mesmerizes and seduces, the language redolent and deadly, the characters steeped in secrets and madness, and the whole of it an enthralling and perfect read. Easily my favorite book of the year.” —Kim Taylor Blakemore, bestselling author of AFTER ALICE FELL 60
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“Blending gothic elements into Southern fiction paired with musical notes of magical realism, Robert Gwaltney’s The Cicada Tree blindsides with creative intelligence, leaping across genre boundaries in elegant prose to weave a wholly symphonic experience with all the hallmarks of an instant cult classic.” —NY Journal of Books
Replete with lyrical prose, dark beauty and shocking revelations, The Cicada Tree is Southern Gothic at its best. For more information, please contact me at am@getredpr.com/ 914-393-1359.
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I wanted to share fellow PQ author Claire Fullerton’s beautiful review of Robert’s debut novel as it appears in the New York Journal of Books: The coming-of-age concerns in Robert Gwaltney’s riveting The Cicada Tree are set against a surreal Southern backdrop so plausibly staged as to seem par for the course throughout the first-person narrative of Analeise Newell, who unfurls a fantastic story in hindsight about the perils of obsession. Analeise ominously begins, “It was the cicadas’ singing I remember best—their courting song. It was frenetic beckoning for the affection of another that stirred the heat to reckless speeds that summer, the summer I turned eleven.” It is 1956 Providence, Georgia, and young Analeise lives in a humble house with her mother, Grace, who lives apart from Analiese’s hard-drinking, shiftless father. Beneath their roof cohabitates Miss Wessie and her eleven-year-old granddaughter, Etta Mae. The foursome is a harmonious, biracial family, the girls in school as Miss Wessie keeps house, while Grace works 62
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multiple jobs, including part-time domestic work for the Mayfields—the wealthiest family in town who live in an opulent mansion and maintain a mystique of legendary status. The four main characters are each blessed with an extraordinary gift of otherworldly proportion: Etta Mae sings opera in the voice of an angel; Miss Wessie bears clear-sighted wisdom; and Grace, a talented seamstress, divines the future in her stitches and receives prescient hunches each time the scar she received from a snakebite throbs. Analeise is a prodigy on the piano to the point where she can see and taste music, and explains, “Though Mama was brilliant with a needle and thread, it was her ability to read the future in her own sewing that was the true gift, an ability as deep down a part of her as the music inside me.” Analise describes Etta Mae’s singing by recounting its initial impact, “It seemed I was the only one who saw it. The only one to see Etta Mae’s voice turn into a real, seeable thing—puffs of breath blown in the winter’s cold… and I could taste it. Love and want. More of a texture than a flavor, cotton candy melting on my tongue, dissolving to a sugary grit.” ISSUE NO 12
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The high drama of The Cicada Tree centers on Analeise’s experience with the three members of the enigmatic Mayfield family who share a dark history. When Analeise comes into contact with Marlissa Mayfield at school, she, as well as all others in Malissa’s orbit, is beguiled by her charisma to the point of obsession. At home, Miss Wessie tells Analeise to stay away from the Mayfields. “Them Mayfields ain’t for you,” Miss Wessie says, and when Analeise presses her to clarify rumor concerning Marlissa’s brother, Miss Wessie hesitantly confesses he was, “As blond as the rest of them, his eyes greener, a kind of shine that makes you feel a strange kind of way. That makes you want to be close. . . . All of them—Mr. Kingston, Miss Cordelia, and Marlissa. They all got it. An unnatural kind of charm.” Analeise admits, “I knew what it was like to stand in the shine of a Mayfield. So blinding you have to squint.” Analeise Newell is a remarkable character, a deepthinking, uniquely voiced, secret keeping Scout Finch with an exuberant edge you’d follow anywhere. Prone to mischief and grappling with complicated adolescent 64
