WELL READ Magazine September 2024

as the sycamore grows:

AHidden Cabin, the Bible, and a .38 Jennie

Helderman

Acabin behind a padlocked gate. No power. No phone. Only Revelation and a .38.Atrue story of abuse, loss, redemption, and hope that winds from south Texas to a sycamore tree in Tennessee.

Mike escaped his father’s fists, but years later glimpsed himself in his father’s casket. Ginger named the sycamore tree for her son, Trent. It grew slowly like independence. This is Ginger’s story and Mike’s, yet it didn’t begin with them. Journalist Jennie Miller Helderman’s harrowing narrative takes the listener inside Ginger and Mike’s world. She interviewed both the abuse survivor, her abuser, family members, friends, and others who knew the couple. In this special, updated edition, Helderman revisits what has happened to Ginger in the interim and offers resources for those with violent partners. During Covid-19, cases escalated dramatically, because isolation from friends and family is one of the main tools in an abuser’s arsenal of weapons.

Jennie Miller Helderman was born into a story-telling family in NorthAlabama too long ago.

“In my family you had to do one of two things,” Jennie says, “either thread a red worm onto a bream hook or tell stories. I did both.”

Today she tells her stories, like when her cousin died and his wife had the burial policy but the one-legged woman had the body. Or about driving her mother and a coconut cake to the family reunion in a cow pasture in SouthAlabama.

And stories of other people in four nonfiction books, numerous magazine profiles and features, and a 600-word short story that earned her a Pushcart Prize nomination for Fiction.

In 2012, Sandy Hook teacher Kaitlin Roig saved her firstgraders by hiding them in the bathroom. Jennie’s exclusive story, “The Face of Courage,” appeared in The Key, the 150,000 circulation magazine of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, and took top honors among stories in all alumnae magazines in 2012.

As the Sycamore Grows tells a true story about a seventeen-year abusive marriage; a Sleeping with the Enemy in the Tennessee backwoods, as told by Ginger, who escaped, and Mike, who abused and held no remorse. The nonfiction narrative walked away with six literary awards and a book club “Book of the Year” prize between 2010 and 2011.

AS THE SYCAMORE GROWS AWARDS:

“One of the BEST BOOKS OF 2023” --- Kirkus. Named by Kirkus Reviews as one of the top 100 books published by independent or academic presses in 2023. Finalist, Book Excellence, 2024.

Nominated for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year by Southern Independent BooksellersAssociation. AlumnaeAchievementAward 2012

Highest honor given by Kappa Kappa Gamma Presented to Jennie Miller Helderman

In recognition of her work as an author and community leader.

Top honors in Narrative Nonfiction First in Memoir/Biography

First overall categories in 14-state Southeast Region

Awarded by Reader Views from among publications from small, independent and academic presses.2012.

2nd in Narrative Nonfiction 2nd in Women’s Issues

Awarded by International BookAwards from among publications of all publishers in 44 countries.2012.

2nd in Women’s Issues

Awarded by USABest Books 2011

Honoring Carroll Dale Short

Ramey Channell

Carroll Dale Short

Wherever he is, we wait. We listen. We love him here.

Ramey Channell

Sometimes in the course of ordinary everyday life, we come across an individual who is neither ordinary nor everyday. I was in awe of Dale Short from the moment I met him. I was in a creative writing class at the University ofAlabama at Birmingham in 2004 and he was the judge for the prestigious Barksdale MaynardAward for fiction. Dale selected my short story, “Voltus Electricalus and Strata Illuminata” as the winner of the competition, an honor for which I’m still thrilled and very grateful. I’ll never forget my first glimpse of Carroll Dale Short as he sat at the front of the auditorium with professors, instructors, and a few other well knownAlabama authors. He looked like someone who would be a joy to know. And as years passed and I met Dale at various workshops and writers conferences, I learned that my first impression of him was one hundred percent accurate. Friendly, open, supportive, and generous, he truly was immensely talented and always a joy to know.

Carroll Dale Short, beloved Walker County,Alabama author, passed away onAugust 2nd, 2024, at the age of 73.

Dale was a prolific writer whose fiction and non-fiction works have been published in Redbook, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, and many others. Dale’s published books include the novel The Shining, Shining Path, nonfiction I Left My Heart in Shanghi, Alabama: Essays on Home and Place, A Migration of Clowns: Poems and Essays, and short story collection Turbo’s Very Life.

Others who knew and loved Dale, and benefited greatly from his creative influence, have sincere words to share about his friendship, endearing presence, and unique talent.

Donovan Short, Dale’s son, had this to say:

You’d think it’d become old hat being part of his family—but the truth is, I was likely more enthralled by his work than the average reader. I got to watch his process first hand—seeing his knack for listening and observation, and turning the ordinary moments of life into the extraordinary when they hit the page. With age and illness, his ‘voice’subsided in these last several years, and after he passed it’s been a treasure for me to go back through his writing, to ‘hear’him again.Although he was known for his fiction, there’s a good bit of autobiography in disguise mixed in there as well. We talked a bit in his last days about my desire to preserve his work, and his view was pretty simple— “If it was any good, it’ll preserve itself.”

I suspect it will, because it was.

Daniel Gaddy, Managing Editor at Endeavor Business Media, recalls:

What I remember most about Dale is how much he encouraged folks. That’s how I was introduced to him: an email he sent complimenting one of my first columns at the Daily Mountain Eagle, the hometown newspaper for both of us. I thanked him, of course, but I assumed he was just a thoughtful reader.After mentioning it in passing to a few people, I learned that this guy was seriously a big deal. Not only was Dale a published author and writing teacher, he was also a public radio contributor. He even wrote a book on writing!After Dale and I corresponded through email and Facebook a bit more, I asked him to start a podcast with me in 2012, a couple of years before everyone had a podcast. When I say we started a podcast, I mean I would stop by Dale’s house to record it, and he would operate the equipment, edit the audio, and publish it toApple’s podcast platform (I helped with the Facebook page, though!).

The podcast only lasted a few months, but for those few months I got one-on-one time with one of the best writing coaches in the country. He always made me feel like I had every right to be sitting with a local legend, talking about ‘active voice’or ‘the Oxford comma.’ That is the best way that I can honor him. To seek out writers close to me and flood them with praise.

T.K. Thorne,Alabama author, says:

I loved Dale's book The Shining, Shining Path. When I read it, I knew we were kindred spirits. Dale was an excellent journalist, and he was kind enough to give my book, Noah’s Wife, a read and review. Jay McClendon, medical writer, fiction writer, poet, remembers:

I was a creative writing major at theAlabama School of FineArts in Birmingham and went on to study journalism atAuburn and to have subsequent careers in writing. Dale was one of my teachers and mentors atASFAand UAB, and later, my friend. He taught me a lot about writing and photography, but also way more than that. Kindness, compassion, a reverence of the written word, of Place, and to never forget or turn your back on your people or the land you call home. With Dale, you always felt heard and seen; not to be trite, but like he was listening to you and only to you. You had his attention, you know?

I wrote a vignette about catching lightning bugs, I think in 10th grade, and as was his practice, he recorded his critique on cassette (Hey, it was a long time ago!)And every single word of it was positive and constructive.And kind. I don't remember a thing about my little vignette, but I remember to this day, decades later, some of what he said about my writing on that tape. I saved that tape through college and well into the first part of my career, until it got lost in a move.

Whenever I'd come home, decimated and tired -- beat and beaten -- from a rough day at school or in the newsroom, I'd play that tape, and it'd help me get myself back together and remember what I came to do.

Woni Lawrence, writer and longtime friend, says:

It’s so hard for me to describe Dale. He was my friend, just as he was a friend to so many.Always loving, always helpful, he saw the good in everybody. He loved his community, and his community loved him. He never hid his vulnerabilities, speaking out on the struggles he had with depression with no sense of shame or embarrassment. In his poem “For a Friend Coming Home,” he said, in part: “Listen - we love you here.”

Wherever he is, we wait. We listen. We love him here.

Ramey Channell is the author of three novels: Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, and The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge, and children’s picture book, Mice from the Planet Zimlac. Ramey’s poems and stories have been published by Aura Literary Arts Review, ASPS, Birmingham Arts Journal, Ordinary and Sacred as Blood: Alabama Women Speak, Belles Letters 2, Well Read Magazine, and many other collections.

The Shining Shining Path by

Carroll Dale Short

The Shining Shining Path is a triumphant blend of magical realism and spiritual adventure which examines the power of love, forgiveness, and redemption in everyday lives. Its collison of Easter mysticism and Deep South culture ranges effortlessly from humor to profound emotion.

Wayward Girls by Claire Matturro and Penny Koepsel

"Wayward Girls" is a portrait of brave sisterhood, infused with beauty and exquisite pain. Your heart will melt with every turn of the page." Laura Benedict, Edgar-nominated author of The Stranger Inside

"Wayward Girls delivers suspense, emotional depth, social commentary, and a gripping story. Grab a copy, a box of tissues, and the phone number of your oldest friend, because you're going to want to talk about this one after you turn the last page. It's a terrific book." MaryAnna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp Mysteries

When late-night phone calls summon Jude Coleridge and Camille Prescott back to the Talbot Hall School for Girls, painful memories bombard them. Though estranged for years, both bear the physical and emotional scars from their youth.

At the boarding school, they were branded “the crazy girls, the ones who lie” and became unlikely best friends. They soon formed a trio with a new student, WandaAnn, who pulled them into her bewildering relationship with the school psychologist, Dr. Hedstrom. But WandaAnn’s wild stories masked a truth that threatened to engulf them all.

As teens, the girls could only rely on each other as they moved toward an unfathomable, fiery danger. Now, in the crumbling halls of Talbot, hours before the building’s demolition, they must grant forgiveness, to themselves and others, if they are to move forward.

Ghost on Black Mountain

byAnn Hite

Book 1 of 4: Black Mountain

ONCEAPERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER.

Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late. Hobbs wasn’t nothing but trouble. He’d even killed a man. No telling what else. That mountain was haunted, and soon enough, Nellie would feel it too. One way or another, Hobbs would get what was coming to him. The ghosts would see to that. . . .

Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina,Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of theAppalachian landscape.

The Cicada Tree by Robert

Gwaltney

The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence, Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life ofAnaleise 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 lineal trait regarded as that Mayfield Shine.Awhisper 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.

When an eleven year old, whisky drinking, piano prodigy encounters a wealthy family possessing supernatural beauty, her ensuing obsession unleashes family secrets and a cataclysmic plague of cicadas.

Red Clay Suzie by

Jeffrey Dale Lofton

The coming-of-age story of Philbet, a gay, physicallymisshapen boy in rural Georgia, who battles bullying, ignorance, and disdain as he makes his way in life as an outsider--before finding acceptance in unlikely places.

Fueled by tomato sandwiches and green milkshakes, and obsessed with cars, Philbet struggles with life and love as a gay boy in rural Georgia. He's happiest when helping Grandaddy dig potatoes from the vegetable garden that connects their houses. But Philbet's world is shattered and his resilience shaken by events that crush his innocence and sense of security; expose his misshapen chest skillfully hidden behind shirts Mama makes at home; and convince him that he's not fit to be loved by Knox, the older boy he idolizes to distraction. Over time, Philbet finds refuge in unexpected places and inner strength in unexpected ways, leading to a resolution in the form of a letter from beyond the grave.

Arichly textured saga of a gay everyman moving from self-doubt to pride.—Kirkus Reviews

Leo Marble quickens in the womb during a Broadway show, but his life is lived in the Deep South in conservative Mississippi and laid-back New Orleans. He eventually emerges from the closet to become a journalist and advocate for gay rights and visibility.Along the way, he experiences heartache on an international scale, but keeps his indomitable spirit alive with show tune concerts at his spinet, eventually falling in love with a dedicated meteorologist with higher math skills.

The Monosexual tells the story of Vincent Cappellini, an obsessed ultra-monogamist who struggles when his relationship with the love of his life abruptly ends. Twiceburned—once in love and once by the sun—he faces a host of challenges to his self-appointed sense of identity. Sunburn, bad sushi, a Sinatra karaoke contest, and the road rage fury of a woman scorned are but a few of the trials Vincent will endure while facing the ultimate test to his monosexuality—a new woman in his life.

Late one night in the summer of 1897, Morris Massimo Levy, nearly sixteen, of mixed Italian-Catholic and EastEuropean Jewish background, watches as the father of the girl he loves is dropped from the Brooklyn Bridge by the notorious Jewish gang leader (and actual historical figure) Monk Eastman. The event helps propel Morris into a dangerous involvement in the notorious wars between the ethnic gangs of the Lower East Side of New York City and prompts his initiation, despite his idealistic impulses, into the ruthless means one often needed to survive and flourish in early modernAmerica.