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feelings including a dark, covetous envy, she knows she is pretty, yet in light of the strange goings on around her, she is also self-aware and says of herself, “But what did pretty matter if my inside parts did not match? I imagined my innards, discolored and mushy, a halfeaten watermelon left too long in the sun. I was layers of mean thoughts and murderous prayers. What else might I be capable of if a thing needed doing?” The Cicada Tree has elements of mystery metaphorically set among a phenomenon of Biblical proportions occurring once every 13 years, and Gwaltney takes the reader into the middle of it when the town is overrun by a swarm of cicadas. Gwaltney leaves nothing unattended in the chaos, when the characters run home for cover. Analeise says, “The four of us moved in close, folding in together, weaving a knot. The song of the male cicada rose, the sound of millions of buckling tymbals. Vibrations passed through the walls with the rise of the racket, agitating the floor, worrying our feet. Our heads jerked and strained in all directions, keeping check on the walls, spying all the dark corners. The light from the dwindling candle distorted our faces, having its way until we were no longer ourselves. All of ISSUE NO 12
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us left there growing mad from the sound.” From her self-oriented view based on past actions, Analeise fears her and Etta Mae’s involvement: “The natural world had come undone, the delicate underpinnings unhinged and knocked loose by a song. Etta Mae, she had been the one to do it, to raze the place with hail—to unleash this plague of cicadas. But whose fault was it really? Had I not been the one to strike the blow, to set the plan?” Blending gothic elements into Southern fiction paired with musical notes of magical realism, Robert Gwaltney’s The Cicada Tree blindsides with creative intelligence, leaping across genre boundaries in elegant prose to weave a wholly symphonic experience with all the hallmarks of an instant cult classic. Please visit Southern Literary Review to read Dawn Major’s wonderful review - and - The Atlanta JournalConstitution to read Candice Dyer’s fantastic review.
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I know you will love Robert’s wonderful debut novel as much as we do. He is definitely an author you’ll want to follow. If you’re in Beaufort you can see for yourself on March 24th why he’s an author you need to meet!
An Evening with Robert Gwaltney in Conversation with Bren McClain THU MAR 24 2022 AT 04:00 PM TO 05:00 PM UTC-05:00 NeverMore Books | Beaufort
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Food For Thought with Laura Davis
In my 25 years as a self-employed writing teacher, helping people unearth the truth and craft their stories, I like to create unusual offerings from time to time, just for the hell of it. One of my favorites, which had a three-year run, was an all-day workshop called, “Two 68
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Things I Love Best: A Writing Retreat for Foodies.” Here’s the text I used to lure people in: “Treat yourself to a decadent, delicious day of pleasure. We will spend the afternoon writing about food with a variety of luscious, fruitful writing prompts. Then we’ll break and put the finishing touches on our food in a magnificent kitchen. After a long, enjoyable feast with a wonderful creative group of companions, we will gather to write the story of the food we brought. By the end of the evening, you’ll leave with a notebook full of stories, 14 new friends, and the memories of an unforgettable meal.” It was wildly successful. I instructed everyone to bring a notebook, a pen, and a favorite dish for our evening potluck. But there was a hitch—there had to be a story connected with the food they brought: how they learned the secret recipe for strudel at their grandmother’s knee, the Thanksgiving their Aunt Helen insisted that the ants floating on top of the chicken soup were really black pepper, the ravioli that was a miserable failure when they were desperately trying to impress their new in-laws. ISSUE NO 12
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As a source for writing, food provides a rich, varied, sensual source of stories. Food is primal, visceral, and full of sensory detail—what more could a writer want? The foods we eat and how we eat them reveals so much about our culture, our families, and our relationships. And food is generally easy for people to write about— it’s so immediate. People arrived at the foodie retreats with pots of richly textured soups, exotic salad fixings, and luscious desserts. After everyone stowed their dishes in the spacious industrial kitchen, we assembled in the living room, notebooks in hand. Everyone assumed they’d have fun writing about food—and they did. But I knew something they didn’t—that food would only be the entry point. We ended up writing about a lot more than food. The stories that poured out during those long afternoons were about hunger, scarcity, satiation, greed, poverty, excess, deprivation, sensuality, family rules, pleasure, nostalgia, loss, love, trauma, punishment, and rewards. Food was the vehicle that revealed the deeper stories. Consider what you might write in response to the following prompts: 70
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•
Write an ode to your favorite ingredient.
• Tell me about the first thing you loved to cook and how you learned to cook it. • Imagine that your childhood kitchen table could talk. Have it tell the story of your family. What did the table see? What did it witness? Write in the voice of the table. • Tell me about something you were scared to eat. • Tell me about a food you hated as a child but learned to love as an adult. •
Tell me about a time you fed someone.
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Tell me about a forbidden food.
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Tell me about a food that’s gone extinct.
• What’s the most unusual food you’ve ever eaten? (for me—bear teriyaki) •
Tell me about a food you had to spit out.
• Tell me about the weirdest diet you were ever on. •
What I’m hungry for.
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known. •
Tell me about a cooking disaster.
• Tell me about a food you ate for comfort as a child. •
Tell me about a food you eat for comfort now.
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What’s your favorite junk food and why?
• Describe the history of your relationship with food in two pages, using only sentences with three words (not four, not five, but three) •
What would your refrigerator say about you?
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What makes your mouth water?
It makes you think, doesn't it? Food is not just food. Food is everything. I loved the foodie retreats. The people were great. The meals fantastic. The writing vivid, revealing, and spectacular. But like all good things, those day-long retreats had to come to an end. Too many people (me included) started having special diets. I had to go on an anti-cancer diet. Students became vegan. Or lacto-ovovegetarian. One couldn’t eat dairy anymore. Another 72
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couldn’t eat onions. Or garlic. The beautiful kitchen I used was no longer available—the chef who owned it moved away. It was time for me to retire the foodie retreat and to move on: to try out new teaching ideas, to discover new, beautiful places to bring people to write. And I did. I started combining travel with writing. In the past ten years, I’ve brought writers to Peru, Bali, Scotland, Greece, Vietnam, and now Tuscany. I’ve never stopped helping people find their hearts on the page. I’ve also never stopped writing about food. One of my very favorite prompts is to share an actual recipe, weaving a family story into the telling. While I was working on my mother-daughter memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars, I wrote two food pieces that used my mother’s favorite recipes to document her decline into dementia—which because of length constraints, ended up on the cutting room floor. Those stories didn’t move the plot along. They didn’t create tension for the protagonist—me. They were well-written, but unnecessary. I had to let them go. But I still loved writing them, and I’m thrilled to share one of them with you now. Enjoy. ISSUE NO 12
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BIO: Laura Davis is the author of seven bestselling books, including The Courage to Heal and I Thought We‘d Never Speak Again. Her groundbreaking books have been translated into 12 languages and sold two million copies. In addition to writing books that inspire, the work of Laura’s heart is to teach. For more than twenty years, she’s helped people find their voices, tell their stories, and hone their craft. Her memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars tells the dramatic story of becoming a caregiver for a parent who betrayed you in the past. You can learn about Laura’s writing retreats and read the first five chapters of her memoir at www.lauradavis.net
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How to Bake Ruggelach With Mom
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Speed Round with Author Judith Teitelman
First book you read that left an impression? “Wrinkle in Time"
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How old were you? Nine How far do you live from your childhood home? 2,127 miles Who is your favorite author? Impossible to name just one. What book is your all-time favorite? Impossible to name just one.
Did your parents have a phrase or saying that you find yourself using? Yes, my mother. If so, what is it? “Patience is a virtue." What's the name of the first story or essay you wrote that was published? A work-related article: "Hello Real World: ISSUE NO 12
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Understanding Current Realities"
What was the name of the publication? It was posted on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) website and remained on it for about a dozen years. What's the name of the first manuscript you published? Guesthouse for Ganesha What word best describes your writing process? Intuitive
Sunrise or sunset? Sunset What’s your favorite color? Some days blue; some days red; often purple or green. What’s the first thing you notice about someone 78
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when you meet them? Their eyes. What’s the best compliment you’ve ever gotten? "Your work has given me permission to dream and envision." Describe yourself in 5 words: Extrovert, Introvert, creative, relentless, resilient Tell me the nickname your parents used to call you when you were little. Judy In which subject were you worst at school? Math, starting in 8th grade. In which subjects were you best at school? Art and History and English What advice would you give your young self? Patience is a virtue. ISSUE NO 12
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Cat person or dog person? Both If you could live anywhere in the world, where would that be? In my home, as long as I can continue traveling the world. Tell me one secret about yourself that might surprise everyone: Ahh, here I must invoke another phrase my mother always said, “A lady never tells."