MADVILLE PUBLISHING seeks out and encourages literary writers with unique voices. We look for writers who express complex ideas in simple terms. We look for critical thinkers with a twang, a lilt, or a click in their voices.And patois! We love a good patois. We want to hear those regionalisms in our writers’voices. We want to preserve the sound of our histories through our voices complete and honest, dialectal features and all. We want to highlight those features that make our cultures special in ways that do not focus on division, but rather shine an appreciative light on our diversity.

TheyAll Rest in the Boneyard

Now by Raymond LAtkins (Author), Evelyn Mayton (Illustrator)

“Raymond Atkins writes with intuitive wisdom, as he channels those from beyond the grave. His poetry gives voice to those who once mattered, those who time wants us to forget. In They All Rest in the Boneyard Now, Atkins wrestles death from the dusty clay and breathes life into dry bones while reminding us that every soul who once had breath is worthy of being remembered. These saints, sinners, socialites, and the socially inept are all victims of time, or circumstance, as we too shall one day be. Atkins offers salvation to all who are tormented, and solace to those who seek eternal rest.” – Renea Winchester,Awardwinning author of Outbound Train

The Bystanders by Dawn Major

“Without a doubt, Dawn Major is thoroughly schooled in the full-blown existence of jealousy, lust, love, confusion, pettiness, mystery, violence, hope, et al, exhibited by small-town denizens. The Bystanders stands tall in the world of coming-of-age novels” George Singleton, author of You Want More: Selected Stories

“Dawn Major has written a gritty and hard-hitting novel about a couple of teenagers trapped in poverty, violence, and addiction. This colorful novel is set in the small real town of Lawrenceton, Missouri, whose dark side Major exposes in prose that is vivid and sensate. In the end, thankfully, Major shows that even a tragic world offers a way out. Major is a writer to watch.”—Janisse Ray, author of The Woods of Fannin County and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

Requiem for a Mouse (Cat in the Stacks Mystery Book 16)

by Miranda James

Librarian Charlie Harris and his everintuitive feline friend Diesel must catch a killer in a deadly game of cat and mouse where no one is who they seem to be...

At last, Charlie and Helen Louise’s wedding is only a month away. They’re busy preparing for the big day, and the last thing Charlie needs is a new mystery to solve. Enter Tara Martin, a shy, peculiar woman who has recently started working part-time at Helen Louise’s bistro and helping Charlie in the archive. Tara isn’t exactly friendly and she has an angry outburst at the library that leaves Charlie baffled.And then she abruptly leaves a catered housewarming party Charlie’s son Sean is throwing to celebrate his new home in the middle of her work shift. Before ducking out of the party, Tara looked terrified and Charlie wonders if she’s deliberately trying to escape notice. Is she hiding from someone?

When Tara is viciously attacked and lands in the hospital, Charlie knows his instincts were correct: Tara was in trouble and someone was after her. With the help of his much beloved cat, Diesel, Charlie digs deeper, and discovers shocking glimpses into Tara’s past that they could never have predicted. Will they catch the villain before Charlie’s own happily ever after with Helen Louise is ruined?

Loyalty: Washington Square Secrets Book 3 by Carrie Dalby

"A police officer haunted by war, a child haunted by his father's evil, and the young woman haunted by a past she gave up all come together as found family in this paranormal Southern Gothic set in 1920 Mobile, AL. Highly recommend!" --Candice Conner, The Haunted Bookshop, Mobile,AL

In the autumn of 1920, a murder-suicide shakes the residents of Washington Square. Officer JimAbbott doesn't realize the return of his shellshock is only the beginning of his concerns. Jim is assigned to keep tabs on the surviving child, Ernest Hart, who appears to be haunted by the recently departed murderer.

Neighbor Francesca Wilton grows closer to Ernest during her temporary guardianship of him, but his deteriorating emotional state reveals there is more to the seven-year-old than she expected. Then a loss of her own throws her life into further turmoil.

As the haunting looms closer, Francesca involves a friend gifted with telepathic and astral powers, as well as a skilled medium from the neighborhood to rid Ernest from his father's oppression. In their attempt to save Ernest, Jim becomes entangled in the women's unconventional abilities on a level he never expected.

“This

anthology is filled with unique voices, and rich poems that serve as a love letter to the incomparable Dolly Parton. I highly recommend it.”

Five Star Reader Review

The Existence of Bea Pearl

by Candice Marley Conner

Sixteen-year-old Bea Pearl knows her brother isn’t dead. Even if her parents don’t agree. Even if the entire town doesn’t believe her. She knows it’s true. When orders came to evacuate Lake George due to rising floodwaters, Bea Pearl saw Jim head toward the river. She followed him. Only she returned.

When her parents have Jim declared legally dead, Bea Pearl decides it’s up to her to figure out where her brother could be if he is alive, and so begins to unravel the mystery of his disappearance. But it seems like someone else wants to know what he was hiding when his bedroom is ransacked. More clues come together: a scrap of paper, mysterious numbers that may lead to swamp monkeys, Jim’s shoes turning up in unexpected places. Bea Pearl can’t figure out what connects them all until she’s stolen from her bed in the dead of night.

Bea Pearl’s insistence that Jim’s alive and her quest to figure out why he went down to a flooding river in the first place takes a toll on her shattering family. But she must unearth the truth surrounding her presumed dead brother. Otherwise, the rumors are true and she has killed him. Because if Jim can stop existing, could she too?

The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge (The Moonlight Ridge Series Book 3) by Ramey Channell

When winter weather up on the mountain went from unusually cold to undeniably arctic, and a surprising stranger appeared at the door, Lily Claire Nash and her cousin, Willie T. Nock, found themselves knee deep in chilling circumstances beyond anything the two young sleuths had ever imagined. But Lily Claire and Willie T. never turned away from a challenging adventure or a puzzling mystery. So that’s how they ended up searching for treasure on Moonlight Ridge.

“If J. M. Barrie’s Neverland were in Alabama, it would be located right in the middle of Ramey Channell’s Moonlight Ridge. Like Neverland, Moonlight Ridge is populated by magic beings, ne’erdo-well pirates, and children who never grow old. The Ridge may be a place of the mind, but in Channell’s skillful hands it becomes a symbol of that era that once existed in rural America, or the era that we would like to believe existed. For her third installment in this series, The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge, her precocious protagonists, Lily C. Nash and Willie T. Nock, find themselves thinking that the approaching Christmas would be the most exciting time of their lives till they become embroiled in a bizarre kidnapping and a wild treasure hunt while being pursued by a trio of off-beat criminals. A delightful read even for cynical old men like me.” — Mike Burrell, author, The Land of Grace

In 2005, Wendy Magnum of Hattiesburg, Mississippi suffers remorse after having an intimate encounter with Judd McKay, a friend her husband, Ray, trusted with his family during Hurricane Katrina. Tommy Hebert turns to alcohol to handle what he saw in search-and-rescue in Metairie, Louisiana. Mike Seabrook's relationships with his God and his wife, Dinah, are tested after he loses a patient in his emergency room in Slidell, Louisiana. Lori King goes into premature labor as a result of the storm, and her husband, James, discovers that his best friend died trying to protect the Kings' home in Kenner, Louisiana from looters.

On sale now!

Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology offers 54 poets’takes on often-unsung facets of this diamond in a rhinestone world— calling in Dolly’s impeccable comedic timing, her lyric mastery, her business acumen, and her Dollyverse advocacy. These poems remind us to be better and to do better, to subvert Dolly cliché, and they encourage us to weave Dolly metaphor into our own family lore. Within these pages, Dolly takes the stage and the dinner table; readers see the public Dolly of the silver screen and the private Dolly of identity contemplation. Dolly raises praise and question, and she butterflies into our hearts to unabashedly to claim the mantra In Dolly We Trust.

Aquest for institutional survival, two subversive corporate employees, Sid Sidney a technician and Mia Monroe a would-be shadow artist, get caught up in the undertow of office-speak and bastardized metrics tracking printer glitches, insurance profits, lab’s birdseed expenses, and pigeons’ping pong scores. HR makes things worse, tasking Sid and Mia to co-author an employee benefits booklet, Fifty Places to Picnic.

Mia’s bio clock and Sid’s world population clock blip in-the-moment numbers on tablets, a battle of Darwinian proportions. Although humans and pigeons already overpopulate the Institute, Mia wants a baby.

MADVILLE PUBLISHING seeks out and encourages literary writers with unique voices. We look for writers who express complex ideas in simple terms. We look for critical thinkers with a twang, a lilt, or a click in their voices.And patois! We love a good patois. We want to hear those regionalisms in our writers’voices. We want to preserve the sound of our histories through our voices complete and honest, dialectal features and all. We want to highlight those features that make our cultures special in ways that do not focus on division, but rather shine an appreciative light on our diversity.

The Best of the Shortest:ASouthern Writers Reading Reunion by Suzanne Hudson (Author, Editor), Mandy Haynes (Editor), Joe Formichella (Author, Editor)

“Some of the happiest moments of my writing life have been spent in the company of writers whose work is included in these pages. They all brought their A-game to this fabulous collection, and at our house it is going on a shelf next to its honored predecessors. The only thing that saddens me is that the large-hearted William Gay is not around to absorb some of the love that shines through every word.” ―Steve Yarbrough

“The Best of the Shortest takes the reader on a fastpaced adventure from familiar back roads to the jungles of Viet Nam; from muddy southern creek banks

to the other side of the world, touching on themes as beautiful as love and as harsh as racism. However dark or uplifting, you are guaranteed to enjoy the ride.” ―Bob Zellner

“I had some of the best times of my life meeting, drinking and chatting with the writers in this book, times matched only by the hours I spent reading their books. This collection showcases a slice of Southern literature in all its complicated, glorious genius. Anyone who likes good writing will love it.” ―Clay Risen

“This collection is quite positively on fire with humor and heartache, darkness and light, and countless blazing turns of phrase. An essential addition to every Southern reader’s collection. I have known and admired a fair number of writers in these pages for a long time but seeing their work all together like this fills me up with love, love, love.” —Michael Knight, Eveningland, winner of a Truman CapoteAward, a NYTimes editor’s pick, and a Southern Book of the Year (Southern Living Magazine)

In Volume One, you’ll find thirty-eight submissions written by a fantastic mix of award-winning authors and poets plus new ones to the scene. Three submissions in this volume were nominated for a Pushcart Prize: Miller’s Cafe by Mike Hilbig, Sleeping on Paul’s Mattress by Brenda Sutton Rose, andAHard Dog by Will Maguire. The cover art is by artist, Lindsay Carraway, who had several pieces published in February’s issue.

Contributors: Jeffrey Dale Lofton, Phyllis Gobbell,

Brenda Sutton Rose, T. K. Thorne, Claire Hamner Matturro, Penny Koepsel, Mike Hilbig, Jon Sokol, Rita Welty Bourke, Suzanne Kamata,Annie McDonnell, Will Maguire, Joy Ross Davis, Robb Grindstaff, Tom Shachtman, Micah Ward, Mike Turner, James D. Brewer, Eileen Coe, Susan Cornford,Ana Doina, J. B. Hogan, Carrie Welch,Ashley Holloway, Rebecca Klassen, Robin Prince Monroe, Ellen Notbohm, Scott Thomas Outlar, Fiorella Ruas, Jonathan Pett, DeLane Phillips, Larry F. Sommers, Macy Spevacek, and Richard Stimac

In Volume Two, you’ll find forty-three submissions written by a fantastic mix of award-winning authors and poets plus new ones to the scene. Three submissions in this volume were nominated for a Pushcart Prize:A Bleeding Heart byAnn Hite, AFew Hours in the Life of a Five-Year-Old Pool Player by Francine Rodriguez, and There Were Red Flags by Mike Turner. The cover art for Volume Two is by artist, DeWitt Lobrano, who had several pieces published in November’s issue. Enjoy!

Contributors:Ann Hite, Malcolm Glass, Dawn Major, John M. Williams, Mandy Haynes, Francine Rodriguez, Mike Turner, Mickey Dubrow, William Walsh, Robb Grindstaff, Deborah ZenhaAdams, Mark Braught, B.A. Brittingham, Ramey Channell, Eileen Coe, Marion Cohen, Lorraine Cregar, John Grey, J. B. Hogan, Yana Kane, Philip Kobylarz, Diane Lefer, Will Maguire, David Malone, Ashley Tunnell, Tania Nyman, Jacob Parker, LaVern Spencer McCarthy, K. G. Munro,Angela Patera, Micheal Spake, George Pallas, Marisa Keller, Ken Gosse, and Orlando DeVito

“Immediately distinctive writing, with a deadpan, linguistically inventive voice that has a dark view of the world.… it’s brilliant and should be praised as unlike anything that’s gone before.”