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TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE (aka treasures I find on our authors’ websites)
We know that Pamela Binnings Ewen is the author of The Queen of Paris, a novel on Coco Chanel which is the explosive story of Chanel’s newly revealed secret life during the Nazi occupation of Paris in WWII. But did you know that Pamela is also the author of The Moon in the Mango Tree, awarded the 2012 Eudora ISSUE NO 12
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Welty Memorial Award by the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a trilogy of novels on young women lawyers in New Orleans in the 1970’s— including Dancing on Glass, Chasing the Wind, and An Accidental Life? Well that’s just scratching the surface! She also authored the Secret of the Shroud, and a nonfiction book, Faith on Trial, both now in second editions. While practicing law Pamela served on the board of directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement in Houston. After retiring and moving to the New Orleans area, Pamela served on the board of directors of the New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, The Tennessee Williams Festival, and as President of The Northshore Literary Society. In 2009 Pamela received the St. Tammany Parish President’s Arts Award as Literary Artist of the Year. Recently, Pamela was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who for Excellence in Law and Literature. 82
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Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana Family recognized for its statistically improbable number of writers. Cousin, James Lee Burke, (the Dave Robichaux books) and a winner of the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove at Morning. Among other authors in the family are Andre Dubus II (The Bedroom), Andre Dubus III, The House of Sand and Fog) Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy), and Alafair Burke (the Samantha Kincaid mystery series).
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THE PULPWOOD QUEENS' TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE celebrates female friendship, sisterhood, and the transformative power of reading. It includes life principles and motivational anecdotes, hilarious and heart-warming stories of friendships among the Queens, and stories from Kathy L. Murphy about the books that have inspired her throughout her life, complete with personalized suggested book lists.
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Here’s an excerpt from Kathy’s book:
“While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes on escape, not from, but into living.” Cyril Connolly, English critic and editor
Have you ever read a book about someone that you thought would read one way and then it turned out to be totally different? That’s what happened when my friend and author Andy Behrman told me about Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. He told me a little bit about Jeannette, his good friend from college who was the MSNBC reporter for gossip and entertainment in New York. I had the idea that she was raised a privileged, educated New Yorker, a Manhattan princess. But when I read the book I found out that her family was from Appalachia and she spent most of her growing-up years homeless with her genius father and artistic, yet I think mentally ill, mother. I couldn’t put that book down. I’ve ISSUE NO 12
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learned that you should never judge a book by its cover; read it first. My Beauty and the Book has been judged as a place only for women and, yes, it has become a safe haven for a wonderful community of women, but we also have men clientele. Women tend to be drawn to our shop, though, a world where they’re comfortable talking, where they can just plop down and relax. Where they can drink a real Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar and not be reprimanded for the calorie intake. We have a community spirit here at Beauty and the Book where we can let our hair down or put it up. We let women just be themselves. “I was inspired to be a Pulpwood Queen after reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I never took the Pulpwood Queens seriously, and often laughed and even poked fun at their antics and appearance. However, as a media guest at the 2006 Girlfriend Weekend press conference, I was in awe when I saw MSNBC reporter Walls walking up the sidewalk at Kathy’s bookstore/ beauty shop, Beauty and the Book. To realize that someone I admired as much as Walls 86
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would be a part of an event such as this changed my thinking and forced me to turn my feelings around and realize that the work of Kathy Murphy was worthwhile and not in vain. After that weekend I started a Pulpwood Queens chapter in my hometown and I have been wearing my tiara and reading ever since.” Phyllis, of the Pulpwood Queens of Marshall, Texas.
Pick up your copy of THE PULPWOOD QUEENS' TIARA WEARING, BOOK SHARING, GUIDE TO LIFE to read more.