—

Roger King, author of Horizontal Hotel, A Girl from Zanaibar, and Love and Fatigue in America

Walking The Wrong Way Home by

Mandy Haynes

Spanning nearly twenty decades, the struggles and victories these characters face are timeless as they all work towards the same goal.

Aplace to feel safe, a place to call home.

Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth: Eva and other stories by Mandy Haynes

Each story features a female protagonist, ranging from ten to ninety-five years of age. Set in the south, you’ll follow these young women and girls as they learn that they’re stronger than they ever thought possible.

Oliver by Mandy Haynes

“Dear God…and Jesus and Mary…”

Even though eleven-year old Olivia is raised Southern Baptist, she likes to cover her bases when asking for a favor. Unlike her brother Oliver, she struggles with keeping her temper in check and staying out of trouble. But Oliver is different, and in the summer of ’72 he proves to Olivia there’s magic in everything - it’s up to us to see it.

Mandy Haynes spent hours on barstools and riding in vans listening to great stories from some of the best songwriters and storytellers in Nashville, Tennessee. After her son graduated college, she traded a stressful life as a pediatric cardiac sonographer for a happy one and now spends her time writing and enjoying life as much as she can. She is a contributing writer for Amelia Islander Magazine, Amelia Weddings, author of two short story collections, Walking the Wrong Way Home, Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth Eva and Other Stories, and a novella, Oliver. She is a co-editor of the Southern Writers Reading reunion anthology, The Best of the Shortest. Mandy is also the editor-in-chief of WELL READ Magazine, an online literary journal created to give authors affordable advertising options that supports and promotes authors of all genres and writing backgrounds. Like the characters in some of her stories, she never misses a chance to jump in a creek to catch crawdads, stand up for the underdog, or the opportunity to make someone laugh.

When you purchase an “ad” for $25, you get a full page slot in WELL READ’s What Are You Reading? section with a live link to your website and a live purchase link of your choice.

Readers asked for full page, easy to read, “book recommendations” in place of traditional looking advertisements and I was happy to oblige.

As a bonus, there are personalized individual graphics made of your book image and author photo (if you choose to purchase a two page spread or more) with your book description and/or blurbs, bio, etc., shared to eight additional FB bookish accounts and to WELL READ Magazine’s Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook sites –(that’s 39K potential views of your book when you combine all the sites).

WELL READ is distributed through ISSUU (the world’s largest digital publishing and discovery platform available). WELL READ Magazine receives an average of 8,000 views each month from readers all over the world.

Past issues are available and easily discovered on Issuu’s site. *All PAST issues, including the article and visual stories, remain active and are linked to the current issue. You can continue to share them for as long as you like.

There is strength in numbers. Your “ad” will be included with the featured authors, great interviews, submissions, and the other fantastic books readers look for to add to their reading lists.

INSIDE VOICES

“I strongly believe in paying-it-forward, and in helping others when I can.”

Robert Gwaltney and Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce author, Federico Erebia

Federico Erebia received the 2024 Lambda Literary Exceptional New Writer Award. His debut novel, Pedro & Daniel, followstwogay,neurodivergent,MexicanAmerican brothers, over a twenty-four year span, who experience joy and laughter, despite years of abuse and oppression.

Pedro & Daniel has won numerous awards, starred reviews, and other accolades, including Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and Bank Street. It was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award and is long listed for the Massachusetts Book Award.

Federico is on the SCBWI Impact & Legacy Fund’s steering committee, the board of ReadYourWorld, Inc., and is a state leader for Authors Against Book Bans. He is a member of various other writing groups.

Federico is also a retired physician, woodworker, poet, and illustrator. He enjoys the intersections of his gay, neurodivergent, and Mexican American identities. He and his husband live near Boston, Massachusetts.

Jeffrey/Inside Voices: What do you think your brother would think of the story you created?

And, will you tell us a little about him, what was he like?

Like I mention in the book, I think Daniel would have enjoyed the first draft, then gone nuclear with his red pen edits. But I think he would love the final product. I believe

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

I brought Daniel back to life within the pages of the book. I also believe he would learn a lot about me, stuff that I couldn’t share when we were kids. He was witty, charming, sarcastic, loyal, and empathetic. He was also too trusting of others, which caused him strife after he left home.

Robert/Inside Voices: You are pretty direct about your thoughts on how our nation and politicians handled the AIDS crisis. Could you give us some detail about that?

The first cases of HIV were reported in June 1981. Ronald Reagan had become president 5 months before, so the first 8 years of the HIV pandemic were under the 8 years of Reagan as our president. His dismal record with regards to HIV speaks for itself, but here are some notable details: He first said the word AIDS in September 1985 when he was asked a question by a reporter at a press conference; he had been silent for over four years, and his words were not helpful for people living with HIV, or for the advancement of medical care.

In October 1986, the Surgeon General released a controversial report that was panned by Reagan and conservatives because it suggested safer sex education, not an abstinence-only approach. There is a lot of evidence that supports the claim that Reagan, his administration, and the virulent christian movement of the time could have done much more to reduce cases and advance medical research

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

and care. Reagan gave his first speech about AIDS in May 1987, but he did not mention the words “gay” or “homosexual.” In June 1988, the Watkins report described a “lack of leadership” [implying the Reagan administration] as a major obstacle in advancing prevention, treatment, and cure. It offered many suggestions which were largely ignored.

For at least the first 30 years of the AIDS pandemic, the Popes and the Catholic church were against the use of condoms at all. They are against birth control, and still consider being gay a sin.

Other christian churches weren’t much better. Cultural villains who used conservative christian doctrine against gay people, like Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, Phyllis Schafly, Gary Bauer, and Pat Buchanan blocked many efforts to address the needs of people with and at risk of acquiring HIV.

Jeffrey/Inside Voices: Your book takes an unflinching look at social isolation and physical abuse. How did you manage to write about such painful topics with such tenderness and grace?

I’m an avid reader. I know how I like to experience bad situations in a book. Ultimately, I use these four tools for writing difficult situations: I use nuance periodically; sometimes the boy being abused dissociates from the

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

encounter; I use poetic verse, which can be so powerful because of how language, grammar, and punctuation are used; I sandwich bad situations between lighthearted or funny scenarios.

Robert/Inside Voices: You write from different points of view in Pedro & Daniel. Talk to us more about that decision.

Part 1 is told in slightly varying third person narration. I tell the reader to imagine that the narrator is the family doctor, or the neighbors, police, and priests who were aware of the severe domestic violence, but chose not to intervene on the boys’ behalf. These chapters allow the narrator to explain the boys’ circumstances in language and grammar that the boys would not have at five and six years of age. Part 1 is the foundation on which the rest of the story can be told.

Parts 2-5 are in first person narration, alternating between the brothers. In each successive chapter, the boys are a year older, so the reader experiences the physical, emotional, and psychological growth of each young boy until they are young men. In these chapters, the reader gets to know the boys well, often experiencing their private thoughts, fears, and joys.

Jeffrey/Inside Voices: You write in both English and Spanish. How do you weave those two worldstogether in

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

your book so seamlessly?

I varied my use Spanish: Sometimes I offered a complete translation right after the use of Spanish; sometimes I explained the Spanish by referencing a response to it, without translating it; sometimes I offered no translation, but the word’s meaning can be understood in context; sometimes I used Spanish, and offered no translation, suggestion, or clue, for a particular effect, but folks could Google it if they wanted. Each of these examples is a writing tool for incorporating other languages into a story.

Robert/Inside Voices: You use many proverbs in your dialogue. Why did you do that?

I’ve always loved proverbs and fables which can pack a punch in a few words or a few paragraphs. When I started combining a collection of short story [picture book] manuscripts, I started adding dichos as a way to unite the stories.There are over 200 dichos in the book.Those dichos have the cumulative effect of being an uncredited “adult” character that guides Pedro and Daniel throughout their lives. I love the effect these dichos have on the entire book.

Jeffrey/Inside Voices: You are an active and supportive member of the literary community who highlights other

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

authors and creates opportunities to showcase their works as well as yourown.

Tell us about some of your adventures.

I do a lot of volunteer work. I was on the DEI team of our regional SCBWI chapter. I am on the steering committee of the SCBWI Impact & Legacy Fund where I created the School Librarians’ Mini Library grants, which provides books by and/or about marginalized individuals to schools. I am on the board of Read Your World, Inc. where I created the 2025 Classroom kit poster, and The Pedro and Daniel Intersectional Book Awards. I am a state leader of Authors Against Book Bans. I strongly believe in paying-it-forward, and in helping others when I can.

Robert/Inside Voices: Your first career was not as a writer. Will you tell us how you ended up producing your debut novel?

I retired from medicine ten years ago. I had started a slow transition into woodworking. When the pandemic hit, I switched careers again, and started writing. In 2021, I was able to submit a picture book manuscript to my editor, without an agent, through a conference opportunity.

Eventually, I combined a collection of PB manuscripts, and wrote a novel. Within two years, Pedro & Daniel was

Robert Gwaltney & Jeffrey Dale Lofton introduce Federico Erebia

published. It’s an unusual and very fast-paced publishing story.

Jeffrey/Inside Voices: What’s next for you?

I have started the process of querying agents. I’ve got several PB manuscripts and an unusual and provocative poetry collection. I’ve started both a GN andYAseries with a dual timeline: present day Mexico and present day Mesoamerica [as if Europeans never stumbled upon Mexico]. I will be in two different anthologies coming soon.

"Luminous.

Riveting. Uplifting and heartwrenching."Publishers Weekly

Pedro & Daniel Federico Erebia

Those Healing Waters

Those Healing Waters

One thing that is pretty much the same from one holler to the next in Appalachia is our belief in God. I’m not talking about religion and the judging of others hidden behind a human’s interpretation of some man-made rules. I’m referring to the belief that something much bigger is out there. When I was a child, church in Appalachia was much bigger than an hour in a hot, crowded sanctuary—funeral fans stirring muggy air—each Sunday morning. Church was community. It was knowing everything about our neighbors, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, it was no wonder that church made an appearance in my work, both the pros and cons. Because quite honestly, my characters battled many of the issues I have wrestled with when it comes to religion.

This weekend I visited the abandoned church that made its debut in my first novel, “Ghost On Black Mountain,” and continued through the novels that came after. The place where I found the soul of my work. Walking the grounds, I realized how much of my granny’s raising me had flooded my fiction. That I had used real places to tell the intricate stories of complex characters of Black Mountain, and I still do. On this site, which dates back to 1835 as a church, many

services and ice cream socials were held. Just across the street, many baptisms took place. Old black and white photos still exist of the congregation standing in and out of the water as the preacher does his praying and dunking.

Yet, there is something sad and haunting about an empty church. This one sits on land that now belongs to the Smokey Mountain National Park. Many interesting things happened to me when visiting the church on numerous occasions. Once I saw a shadow cross the path in front of me, coming from knee high grass that was not pushed down, so I knew that it wasn’t an animal.Apure mystery. I know the hairs on my arms stood up.Asure sign of a haint. On one trip, my husband was taking photos inside the church and heard his name called. I was in front looking at the spring water. He stuck his head out the door and asked me what I wanted. It took quite a bit to convince him I didn’t call his name out.

The story that stays with me and helped me to write the church into my novels happened one overcast day. I was alone and walking up the path that leads to the church when I saw a man filling jugs at the spring.This water is probably some of the purest water you will ever drink. It shoots from a moss-covered pipe that comes out of an embankment at the foot of the church’s path.

“I love this water.” The man said as I approached. “I come from two states over to get some at least twice a year. My granny lived around here and swore it had healing properties sent straight from God.”

“Does it help you?” I asked.

“I drink it with breakfast every morning while it lasts and look at me. I don’t look seventy-five. My wife swears it helps her joints. They give her fits these days.”

“I’m thinking about using this church in my novel. Maybe I’ll use the spring too.”

“Well let me tell you a story that you might want to use.” He told me about a man murdered in the doorway of the church vestibule on a cold February night by two men after his money.That story has not made it into my books yet, but I couldn’t help thinking about the shadow and my husband hearing his name called. That’s the stuff of haints.

The church ended up in my book, along with the spring that I gave healing power to. I won’t tell you what happens. You have to read the book. In my second novel, “The Storycatcher”, a bad preacher comes to the church.Again I battled over evil cloaked to look like good, taking advantage of trusting souls. A theme I have a habit of visiting every now and then.

But on a visit this past weekend, I stood still in front of the church. Sun sprinkled through the canopy of trees. A soft wind rustled the leaves and grass. I closed my eyes and somewhere I heard one of those old church hymns being sung without any instrument, just the pure voices of Appalachian folk singing their praises, “I’ll Fly Away.” A time so long ago. A gathering of plain folks, not perfect, only hardworking and believing.

And, my friends, if that ain’t mountain magic, I don’t believe such a thing exists.

THE WRITER’S EYE

Watching The Classics

From A Different Point View

Recipe for a classic movie musical:

1 sophisticated dancer without much sex appeal

1 beautiful woman dancer who has plenty of sex appeal

4 character actors who provide plenty of humor for the film

The seasoning: FredAstaire is the sophisticated dancer, Ginger Rogers is the beautiful love interest, Edward Everett Horton,Alice Brady, Eric Blore, and Erik Rhodes are the talented character actors who move the story along smartly

The Gay Divorcee is based on a Broadway musical, Gay Divorce. Many Cole Porter songs from the play were left out of the film, with “Night and Day” the notable exception

Astaire portrays Guy Holden, a famousAmerican dancer, and Edward Everett Horton plays scatterbrained English lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald, his friend. Upon arriving by ship in England, Guy encounters Mimi Glossop, whose dress has been caught in a trunk. Endeavoring to help her, he instead rips her dress and infuriates her. He is immediately infatuated with him, but she can’t stand him.

Later they encounter one another again, and Guy proposes marriage. Mimi refuses, but she is slowly warming to him.

Later they both end up in the same seaside hotel. Mimi is there to facilitate a divorce from her long-absent husband, guided by her bossy aunt (Alice Brady) and her lawyer, Egbert (who was once married to the aunt).Aprofessional gigolo is to be caught in flagrante delicto with Mimi in order to give her geologist husband grounds for divorce. The password that Egbert gives the gigolo is a phrase he picked up for guy. Later, when Guy is romancing Mimi, he uses the phrase, leading Mimi to believe he is the gigolo. Devastated, she wants nothing more to do with him. In the end, of course, true love does win through.

Musical numbers and dancing add sparkle to the film, including a sixteen-minute number called “The Continental” that features superb dancing by Rogers and Astaire. The song, incidentally, one the first-ever Oscar for Best Original Song and became a huge hit. Despite his lack of traditional movie-star good looks (he’s no Cary Grant or Rock Hudson),Astaire is a likable presence on film, and Rogers has plenty of sex appeal and sass to sell her character. Katharine Hepburn is supposed to have quipped that “He gave her class, and she gave him sex appeal.” However you take this, you can’t deny that Rogers andAstaire were one of the greatest duos ever to grace the screen.

What can a writer learn from this film?

The first thing is using characterization to sell a plot. By creating strong and memorable secondary characters who support the hero and heroine, the writers made a frothy

broth of a romantic comedy with screwball overtones that makes the plot go down easy. It might not be totally believable, but who cares? The second point is that the musical numbers do enhance the story and set the mood for the action in each “act” of the play. This is something more modern film musicals could learn to their advantage (something sadly lacking in the dreadful “La La Land.”) Finally, you can learn that sophistication can sell. No need for tawdry innuendo or shots of naked or semi-naked bodies to sell a story.

First Walks

J.L. Oakley

Hazy blue sky, treeless hills sleeping like beached tan seals with their eyes closed. The wind tickles the patches of bunch grass at my feet so they tremble just at their seeded heads. There is almost total silence except for the distant sound of farm machinery somewhere deep in the Methow Valley below and a crow calling from far off. I’m here for a nature-writing course in Eastern Washington and I’m working on my assignment, but I am distracted, lost in memory and nature.

Acouple walks by on the dusty trail below. How many times did I do that? One thousand? Ten Thousand? How many times in thirty-one years?

I walked with you first on a trail up in the Ko’olau’s in Hawaii, a jungle tangle on the way to Manoa Falls. It smelled of plumeria and overripe lilikoi, yellow and as smooth as chili peppers. The trail was muddy from its daily wash of rain, catching boot and sandals from a score of others. The caretaker hut as we passed was like a

woodcutter’s cabin from a Grimm’s fairy tale. It was made of recycled windows and old floorboards. Honey jars and bean sprouts sat in the window.

I didn’t know you well then, but I learned to love your back as it went ahead, strong and powerful and your shaggy golden hair rebelling from your tour of duty in a deep jungle far away in Vietnam. Your feet were eager on the trail.

This place where I sit is like the mountains and hills behind Kailua-Kona several months ahead where we scrambled through a’a and pahoehoe. The lava rocks cut at our boots and we slipped on the straw brown grasses I cannot name. We found `ohelo berries sacred to the Goddess Pele and learned the local joke of “Oh, Hell,” berries. We stuffed them in our pockets and ate them one by one as we sought out Nene and heiau and the goatherd hut where we spent the night at twenty degrees above zero.

I knew I loved you then. You were golden, my serendipity.

I met you by chance. I was living in Honolulu and going to art school at the University of Hawaii. Just off campus there was a bungalow run by a local woman who rented only to girls. There was a strict policy: No gentleman callers. But you called. A friend of one of the girls in the house introduced you to us by letter, and after much discussion, we decided that you and your friend could stay

until you found something suitable to rent. We didn’t dare tell Mrs. Ho.

The day you arrived, you kept calling from the airport, but no one wanted to go pick you up. That was your problem. When I came home from my class, the phone was ringing off the hook.

“Oh, those guys,” someone groaned from the hall.

“I’ll get it.” I picked up the phone.

“Hello, beautiful,” the voice said on the other end. It was you. Providence was calling. It was as close to love at first sound as you could get. I felt I’d known you all my life.

We rose at dawn for our hike on the Big Island. My roommate drove us down to the Honolulu airport where twenty people hung outside the airport lounge dressed in various degrees of hiker funk and Aloha wear. A chilly morning breeze stirred in the coconut trees silhouetted against a mango pink sky like loopy black swizzle sticks. Nervous about flying, I struck up a conversation with some of our unknown companions.

One of them was Bob, a malihini from Boston who had come out as a sailor during World War II and never left. He was married to a local woman and spoke pidgin as his second language with a Yankee accent. He worked in some sort of industry and he loved to hike. Another one was a young, skinny man with tousled dark hair and a Houston

accent that stretched Hawaiian words out in a soft drawl. He had been in the islands only one month. But he was game. By the time we boarded the plane they were making plans with us.

After a lurching ride up into the mountains behind KonaKailua, we unloaded inside the gate to a private cattle ranch covered with bleached grass, trees, brush and panini, a type of cactus. The air was chilly and fog loitered in some of the groves and rocks.

Our little foursome stayed together and walking two by two we trudged along with the whole group for a couple of hours. The morning sun beat back the mist exposing a ragged land full of lichen-covered boulders and `ohelo bushes as high as our calves. Far off, white-headed Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea rose against a bright blue sky. Houston and I laughed as Bob told stories of World Two and life in the islands then. You talked about the cool, deep forests of the Pacific Northwest and where you liked to fish.

At one point you went ahead of me with your tee shirt tied around your head and climbed up a hill of grass and rock. Your chest and shoulders were brown and hard. You’re Sinbad, I thought. I love you.

Once we came upon an expansive area where fifty-foot cinder cones dotted our way like black upside down teacups. The land around them rolled and dipped. It was filled with keawe trees and sunken holes where giant lava

bubbles burst a long time ago. From deep in one of the holes two Nene flew out. Mated for life, they looked like miniature Canadian geese with their black caps and buffcolored cheeks. They were as rare as blue moons. Their calls echoed in the late morning air as they flew across our path to a spot further away. We stopped to watch them and drank water from a goatskin bag.

Could I be like that? I thought. Could I love forever?

At about four-thirty in the afternoon, when the sun was slanting in the western sky, we stopped at the remains of ancient heiau. All that was left of the temple was its stone platform. Once there had been carved wooden statues, perhaps to the god of war.

Some of the hikers walked around it. Others gathered around a map. The group was breaking up for the night. Bob decided to take us to a goatherd hut he heard about. It was going to get cold at night.

What is it about love and nature? Why, many years hence, when I smell some pungent dirt, see a trembling frond of a fern along a shady hiking path or feel the breeze of wide open sky and hills, why can I so clearly remember this single day in my life and think of you? Is love bound to nature or does nature just frame the setting of love?

Using only the map and some notes about the surrounding area, we found the goatherd hut forty minutes later. Set on a long grassy ridge, it was formed of old

boards, a rusty tin roof and stood on stilts at its back. It was locked, but you found a way in through a Chinese puzzle key to the window. There were bunks inside, multi-paned windows at the back and a butane stove.

The hut was narrow, but had all the comforts of home. Bob got the stove going. You fried steaks and potatoes we had carried in plastic bags from Honolulu. When the food was cooked, we sat around the small table at the back and ate. Outside the trees turned black against the twilight sky. The steam on the window began to freeze.

Before we crawled into our sleeping bags, you stepped outside with me. There in the mountains on the Big Island of Hawaii in the South Pacific the night was as cold as a New England winter, the sky black, and its massive field of proud stars unyielding. We moved close together and you warmed me with a kiss. Then holding hands we watched a shooting star cross the sky. I never felt so close to love or nature. It was the first night of our first long hike together.

The sun is hot where I sit. It is turning westward and towards winter, but it still makes sharp shadows on my jeans and on the grass.

Too soon, you have passed on before me. My walks with you are over.

I listen for birds.You taught me about pheasant, chukker, and turkey and how they hide. You taught me about early mornings and shooting stars at the breath of dawn. You taught me to listen, to wait and to see. Without you I never would have seen.

High above a jet plane tails across the sky, leaving a ghostly white line.

Acrow calls.

I am missing you.

Award-winning author, J.L. Oakley, writes historical fiction that spans the mid-19 th century to WW II with characters standing up for something in their own time and place. She also writes the occasional personal essay. Dry Wall in the Time of Grief won the 2016 grand prize at Surrey Writers.Recent awards have been the 2020 Hemingway Grand Prize award for 20th century war time fiction and an Honorable Mention Writer Digest Self-pubbed Ebooks for The Quisling Factor.

Aunt Mattie Goes to the Dentist Celia Miles

“I’d rather be a knot on a hickory log than to have to go to the dentist,”Aunt Mattie said. She adjusted her black hat and made a face at her image in the mirror. Her left jaw was so swollen that she couldn’t really pull much of a frown, and when she let her guard down, I could see the pain in her eyes.

“Can’t I go with you?” I’d never been inside a dentist’s office, The kids at school called it the torture chamber.

“No.Addie and her brother’s coming by to get me. She’s getting a permanent wave while I’m at the dentist’s.”

I thought I’d like to see a permanent wave being given plus see the teeth-puller’s torture room. Aunt Mattie thought I shouldn’t waste my time.

“You’ve got schoolwork to do, young lady.And the other chores you’ve been laying off to get done.”

It was true I had been so busy reading Lorna Doone lately that I’d neglected a few things around the house. Aunt Mattie didn’t expect me to do a whole lot, but I’d promised

to split kindling and to re-stack the fallen-down woodpile.

“I’ll have supper ready,” I promised. Aunt Mattie couldn’t smile without hurting, but I saw the little gleam in her eyes. Cooking was not something that came naturally to me.

“Just some soup beans, June. I won’t be able to chew anything anyway.”

It was dark when Addie and her brother brought Aunt Mattie home. Luckily I had fixed a big pot of beans and the cornbread was in the warming oven. When all three came in the front door, I knew we’d have company for supper.

Brad Schuler put his hat on the peg and settled himself in front of the fireplace. The women looked exhausted. They came in the kitchen, and Aunt Mattie said, “Run get some kraut, June, and I’ll fry us some potatoes.”

“Are you all right?” The swelling had gone down some in Aunt Mattie’s jaw, but her lips were drawn to the left. I had some trouble understanding her instructions.

“Yes. Minus not one but two teeth.” She was already picking potatoes out of the bin and fumbling for a paring knife.

“Sit down, Aunt Mattie,” I said. “You look done in. I’ll get the potatoes started in just a minute. Everything else is ready.”