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CALL TO ACTION! FRIDAYS ARE ALL ABOUT OUR READERS! PLEASE JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP - THE OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL PULPWOOD QUEEN AND TIMBER GUY BOOK CLUB. LOOK FOR THIS GRAPHIC IN THE FEED. LEAVE A COMMENT IN THE FEED UNDER THE GRAPHIC.
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READERS INTRODUCE YOURSELF - WE WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU! TELL US WHO YOU’RE READING AND IF YOU MENTION ONE OF OUR PULPWOOD QUEEN AND TIMBER GUY AUTHORS YOU’LL BE PUT IN A DRAWING FOR SOME BOOKISH SWAG FROM THE PULPWOOD QUEEN HERSELF, KATHY L. MURPHY. AUTHORS MIGHT POP IN WITH SOME SURPRISE GIVEAWAYS! HAVE FUN!
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WHEN YOU PURCHASE YOUR FAVORITE PULPWOOD QUEEN OR TIMBER GUY AUTHORS BOOKS HERE, EMAIL KATHY AT THEPULPWOODQUEEN@GMAIL.COM SHE MAY HAVE SOME SWAG FROM THE AUTHOR FOR YOU!
Looking for some fun gifts for yourself or a book-lover in your life? Visit the New Swag Shop
THE INTERNATIONAL PULPWOOD QUEENS AND TIMBER GUY BOOK CLUB
Upcoming Events For Our Members *Taken from our Calendar of Events All events will be posted on The International Pulpwood Queen and Timber Guy Reading Nation Facebook page and on Kathy L. Murphy's YouTube Channel. We encourage everyone to join us live in 2021. Each event is an opportunity to show support, share stories, and make connections! Join Kathy L. Murphy and Robert Gwaltney every Saturday at 6:30pm CST for The Pulpwood Queen Book to Film Club. Links to join are posted on our private PQ Facebook groups under Events.
Guest Host schedule for The Pulpwood Queen Presents Her Picks: Feb 28th – March 6th Robert Gwaltney, The Cicada Tree: A Novel March 7th -13th Judith Teitelman, Guesthouse For Ganesha: a Novel March 14th – 20th Rita Sims Quillen, Wayland March 21st -27th James Garrison, What’s Seems True 94
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Featured Author Schedule for Tuesday Night Online Book Club Links to join are posted on our private PQ Facebook groups under Events. March 1th Robert Gwaltney March 8th Judith Teitelman March 15th Rita Sims Quillen March 22nd James Garrison
Writing Workshop (2nd Saturday of each month at 10am CST) Email Kathy L. Murphy thepulpwoodqueen@gmail.com for the link up to one hour prior to the event. March 12th Steve Manchester Figuring Out Your Strengths as a Writer – Learn the tricks of the trade from #1 Bestselling Author Steven Manchester. From effective plotting to creating real and relatable characters, you will learn how to consider your target audience from page one. There are concrete reasons that certain novels become bestsellers. It’s not magic. It’s not luck. It’s work. Join Steve to learn how.
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Hi, my name is Pearl - Minnie Pearl to be exact, but that was completely by accident. Lot’s of people think it’s a fun Nashville “thang” but my mama rescued me from a Jack Russell Resuce site and had me for four months before she got my real papers. It’s not supposed to work that way, but I was so sick when they saw a sucker - my Mama - they had to act fast! The humans at the site gave mama some papers for a rat terrier (can you imagine?) and convinced her to foster me until she found me a permanent home. I wasn’t supposed to be adopted - she had two boys already, Moe and Curly (and yes the names fit if you’re wondering. They are stooges…) but she fell in love with me after many trips to the Vet’s office to get me back in shape. Lord she cried like a baby every time I had to get a shot… I knew I was in three weeks before she finally took the ridiculous hot pink collar that said ADOPT ME I’M A FOSTER off my neck. It wasn’t a secret anytime someone would ask if I was up for adoption, Mama changed the subject. Anyhoo - when she adopted me the humans just so happened to find my real papers and Mama laughed out loud when she realized I was Minnie Pearl. No, I will not wear a straw hat with a price tag for Halloween don’t even ask. 96
MARCH 2022
READING NATION MAGAZINE IF OUR PETS COULD TALK
That was eight years ago! Lord - I was so little she thought I was a puppy but I was just sick. Surprise - I was already four years old. Now I’m an old lady of twelve. Time flies when you’re being loved. Pearl is the owner of Mandy Haynes (me) and yes I’M still a sucker… but look at that face!