It surprised me that my aunt left off what she was doing and joined Addie at the kitchen table. As I hurried past her

in the semi-darkness, I sawAddie’s hair.

“What in the world happ—?” I didn’t finished, knowing what I was about to say was uncomplimentary.Addie’sgray hair was frizzled up in little tight kinks that made her head look like nothing I’d ever seen.

In record time, we were seated at the table and I poured buttermilk for all of us. I was proud of my first “cooking for company” supper, even if it was just ordinary fare, no chicken or ham. Brad Schuler set right in to eating. He looked up only once to say, “Good potatoes, June. You’ll make some man a good cook one of these days.”

After that one comment, like he’d uncorked a bottle, both women started talking.

“Lord, Mattie, don’t talk to me about the tooth-puller!”

Addie crumbled bread into her beans. “If you want your head fried, and your brains just about jolted out of your head, go to Thelma’s. If I’d a-knowed what I was in for—”

“Well, I’d risk that any day, compared to that dentist chair.” Aunt Mattie’s voice quivered just a little. I couldn’t believe it. I’d seen her deal with burns and cuts and stonebruises and bad headaches without more than a word or two of complaint.

“What happened?” I asked.

Aunt Mattie got a head start.

“He set me down in this cold as cream chair, I was surrounded by these little instruments, picks and tweezers,

and before I knew—”

“Thelma’s got this contraption with wires coming down in all directions—"Addie chimed in.

“‘This ain’t going to hurt much, Miz Geer’ is what he said. ‘But I’ve got to look in there. Open up.’”

“And Thelma took these chemicals out of this bottle and that bottle, smelling to high heaven—”

“I’d put my glasses on this little tray beside the chair, so I couldn’t see right clearly, but I saw that big needle in his hand. ‘Lord, Doc,’I said, ‘is that meant for me?’I could see that needle sharp enough and that dentist’s teeth. Now he’s got the prettiest teeth I’ve ever seen on a man. True pearly whites. I started to tell him just give me a pill or two—”

“Thelma’s got a washing chair, and she had my neck bent backwards and my head in that wash basin before I could say more’n that I wanted a permanent wave, fine as she give Miz Duffey last month. Long as I can remember this was the first time anybody’s fingers have been scrubbing my head besides mine. The shampoo just foamed up. She’s got a way with washing hair, I’ll tell you. My head won’t recover till a month of Sundays.”

“‘Bad luck, Miz Geer. There are two molars that will have to come out, truth be told, I ought to delay on one of them, a little abscess there. You do want them out, don’t you?This will sting a little.’How was I supposed to answer, me with my head in these little padded cushions and a big

white cloth clipped to me. He kept on a-talking, mumbling this and that and waving that needle around. I had both eyes wide open, but I couldn’t say a thing. Now, that needle part was the scariest part. When it scrunched right on into my gums, I thought I’d die.”

“And the minute Thelma pushed me back straight up after a-rinsing and a-rinsing, she started in with them wires, just a-twisting this way and that. Then she started attaching me to that machine, clamping me tight as a drum. Lordy, all I could think about was that electric chair in Raleigh.”

“Funny thing, after I thought I’d die, I kind of lost track of what was going on. Then all of a sudden, I thought my face was gonna come apart from my head! I could hear this scrunching and wrenching and pulling and tearing, and I had to hold on to the chair or I believe he’d have pulled us both right out of that chair and through the wall and down Main Street, it was that bad. There was a sucking sound—”

“My hair was all twisted up and Thelma was a-humming to herself, halfway talking, things like ‘your hair’s right coarse, it’ll take a wave just fine, am I hurting you,’and all the time my eyeballs are being pulled back to China. They’ll never be the same—’’

I kept looking back and forth from one to the other.

“This sucking sound, and he said ‘Ah, that’s the worst one. Might as well go ahead while you’re here. You feel anything?’ What could I say, blood gushing out as it was

and me with my head over that little sink. I was spitting like crazy and feeling this big hole in my mouth, and—”

“Well, she turned on the power and I swear I heard my head a-sizzlin. I smelled something burning too and I said—”

“You know I couldn’t say a word, my lips wouldn’t work right. Now that’s a funny feeling.You got something to say, though I don’t know if it would have been ‘stop’or ‘get the other one,’and not a word come out. In a flash he was back in my mouth. I held on to the chair while he pulled and twisted. I was sweating by then. What a blessed relief when he held up the tooth, and I started spitting blood again. Now I hope that’s the last time I ever darken the door of that or any other dentist.”

I shivered and put my hand onAunt Mattie’s arm.

“‘Thelma,’ I hollered, ‘you’re a-burning my head up!’ I was getting pig-sick of that smell and all them potions she used aforehand. If I’d been out of doors I’d have puked right there.”

Addie covered her mouth with her hand. She realized she’d said a word that wasn’t for the supper table.

“I mean it, Mattie. Still Thelma just come over and untwisted one of the curls and said I’d need a few more minutes.”

“That smell’s enough to turn a man’s stomach,” her brother said. “Good thing your man’s working in Yancey

County.”

“You shut your mouth, Brad Schuler. Don’t talk like that in front of June.”

“Do you hurt now,Aunt Mattie?”

“I’m feeling better, just got what feels like two of them— what did you tell me about last week, June? Two big craters in my jaw. But never again will I darken his door.”

“And that Thelma charged me extra for some fine spray she used. That’s likely what you’re talking about, brother. You don’t know a fancy smell when you smell one.”

Aunt Mattie must have gotten her lips under control. She smiled and said, “Of the two of us, Addie, it’s a toss-up as to who got the worst deal. But my ordeal don’t show!”

Celia Miles is a retired community college instructor, a native Appalachian, the author of eleven novels. She lives and writes in Asheville, NC.

Hibiscus

Kris Faatz

The boy at the garden shop could be the son Jeannie doesn’t have. His lean build and serious eyes hint at her own reflection. Most of all, his smile shields him like sepals around a furled bloom. Jeannie’s job has never demanded much except the wits to count out customers’ change, but she knows how it feels to furl her own colors and hide them in the dark: so he matters to her.

He’s not really a boy—he’s a manager, technically her boss—and the two of them aren’t friends. Workdays on the crowded sales floor, they trade a scatter of words. How’s it going? Can’t complain. His job seems like a suit of armor, its overlapped plates dragging at his young shoulders. Now and then, a chink between them lets through a flare of vibrance, there and gone.

She sends the words she can’t say through the air. Are you okay? Is this life right for you?Absurd to think he’d tell her, or show her what he shows no one. She’s a stranger. Each day, though, she does something rare for her: she

holds up and waves a corner of her own colors, not caring who else might see.

One afternoon, he passes her station behind a straggle of customers. Rushed as always, needed somewhere.

“Jeannie.” He holds something out on his palm. “This is for you.”

She takes it, aware that it’s soft against her fingertips, but her eyes are on his face. His smile, this time, is a visor lifted. One glimpse at the light behind; then he’s gone.

The gift in her hand is a single hibiscus bloom, flameorange petals with a wine-red heart. The colors reach out for her.

Thank you. She sends the words to him on the air. I see you.

Kris Faatz's short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Atticus Review and Rappahannock Review, and was longlisted for Wigleaf’s 2024 Top 50 stories. Her second novel, Fourteen Stones, was released in June 2024 by Highlander Press. Her third novel, Line Magic, was shortlisted for the Santa Fe Writers Project’s 2023 awards. Kris teaches creative writing and is a performing pianist.

Plowing

Ed Nichols

Time stood still sometimes when Sam worked his mule. Sometimes they would stop plowing and stand in the field. One day when they were stopped, Amy, Sam’s wife walked to the edge of the field and hollered, “How come y’all stopped plowing?” “Oh, we do that to rest now and then,” he said. “Well, I come to tell you that the elected official’s wife over on Sardis Road has gone missing again,” she said. “Well they say she’s done that before,” he said. “I know,” she said. “This afternoon is scorching,” he said. He could smell the tobacco leaves and he wanted a chew, but his arms were wet with sweat and plumb limp. He wanted to fly away. But it was too hot, and the sun was too bright. He said, “I may go blind soon.” She said, “Quit talking like a silly mouse and go back to plowing.” “Okay. You sure are

hard on me. Git up Maude,” he said. “I’m going back to the house,” she said. “You look out for that elected official's wife if she were to come traipsing through here.” Sam nodded and held the reins tight as Mauda plowed hard. After an hour or so he felt dizzy.At the end of a row, he stopped Maude and walked over to the big oak tree where he kept his jug of water. He sat down in the shade, drank water and relaxed his arms. A woman’s voice from the woods said, “Can I have a drink of water?” “Sure,” he said. When she stepped in front of him he recognized she was the elected official’s wife. He handed her his little gourd dipper full of water. “Thank you so much,” she said. She drank all the water in the dipper and he refilled it for her. “I think I’ll sit a minute if you don’t mind,” she said. “That’s okay by me,” he said. “Thank you,” she said. “Where you headed?” he said. “I’m not sure now but I’ve got an idea. A place where everyone is treated nicely. Aplace where each day is like a day in paradise.” She finally arose, and said, “Thank you for the water, I am leaving now.” Sam watched the elected official’s wife walk into the woods. He unhooked the plow from Maude, picked up his water jug, and led Maude into the woods.

Ed Nichols lives in Clarkesville, Georgia. He is a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. He has had many short stories and prose poems published in magazines. Below is a list of his published books. I Wish I Could Laugh – A chapbook of prose poems, Perfect Land – A collection of prose poems, The Boy In The Book – Flash fiction and prose poems, We’ll Talk Some More – A collection of short stories, The Professor And Confederate Gold – Novel

What Need For Pity?

Linda Imbler

There’s no remnant of life where we linger, we who feel bitter cold and enjoy it.

We started as an anxious crew, the meek buried with the arrogant, doubtful in the grave, superstitious about bones. But over time, our troubles decayed along with us. There’s things here familiar to us all,

and we share an indifference about death, inside the sepulchers, below the monuments.

We dread those who strive to console all who have died, attempting bizarre ceremonies to send us back. Here, there are no wretched prisoners afflicted with melancholy. We meet new friends with joy, so, what need for pity?

Linda Imbler is the author of nine paperback poetry collections and four e-book collections (Soma Publishing.) This writer lives in Wichita, Kansas with her husband, Mike the Luthier, several quite intelligent saltwater fish, and an ever-growing family of gorgeous guitars. Learn more at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com.

I Know This Train

Annie McDonnell

My nerves were like a series of railways, Once upon a time they all communicated with my brain as if it was led by the smartest of conductors. like you find at Grand Central Station.

My body, my brain, my movements were once this glorious series of veins with free-flowing blood nourishing my body. and nerve pathways making it all happen.

I remember that feeling. walking into Grand Central Station. That’s the very moment I’d wake up when I worked in New York City.

Everything felt electric, Pulsating with the sensation of my blood flow.

IKNOWTHISTRAINbyAnnieMcDonnell

Electronic misfirings all trying to make sense.

I felt like I was in a movie, Each step to a playlist of my life’s songs. Which made my body feel so alive.

Like I was waiting for a flash mob to start singing and dancing at any given moment.

I was always waiting for something to happen here at Grand Central Station. Excitement was waiting around each corner.

When we would go down to the train tracks each train would be running on time. If a train was off even by a minute Everybody gets lost. dazed. confused.

Just like my brain, confusing my body. zero messages making sense.

My brain feels like it’s turning gray. Just like this train.

Slowly shutting down. It has lost communication with my organs.

My body was once so alive, Now everything’s neurogenic.

My brain, like the train, No longer the conductor. It is just sitting there alone.

Dying and there’s nothing anyone can do.

Like the train, my brain feels put out in the graveyard.

Did you know that exists?

If you’re on the Long Island Railroad, You see it every day On your way into the city. That train graveyard.

IKNOWTHISTRAINbyAnnieMcDonnell

It’s so very sad

Oh, the stories we could both tell.

The train, people were there every day, Sometimes there were parties, before people got to New York City. They celebrated weddings, divorces, birthdays!!

Exactly how my body felt!

I was a constant party. I was always traveling. and enjoying each moment!

The best train trips were going in twice to watch the ball drop-in Times Square on New Years Eve, or to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Those trains brought good things to life.

My brain used to do the same thing.

When it becomes useless or begins to slow down, You could throw all the medicine at it. You can eat all the right foods, do all the right exercises,

But just like this old train It gets put out to pasture. It gets lonely. It’s hard to feel happy. The skies always feel gray and definitely stormy.

Feeling like I always need to run for cover. Only I don’t ever have an umbrella.

My body used to feel so alive.

I’ll never forget that feeling at Grand Central Station.

I wish my brain would go back to running as smoothly as it did there. My brain.

IKNOWTHISTRAINbyAnnieMcDonnell

It doesn’t want to be that train.

Left all by itself to wither and die, with no one visiting or showing it love.

Just think of all the possibilities if they could just fix it up, and get it moving again just by attaching it to another train.

Even if they just pulled it along so it felt like it belonged.

My organs are crying out to belong!

For brain to lead the way

I see the train in this picture. And my heart bleeds for it

I know how alone it feels, without its conductor its passengers its travels.

I know this train,

IKNOWTHISTRAINbyAnnieMcDonnell

For you see, it’s me.

Both of us trying to never forget Our beautiful memories.

“Night Train” by Gerrie Paino

Annie McDonnell is a lifelong literary advocate. High Point University, NC ‘91. Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author of “Annie’s Song: Dandelions, Dreams & Dogs”. It was acquired by Pandamoon Publishing and set to be re-released in the Spring, 2025. Founder of The Write Review Literary Community, Podcaster, Book Reviewer, Author Consultant and Matchmaker. Teaches workshops on all of this! Annie has been introducing us to books and authors since 2006, when she began reviewing books for Elle Magazine. Proud Stiff Person Syndrome Warrior.

IKNOWTHISTRAINbyAnnieMcDonnell

This, I Shall Never Forget Mike Turner

Faint murmurs in quiet rooms

Dust motes settling on unused furniture

Cast down, thus abandoned

Yet remaining

Cloaking scene with muffled scorn

This, I shall never forget

Intended slights and sorrows

Muddied waters flowing ‘cross untrod lanes

Eroding, and moving on

Yet leaving sediment

Damning with faint praise

This, too, I shall never forget

Songs unsung, plays un-staged

Unspoken scripted lines and sonnets

Delivered to absent audiences

Thus unheard

Alifetime’s passion, muted

This, too, I shall never forget

Gentle whispers

Abalm upon disturbed reverie

Breathing life, and hope

Aslender ray of sunlight between grey clouds

Renewing faith amidst despair

Azephyr, blowing old haunts clean

This, I shall always remember

Mike Turner retired to the Alabama Gulf Coast after more than 25 years as a Federal law enforcement executive. An adult ed ukulele class opened the world of music and songwriting to Mike; with more than 200 original songs to his credit, he was featured on the “15 Minutes of Fame” stage at the 2020 Monroeville Literary Festival. Mike has had more than 300 poems published in more than 65 literary journals and anthologies. His poetry book, Visions and Memories, is available on Amazon. His poem, “A Sense of Peace,” was awarded the Alabama Writers Cooperative’s 2023 Roger Williams Peace Award for Writing. When not writing and recording, Mike explores the backwaters of the Northern Gulf with his wife, Pamela Caudill, on their recreational trawler.

HELLO

WRITERS &ARTISTS

CALLFOR SUBMISSIONS IS OPEN!

*No prompts or themes - no boundaries*

WELL READ is looking for submissions from writers and artists who have stories to tell –through words and art. We combine new and established voices from diverse backgrounds and celebrate different perspectives. We want people who aren’t afraid to shake things up, speak their mind, and share their humanity.

Click here for SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Claire Hamner Matturro: First off, let me congratulate you on your success with this new series you are writing. You now have five books in the series featuring unabashedly tender, romantic tales of a family near the town of Burr Oak, Texas. The family is Amish and blessed with four daughters. These daughters are running the ranch by themselves after the death of their parents when the series opens, though that “by themselves” will change book by book. By name, the books include the 2021 novel “The Cowboy’sAmish Haven,” which is the first in the series and a Publishers Weekly bestseller. That was followed by “Finding His Amish Home” (2022); “The Amish Bachelor’s Bride” (2023) (also a Publishers Weekly bestseller); “Bonding over the Amish Baby,” (2023) and “Her Surprise Amish Match” (2024). Another novel, “Her Amish Refuge,” is coming in 2025, with yet another one in the early stages of development. All are published by the “Love Inspired” imprint of Harlequin. These books are available as eBooks, trade paperbacks, and in large print paperback editions. All of them exemplify why we love Christian romance stories as they are well written, faithbased, sweet, and clean with a genuine and compelling story—and plenty of tension and suspense. Wow, that’s a lot of books and a lot of success with them. But let me ask this. You are not Amish, so I am curious as to what led you to write these novels and how you learned so much about the Amish people as these books read very realistically. Certainly, the reviews praise the authenticity of your positive portrayal of theAmish.

Pamela Desmond Wright: Though I used to write paranormal and adult novels, these were not the types of books my Christian family were inclined to read or share with others. After the passing of several close family members, including two older siblings, I decided to focus on more faith-based stories. The world has enough smutty books, and I am no longer a contributor. My interest in writing about theAmish began as I searched for a genre that aligned with my new direction. Also, the Amish way of life, with its emphasis on community, faith, and simplicity, resonated deeply with me. To ensure my stories are realistic, I've dedicated significant time to research. I've read extensively about Amish culture, traditions, and daily life. I hope my stories are respectful to the Plain way of life.

CHM: In yourAmish series, the books are centered around the Schroders, a large family in rural Texas where the nearest town is Burr Oak. Your webpage bio mentions that you grew up in “a small, dusty Texas town” and also that you prefer a “simple” lifestyle. I wonder if that childhood town has influenced your choice of setting in the series? Certainly, your descriptions of the town, the family ranch, and the countryside in the books are just lovely and very vivid. In other words, you excel at world-building and so I wonder if you are to some degree writing what you know with the setting and even the simple lifestyle?

PDW: Absolutely! My childhood greatly influenced the setting of my Amish series. I grew up in and still live in a very rural part of the Texas/ New Mexico border. My grandparents had a small farm, and I was raised around all kinds of livestock, which deeply ingrained in me an appreciation for the countryside.

As I have grown older, I have significantly downscaled my life, choosing to live small and mostly debt-free. This lifestyle resonates with the themes of my Amish books, where the characters often navigate the balance between tradition and modernity.

CHM: It’s not really any secret, I don’t think, to mention that you previously wrote some award-winning fantasy romance novels that had, shall we say, a darker side. These were published under the pseudonym Devyn Quinn in the paranormal and adult romance genres for Kensington, NAL/Penguin and others. While writing these books, you won the RomanticTimes Reviewers ChoiceAward in 2010. These books—numbering over twenty—are still available today and definitely have an adult romance spin. In contrast, theAmish books are uplifting and very clean with no sex, no violence, and no cursing and yet, still, with tensions, conflicts, and of course, romance. In someways between the dark fantasies and the ultra-clean, tender Amish stories, you’ve written flip sides of the romance coin, and I just have to ask the obvious: What made you go from writing some darker, more graphic romances to

writing the clean, upliftingAmish romances?

PDW: Although I considered concealing my past as a writer of paranormal romance and adult books, I decided that was dishonest. When readers inquire about my "Devyn Quinn" books, I let them know exactly what type of books I used to write. I also explain why I left those genres, which was prompted by the experience of witnessing a family member pass away from cancer. Watching someone leave this world certainly puts your own priorities in place. I felt the need to focus on more uplifting stories. This shift has allowed me to create books that are clean and inspiring, and accessible to all ages.

CHM: For years, I have been referring people to the Writer Beware website, which is designed to help would-be authors and new authors avoid the scams and predatory behaviors of some unethical people in the book world. Even experienced authors refer to it! Not too long ago, I learned that you are the driving force and founder of Writer Beware, first known as “TheWrite Connection”, which was transferred to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) through (then) vice-president A.C. Crispin to become Writer Beware. This is such a valuable website, which I’ve well used myself, and so on behalf of all of us in the book world, thank you. Might you say a word about how you came to start this site and of its lasting importance?

PDW: This is an easy one! At the beginning of my writing career, I was the victim of many scam agents and publishers. I paid hundreds out in reading and representation fees--as well as allowing a vanity publisher to persuade me that authors had to pay to publish. That experience cost me thousands. Afterward, I was a sad, broke, but smarter writer about predatory agents and vanity presses.

After I wised up, I began to collect my correspondences and publish them on a website called "The Write Connection." Shortly thereafter, the SFWA took notice, and offered a small grant to continue the site. As I was going through a divorce at the time, I didn’t really have the time or funds the project needed to keep it going. (Yes, the scammers knew about the site and were threatening lawsuits right and left…) I decided to transfer my content to the SFWA.At the time, vice-president Ann C. Crispin had access to far more resources than I did – she was also a respected NYT bestselling author with clout (and not an unknown newb like I was).Ann and Victoria Strauss were able to turn “The Write Connection” into “Writer Beware.”

I still have the correspondence between myself and Ann, who has, sadly, passed. I also have letters from Professor Jim Fisher, who chronicled a portion of my experiences in his book, “Ten Percent of Nothing:The Case of the Literary Agency from Hell.”

“Writer Beware” has since become a crucial resource in the

book world, helping both new and experienced authors avoid scams and predatory behaviors. Its lasting importance lies in its commitment to protecting writers from the same pitfalls I once fell into. I'm grateful to have played a small role in its genesis.

CHM: Even with the success of your novels, you’ve not quit your day job. Might you tell us a bit about how you find the time to write and hold down a job and tend to all the rescued animals you care for and make homes for? Do you have a set schedule that allows you to write daily or is a kind of catch-as-catch-can schedule?

PDW: Balancing writing and a “real” job requires a dedicated approach. I work part-time as a night auditor for a popular hotel chain, which provides me with the financial stability I need to pay the bills. I set aside three days a week for my writing. This schedule is crucial for making consistent progress on my novels.

In 2020, I retired from ferret rescue after 16 years.Although I no longer run day-to-day operations, I continue to manage an online network that helps rehome ferrets in need. Occasionally, I foster ferrets that are in transit to their new homes. This way, I can still contribute to the cause without the full-time commitment keeping live animals requires.

CHM:And about those rescued animals, how many do you

currently have that you are taking care of and tending?

PDW: We have about 12 cats on the property. Some are indoor, some are outdoor, and some come and go as they want to.

CHM: Thank you, Pamela Desmond Wright for taking this time to share your thoughts with Well Read Magazine.

PDW: Thanks for inviting me!

“Be productive without attachment.”

Annie McDonnell asks, Gail Priest, author of

Soul Dancing

“AnnieAsks” introduces, author Gail Priest

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I’m not sure there is “perfect” happiness, but I do know that happiness comes from within. Looking for happiness from outside sources is futile.

What trait do you most deplore in others?

The lack of empathy that leads to harming others and animals, waging war, allowing others to suffer and starve.

What is your greatest fear?

Right now it’s the USAturning into a totalitarian, fascist state.

Which living person do you most admire?

Jimmy

Carter

What is your greatest extravagance?

Travel, especially to Europe.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My husband. He’s also my best friend.

When and where were you happiest?

We rented a cottage on the Chesapeake Bay for seventeen years. The season ran from May through October, and I basically lived there. The location was the inspiration for myAnnie Crow Knoll Trilogy.

Where would you most like to live?

Cape May Point, NJ You’d think it would be on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on the Chesapeake, but it’s Cape May Point.

What is your favorite occupation?

Teaching theatre arts and education. I’ve been an educator

since 1977. Currently, I’m a university adjunct. I may teach forever.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I’m compassionate.

What is your motto?

“Be productive without attachment.” It’s more of a goal than a motto because I struggle with it. It does keep me working even when things are not going the way I’d like. I have to let go of expectations and keep writing. It’s what keeps me from giving up writing.

Gail Priest is the author of Soul Dancing, the Annie Crow Knoll Trilogy, and Eastern Shore Shorts

"Gail Priest's latest novel SOUL DANCING offers an imaginative and fresh story that seamlessly blends complex characters, a deep understanding of humanity, and a great story all with a paranormal twist. I read it quickly!!"

-Ann Garvin, USA Today Bestselling Author of There's No Coming Back from This.

Soul Dancing Gail Priest

Julie Cantrell Interviews

R. J. Lee

New York Times best-selling author of such acclaimed novels as Perennials, Julie Cantrell, interviews here a writer friend of hers, R. J. Lee, whose autofiction, LGBTQ+ novel, The Majestic Leo Marble, was released nationally from Madville Publishing on August 20th. Both novels detail the struggles of their protagonists to center themselves and find a path to stability in life despite significant obstacles to overcome. In the end, they also celebrate the immeasurable power of unconditional love.