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READING NATION MAGAZINE NETWORKING
Pat Conroy Literary Center 601 Bladen Street Beaufort, SC 29902 Thursday through Sunday noon-4:00 p.m. Other times available by appointment ISSUE NO 12
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THE INTERNATIONAL PULPWOOD QUEENS AND TIMBER GUY BOOK CLUB
Details and registration options are now posted HERE.
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READING NATION MAGAZINE NETWORKING
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Camp Conroy 2022: June 13th-25th Sponsored By: Pat Conroy Literary Center Camp Location: Beaufort Middle School Summer Camp: Build-A-Book Program For Registration and Submission Guidelines: https:// campconroy2022.eventbrite.com Camp Conroy is sponsored by the Pat Conroy Literary Center in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina. Camp Conroy is a two-week summer camp providing young campers, ages 8-14, with a hands-on, collaborative program building a book start to finish. Campers work with instructors and special guests to create, revise, and compile their content for their anthology of stories, essays, poems, artwork, sculpture, and photographs. Campers also review outside submissions from young creatives who wish to submit their works for consideration and potential publication. Campers focus on editing, revision, production, and building a book mock-up in preparation for their final Camp Reading and Reception as well as the book’s final print delivery for publication. Camp Conroy 2022 is celebrating its fifth year and registration will open on March 15, 2022. For young creatives interested in submitting to the Camp Conroy Writing & Art Contest, the deadline for submissions is May 31, 2022. 102
MARCH 2022
READING NATION MAGAZINE NETWORKING
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MARCH 2022
READING NATION MAGAZINE SOME FB GROUPS THAT SHARE OUR PAGES
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If you’re a member of the International Pulpwood Queen or Timber Guy Book Club and have a story you’d like to share in the READING NATION MAGAZINE, I’d love to hear it. Book Club Reader Members that includes you! 106
MARCH 2022
READING NATION MAGAZINE GOT STORIES?
We love our readers and you will always have a place in the magazine to share your news. I’m looking for pets to feature on our If Our Pets Could Talk page, authors’ art, photos of your local bookstores, and libraries. Fun content and free advertising - win-win.
As of February 28th Reading Nation Magazine has received a total of 75,212 views! PQ & TG authors - standard pages to advertise your books are only $50 and go down when you purchase more than one that includes customized graphics that are shared with 12K readers over several social media sites. Just one of the benefits of being a Pulpwood Queen or Timber Guy Book Club Author. If you’d like more information on advertising opportunities or how to submit your stories, send an email to readingnationmagazine@gmail.com ISSUE NO 12
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It’s a good thing books don’t have an expiration date! 110
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READING NATION MAGAZINE
What Seems True by James Garrison
“Smart and sensual, atmospheric, you can feel the humidity of the Texas Gulf Coast, smell the smoke-filled boardrooms and musty motels, the exhaust belching forth from the refinery that lights up the night sky like a fairyland in James Garrison’s latest novel, What Seems True … a savvy tale full of grit and grime and passion, vivid characters, and a male narrator who will appeal to both men and women. You will find yourself rooting for Attorney Dan Esperson, even when you are cringing at some of his choices … I highly recommend it.”—Kathleen M. Rodgers, Winner of the 2020 MWSA Founder's Award and author of THE FLYING CUTTERBUCKS What Seems True was inspired by a true crime on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1979. In 1980, the first black supervisor at a Texas Gulf Coast refinery turns up dead behind an abandoned drive-in theater. When a Texas Ranger comes to investigate, the refinery’s attorney, Dan Esperson, is drawn into the investigation— and into a tangled web of racial conflict, sex, and deception. Two refinery employees are arrested for the murder. One confesses that the other did it but will never testify. When the killer is released from jail for lack of evidence, Dan may be next on his list. ISSUE NO 12 111