Julie Cantrell: In my fourth novel, Perennials, Lovey Sutherland struggles to regain a relationship with her longestranged sister, Bitsy. Raw from discovering her fiance’ has been leading a double life, Lovey returns home to her father’s request to help plan a 50th anniversary surprise for her mother.

With the family reunited for three weeks in their quaint community of Oxford, Mississippi, the two sisters are forced to face the hurts that drove them apart years earlier. Of course none of this comes easily, especially when obstacles and events get in the way and painful past experiences keep resurfacing. Add to it some tragic twists and a second-chance romance, and you’ve got a family drama that reminds us to keep choosing love above all else.

While Perennials and The Majestic Leo Marble are different in many ways, both novels explore the cultural, religious and familial pressures that can cause deep division when not addressed in healthy ways.

Julie Cantrell to R. J. Lee: In The Majestic Leo Marble, you’ve created an intriguing protagonist who captures the hearts of readers. How would you describe Leo’s primary struggle in this new novel of yours?

R. J. Lee: Leo Marble grows up in historic Beau Pre, Mississippi, in an established family where much is expected of him, including falling in love with the ‘right girl’and marrying well. But Leo discovers very early in his life that he is not attracted to the opposite sex. This first occurs to him when he is stirred by CharlesAtlas ads on the back of comic books. Later, he develops a mad crush at the age of thirteen on an older boy in a Junior Little Theater summer production. He confesses this to his mother, who calmly dismisses it as a ‘phase.’ Soon after, however, Leo overhears his mother saying to his father, “He can’t be our son and not be attracted to girls.”Appropriately,this‘phase’ is no such thing, and Leo must deal with this struggle throughout the rest of his life.

Julie Cantrell to R. J. Lee: You have described your novel as autofiction. Would you tell us what that means?

R. J. Lee: While fictional events/characters are added to flesh out the plot, autofiction relies heavily on life events and/or characters that actually existed in the author’s life. Leo Marble is not only part of the title of this novel, he is

an embellished and reimagined version of myself, playing and singing show tunes at the piano to keep himself centered and sane.

Julie Cantrell to R.J. Lee: Without giving away any spoilers, will you give us an example of an event from the book that actually happened to you in real life?

R. J. Lee: In the novel, Leo moves to New Orleans after growing up in Beau Pre and getting a degree from Sewanee (University of the South).As is well-known, laid-back New Orleans has always had a significant gay subculture. There, Leo truly ‘comes out’and joins a Gay Resources Coalition, which I actually did.

Later, Leo and other members of the Coalition plan a protest march through the French Quarter. It is scheduled to coincide with Anita Bryant’s visit to entertain at Summer Pops. Her Save Our Children Campaign had just overturned an employment discrimination ordinance in Miami-Dade County, Florida, that had targeted gay teachers. Moreover, I was actually manning the gay helpline the evening that Anita Bryant scored her victory. The abuse I received over the phone is intricately detailed in the plot.

Julie Cantrell to R. J. Lee: That was a painful scene to read in the novel, so I imagine it must have been incredibly painful as a young man. I learned a lot from the story about the history of LGBTQ+ rights and the legal battles that have

R. J. Lee and Julie Cantrell

been fought through the years.What changes have you seen in our culture regarding those with same-sex orientation and other marginalized people since you were growing up ‘in the closet’in small-town Mississippi?

R. J. Lee: The changes I’ve witnessed have been lifechanging for marginalized people. For instance, I was in college when the Public Accommodations Act was passed in Congress under Lyndon Johnson. Before that, people of color could not rent certain hotel rooms, eat in certain restaurants, get library cards, had to enter movie houses through ‘colored entrances,’ drink from ‘colored water fountains,’ had a great deal of trouble voting without harassment, and renting certain houses and apartments

The Stonewall Riots in New York City (referred to in the novel) in 1969 began the efforts of same-sex oriented people to resist their oppression and erase their invisibility; and Anita Bryant’s claim that gay teachers are out there corrupting school children also outraged those of us who were being demonized by a fundamentalist who was relying on fear and ignorance to keep us ‘in our place.’ Of course, the biggest change nationally took place in 2015 when SCOTUS ruled that all states must honor the marriages of all other states as valid. My late husband,Will, and myself were legally married in Maine in 2014, after being together for ten years before that. I never dreamed when I was growing up that I would ever get to be married to the man I loved. I grew up being told by many sources

that I shouldn’t even exist or that I should apologize and ‘repent’for my existence. That’s a great weight to bear.

Julie Cantrell to R. J. Lee: I am so sorry you have been mistreated by so many people throughout your life, and I consider it an honor to call you a friend. When we write about controversial subjects like sexuality, we never know what to expect. What kind of feedback have you received, and has any of it surprised you?

R. J. Lee: It’s early yet, but so far, I’ve been told by reviewers and certain advance-copy readers that the novel is enlightening in that it explains certain things about orientation and/or puts certain issues in proper focus. There is a great deal of misinformation out there about human sexuality in general. First, there is a specific ‘religious’filter that eyes all sexual activity as improper unless it results in procreation, a view I have always found untenable. Certainly, this planet is not suffering from underpopulation. So recreational sex and birth control practices are a function of both love and responsible family planning.

The biggest misconception out there is that same-sex orientation is a choice. It is no such thing, any more than opposite sex attraction is a choice. The overwhelming majority of human beings are wired to be heterosexual, but not a one of them ever ‘decided’ to be attracted to the opposite gender. That attraction just appeared when it was

R. J. Lee and Julie Cantrell

supposed to. So it is with those of us who are attracted to the same sex. So far, those who have read the novel have told me that they learned something they did not know or understand, not only about same-sex orientation, but how cultural oppression can lead to unwise and unhealthy choices in an attempt to ‘fit in’and be accepted. My hope is that Leo Marble will resonate with a great many people and they benefit from its view of humanity.

Julie Cantrell: Thank you, R. J., for your time today. I admire you for sharing your stories with the world, and I hope you’ll continue to give voice to those who have been silenced or shamed.You never know who may be receiving this book as a lifeline on the other side of the shelf.

AUTHORS

R. J. Lee and Julie Cantrell

“A poignant and tender coming-of-age novel, R. J. Lee's, The Majestic Leo Marble, follows its endearing protagonist from the womb through young adulthood. Set to the musical score of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, Lee's pitch perfect aria recounts early gay rights activism and the AIDS crisis through the compelling voice of the charming Leo Marble.”Robert Gwaltney, award winning author of The Cicada Tree, and GeorgiaAuthor of the Year

The Majestic Leo Marble R. J. Lee

“Cantrell

captures the unbreakable bonds of family in this poignant story. . .Cantrell has a great understanding of family quirks and the nuances of family dynamics, and. . .the textured portrayal of Eva will leave readers inspired.” --

Publishers Weekly

Perennials

Julie Cantrell

Carrie Dalby and Candice Marley Conner

Candice: Historical Southern Gothic author Carrie Dalby and I met through the Mobile Writers Guild and have been critique partners for about a decade. And for the past year, we’ve also been neighbors! We’ve been on panels together, participated in literary festivals, critiqued so many novel and short story manuscripts but this is the first time I’ve actually sat down to interview her. While I’m now a children’s and teen book author, my writing career started off as a freelance journalist so it’s fun to get to ask the questions once again.

First off, a bit about Carrie: a California native, Carrie has lived in Mobile, Alabama, since 1996. She’s published several non-fiction articles in national and international magazines, served two terms as president of MobileWriters Guild, and helps coordinate the Mobile Literary Festival. When Carrie is not reading, writing, browsing bookstores/ libraries, or homeschooling, she can often be found knitting or attending concerts.

So, Carrie, you’ve published two young adult novels, the nine-book Possession Chronicles family saga, The Malevolent Trilogy family saga, a short story collection, and you’re working on the paranormal Washington Square Secrets series with book number three, LOYALTY, which hit shelves on August 27th. With all the books (except one YA) in the same historic Mobile Bay area universe that spans from 1897 to 1929 with a Southern Gothic flair, and you have founded and run an online Gothic book club, what is it that draws you to Southern Gothic as a genre? AUTHORS

Dalby

Candice Marley Conner

Carrie: The atmosphere, tone, and raw emotions of the genre. Southern Gothic is gritty and full of human flaws. The stories read truer than whimsical Gothic romances or lofty Gothic classics—though I adore both as well. And with Southern Gothic family sagas you get moody romanticism, tumultuous secrets, grotesque imagery, and damaged characters, all coupled with multi-generational drama.As a reader, that’s tops for me. The more tears when reading, the better!

Candice:And you write all five of those pillars so well! The atmosphere is what makes me fall in love with Southern Gothic stories. Give me a Spanish moss-shrouded cypress swamp and I am in heaven. Do you have a favorite Southern Gothic novel that you recommend?

Carrie: Just one? No, but I’ll keep it to three. They are all historical because that’s my favorite genre for Gothics.

For an example of the last subgenre mentioned—Southern Gothic family saga—I’d recommend CRESCENT CARNIVAL by Frances Parkinson Keyes, a best seller when it was first published eighty years ago. Keyes is the queen of historical Southern Gothic family sagas! She has an inter-connected saga of Louisiana-set novels, which CRESCENT CARNIVAL is part of, as well as Virginia/ Washington D.C. set novels at are all connected, though neither have numbers or a set series title.

For Southern Gothic paranormal/horror: BELOVED by Toni Morrison. Though a good part of the book is set just over the river from the South in Ohio, the whole haunting stems from the family’s time in Kentucky while they were enslaved/escaping. It hits every type of Southern Gothic theme with shattering effects.

For more modern characters, both written and portrayed, check out The Juxville Chronicles by Carolyn Haines. Haines does gritty Southern Gothic with a side of jalapeno hush puppies.

Candice: Ha! Hush puppies. I love that. As your critique partner, I’m always blown away by how well you immerse your readers into the time period. That immersion is huge for me as a historical fiction reader. I learn so much—I actually got a trivia question about the tile used at Mobile’s Saenger Theatre and the Bellingrath House correct last week thanks to you! I know you have a whole presentation’s worth of knowledge on research, but could you explain a bit of your process?

Carrie:Awesome win with the trivia!

My Southern Gothics are centered on the characters, with historical things like disease, war, and hurricanes happening around them and I take the history—and even the paranormal activity—in the stories seriously.

I read a lot of books written during my timeline (what was

contemporary back then) as opposed to books set during it. That gives a truer picture of daily life, conversations, and social norms—along with the art, music, periodicals, etc. created during the era. Reviewers will sometimes mention my characters sound “too modern.” That would be true if you’re comparing them to British Victorians orAntebellum Southerners, but my stories are set at the end of/postIndustrial Revolution.The language of people on both sides of the pond (because I do love British literature) was very modern, even if certain topics were still impolite to mention socially. Having a concise time period (The Progressive Era, spanning the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties) helps me focus on more specific details when researching and allows me to reuse knowledge and build on it from story to story.

Living in Mobile, I’m blessed to have not only a rich cultural history to draw from, but amazing historic buildings and public spaces to set stories in, as well as the terrific Local History and Genealogy Library run by Mobile Public Library as a resource.There are lots of museums and other archives to explore, but I find my best tidbits when scrolling through the daily newspapers on microfilm from my timeline at the Local History library branch. Where people shopped and dined, how much things cost, fashions, what shows were in town, and the gossip of the day.

Bonus: the social page always has a wealth of inspiration. One of my favorite finds is a comic strip from 1910 called “Henpecko the Monk”, featuring a hen-pecked husband. In this strip—which is very simple and modern in tone and

style—the man’s wife buys him a tie and becomes belligerent when he doesn’t respond gushingly with thanks. Exasperated, he finally stamps his foot and exclaims “It’s punk!” (meaning it’s ugly.) And she goes off on him for criticizing her taste because “it’s a beauty!” Did you know “punk” was a word used in 1910? I sure didn’t.

There is also a large crop of local interest nonfiction books from a variety of small presses over the course of Mobile and the surrounding area’s history. Plus amazing yearbooks from schools that have been around a century or more. I collect everything from church histories to architectural books to Barton Academy and Mobile/Murphy High School yearbooks—and utilize them often. I go to estate sales, thrift stores, and antique shops regularly to feed this collection.

Regarding paranormal events in my books, I research them as they would have been seen and handled by people during my books’time periods. I did a deep dive into exorcisms for the Roman Catholic characters in The Possession Chronicles. For DISCERNMENT, the first book in Washington Square Secrets, I read and researched Allan Kardec, a late Victorian Era professor who was one of the first to write extensively about mediums and spiritism.

Candice: I thoroughly enjoyed how you brought real-life Mobile color to the page, specifically with Miss Eiland, the Floating Island lady I’ve read mention of in Eugene Walter’s stories. It was fun to get to see her as a person in

LOYALTY. And in MALEVOLENT HEARTS, it was interesting to me how we reacted to our pandemic compared to the people living during the yellow fever epidemic. I had no idea the doctor who discovered the cause and spread of yellow fever was actually from Mobile until you shared your research with me. So neat.

Now let’s talk about your latest release, LOYALTY. It’s book number three in theWashington Square Secrets series, but do folks need to read the first two to understand what’s going on or can they hop into this series anytime?

Carrie: The first two books in Washington Square Secrets definitely stand alone. DISCERNMENT and ALLIANCE both have different main characters and neither (at that point) know each other. LOYALTY is set more than seven years later, and introduces a new main character (Jim) but also focuses on Francesca, who was a secondary character in ALLIANCE. Francesca knows both main characters from the first two books (and they now know each other), and they each play supporting roles in LOYALTY. Since Jim doesn’t know any of the others before the book begins, readers get a brief recap of their histories within the neighborhood. So, long story short—yes, LOYALTY can be read alone, but you will get more out of it if you read the other two books first.

Candice: Tell us what the book is about.

Carrie: LOYALTYis about love, loss, family, and friends in the aftermath of a horrific event. Here’s the official synopsis:

In the autumn of 1920, a murder-suicide shakes the residents of Washington Square. Officer JimAbbott doesn't realize the return of his shellshock is only the beginning of his concerns. Jim is assigned to keep tabs on the surviving child, Ernest Hart, who appears to be haunted by the recently departed murderer.

Neighbor Francesca Wilton grows closer to Ernest during her temporary guardianship of him, but his deteriorating emotional state reveals there is more to the seven-year-old than she expected. Then a loss of her own throws her life into further turmoil.

As the haunting looms closer, Francesca involves a friend gifted with telepathic and astral powers, as well as a skilled medium from the neighborhood to rid Ernest from his father's oppression. In their attempt to save Ernest, Jim becomes entangled in the women's unconventional abilities on a level he never expected.

Candice:The male main character, JimAbbott, is one of my favorites of your characters. Sorry, Henry of The Possession Chronicles.

Carrie: I love hearing that—not about Henry slipping down a notch, but when readers have new favorites. Many long-

time readers have declared Washington Square Secrets and the main characters their favorite series and people from everything I’ve written. I think part of that is from me shedding the “family saga” from this project. Multigenerational stories make for heavier reading, both physically and emotionally. With WSS, I was able to write leaner and drop some of the drama while still tackling gritty subjects in the era I love. The whole series pays homage to the books I loved best in childhood—ghost, paranormal, and historical stories, both fiction and nonfiction. I think my fangirl came out because it was a lot of fun writing them.

Candice: Deborah, the main character in WSS #1, and Josephine, the main character in WWS #2, both have paranormal abilities. Did you ever toy with the idea of giving Fran, the main character in LOYALTY, a supernatural skill?

Carrie: I never thought of Francesca as being gifted supernaturally. Her skill is in comforting/serving people. Her mother and Ernest, and even Jim, receive the benefits of her ability in LOYALTY, but you see a bit of it between Fran and Josephine in ALLIANCE as well. Jim, on the other hand, has never been exposed to the supernatural and finds himself completely immersed in it.

Candice: You recently graduated from the Mobile Police

Department’s Citizens Police Academy. I’ve enjoyed hearing all about your adventures on ride alongs. That kind of in-depth research makes your story come alive. Why did you choose to make LOYALTY’s male main character, Jim Abbott, a police officer?

Carrie: MPD’s Citizens Police Academy was an enlightening experience spanning ten weeks this SpringSummer, but Jim Abbott is a carryover character from SEVERED LEGACIES, book 3 ofThe MalevolentTrilogy, which was published in 2022. In that book, he was introduced as a veteran of the war (WWI) who is working as a bank security guard with hopes of joining the police department. When I decided to use him in LOYALTY, the timeline worked for him to have gotten to that point in his life. And since the story opens at the scene of a murdersuicide within his beat area, Officer Abbott is right in the middle of things from the beginning. I joined the academy to help make sure I was accurately portraying the moods and emotions a peace officer would be going through—but with a lot less available technology than we have today.

Part of the fun of working multiple books/series within the same world is seeing how they fit together. With Jim, it worked without effort, but sometimes I have to really think about a person and where they would have been in their life, even if that specific year wasn’t shown on page in a different series. I keep a character list with highlights of dates for things like marriages, jobs, children, deaths, etc.

to help with this, but I do sometimes find myself pulling out a book to double check specifics. My current editor has even said stuff like “unless this couple is set in stone from another series, this relationship isn’t working for your plot.” He watches out for me, which I appreciate.

The stories could easily get tangled if I’m not careful. So far, I’ve been able to catch miscalculations on timings during edits before publication. It’s one of the reasons I prefer to have a whole series drafted before the first book is published. And, side note, the trickiest character to handle—but also the most fun—is Sean Spunner. Spunner is in all three series plus several short stories, and his life was written completely out of chronological order.

Candice: Oh, Sean. How did I know he would figure out a way to pop into this conversation? Speaking of tricky, I know you had a devilish time researching the MPD during the 1920s, do you want to comment on that?

So much trouble! It took me over a year to find what I truly needed, but when it came, it was in conjunction with an eager-to-help MPD captain. Totally worth the wait.

I started researching Mobile Police Department during Prohibition (which started in 1915 in Alabama) in January 2023, when I began the first draft of what is now LOYALTY. I went to the Local History library files and also the archives at the University of South Alabama. Both had

some information from turn-of-the-century to about 1913—several photos and a couple books—and then things picked up again about 1930.

So I contacted the head of a different local history archive with my needs and was laughed at because there was “nothing from that era.” I also reached out to the closed MPD History Museum (a COVID era closing that was in conjunction with a precinct move), but that didn’t pan out either.

I did the best I could when writing/self-editing, guessing at things to fill in the missing historical pieces.

The day after I turned in the shiny (twentieth) draft of LOYALTYto my editor in February 2024 in preparation for several passes of professional edits before publication, I noticed MPD had a lot of recent publicity posts on their Facebook page. On a whim, I decided to message the page and ask a couple key questions I had about MPD for my historical novel, giving permission to pass on my name and email to someone that might be able to help. Within half an hour, I had an email from Captain Billie Rowland, offering assistance. Captain Rowland is the acknowledged department historian, doing things like teaching MPD history to the recruits at the Police Academy and keeping track of the MPD Museum pieces in various stages of storage and display.

After my meeting with Captain Rowland a few days after his email, I had pages of notes and a list of several major and minor things I needed to change in my manuscript in

order to keep it historically accurate. I immediately let my editor know what type of changes I’d need to make.After I got his first editorial notes, I addressed everything from him as well as the newly acquired MPD information in my next editorial pass. It took several extra weeks of edits, but it all worked out for the better. And I was able to include my favorite historical tidbit—that MPD had two motorcycle officers as early as 1918—into a subplot line.

When Captain Rowland read an Advanced Reader’s Copy of LOYALTY in June, he appreciated the details about Jim’s uniform, the downtown Mobile scenes (including the correct placement of the police headquarters), and other historical information woven into the story that “made Jim take shape as a Mobile Police Officer.” Job done, and a major relief!

Candice: Excellent! Way to stick with it. What has been your favorite or most surprising thing you’ve learned or experienced during the Citizen’sAcademy?

Carrie: That the officers are human. Seriously. The force is a wide variety of personalities and passions, but everyone I’ve met from patrol officers to telephone operators to SWAT members to lieutenants to the interim chief himself have been dedicated to making the community a better, safer place for everyone. They are concerned about their family, friends, and neighbors, just like we are. We’re on the same side. The officers are underpaid, work in stressful

situations daily, and they know all eyes on them—many waiting for mistakes to be made. But they have a heart for service rather than being power hungry.

The wide variety of things the patrol officers are asked to address during their twelve hours shifts was enlightening. Even when they know there is nothing they can do to help, they answer EVERY call. Everything from reports about wild animals (there’s nothing they can do, folks) to mental health issues. But they’re willing to do the little things too, like push the vehicle of stranded motorist into a parking lot, stop during a neighborhood patrol to move branches out of the road, or on rare, slow days, play basketball in parks with school kids. And they aren’t “out to get you.” During most traffic stops I witnessed, the drivers were let go with warnings rather than tickets.

It was a wonderful experience in the classroom, on field trips, and during the ride alongs. I encourage everyone to participate if their local police department hosts a Citizens Academy.

Candice: Wonderful reminder of humanity and community. I know you are currently working on book four. Do you plan on stopping the series there or wait and see what your characters have to say about that?

Carrie: The fourth Washington Square Secrets book will be the final for this series. I’m on the thirteenth draft and rewriting about ninety percent of the book this time

through.

When writing LOYALTY last year, I decided if it was supposed to be a trilogy, that should have been in the series title from the beginning, like The Malevolent Trilogy. But I knew it didn’t merit a long series like The Possession Chronicles.After letting the idea sit in the back of my mind, I realized the answer was in the series title. Square. Four sides—four books.

Candice: Oh, I didn’t catch that! How clever.Thank you for chatting with me!

Carrie: Thanks for taking the time to ask these great questions—and putting up with my drafts before the professionals polish them. You know all my craziest ideas and worst grammar mistakes, Candice, but I trust you with them.

Y’all can check out Carrie’s books at www.carriedalby. com. She has an events tab so be sure to see where she’ll be next if you’re in the Mobile area.

Candice Marley Conner is a haint at The Haunted Bookshop in Downtown Mobile and an officer for the Mobile Writer’s Guild. Her poems and short stories are in various anthologies and magazines including Well Read, Wild: An Anthology of Poetry, Woolgathering, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and more. She is the author of three picture books and THE EXISTENCE OF BEA PEARL, a YASouthern mystery with Southern Gothic vibes.

“Brimming with delightful southern expressions, this breezy, yet suspenseful, tale features a strong sibling tie and a teen who follows her beliefs no matter where they lead. The twists and turns along with episodes of possible gaslighting, make for a great pageturning tale! Highly recommended! Five Stars!” - Five Star Reader Review

The Existence of Bea Pearl Candice

Marley Conner

Washington Square Secrets is a historical Southern Gothic series with a paranormal/ parapsychologyslantbyCarrieDalby. ReturntooldMobile–orvisitforthefirsttime–and get to know the charm and hostilities within this bay front city with small town vibes. The neighborhood spanned dozens of blocks south of Government Street between BroadStreetontheeastandMichiganAvenue on the west. The picturesque Washington Square area is now called the Oakleigh GardenDistrict.

Loyalty: Washington Square Secrets Book 3

Carrie Dalby

You come to the city because your passion called you here. Whatever that passion may be. That thing you love. And you wander out into the streets searching for a place to pull up a stool, order a drink, chat with the bartender about all things divine.

Welcome to God On The Rocks. Serving up great drinks and soulful conversations since time began.

I’m looking for Authors Interviewing Authors and would love to shine a spotlight on your favorite Independent Bookstores, Book Sellers, Libraries, and Librarians.

A monthly column that takes us off the page and into the life of

I have a confession to make, and I won’t be able to sleep until I get it off of my chest. So here it is. I went to the ballet the other night. There, I feel better already.

Aweight has been lifted. It’s good to get these things out into the open. Otherwise, they’ll just eat away at you. A lesser man might try to convince you that the whole thing had been a mistake, that he thought he was going to the tractor pull, or maybe to Wrestle-mania. But I’ll be honest. I meant to go. Attending the ballet was actually on my bucket list, that list of things I intend to do before I die. I couldn’t believe it either, but there it was at number 37, wedged firmly between ride a mechanical bull and visit the world’s largest ball of twine.

The fact that this particular activity was on the bucket list in the first place was where the actual mistake came in. I have another list—the Just Shoot Me Now, ’Cause I Ain’t Goin’ list—and going to the ballet was supposed to appear on that one, but there was a filing error. You just can’t get good office help these days. By the time I figured out the blunder, the folks at the theater had already locked and bolted the doors, and armed guards were posted to keep anyone from escaping.

Since I was stuck there for the next three hours, I bought an $8 bottle of beer and tried to make the best of it.

Okay, forget all of that. What really happened was that Mandy’s Director of Culture and Class—Bernard—reached

out to me recently and explained in frank and unambiguous language that I was going to have to jazz up my act, and that it would just be a shame if the magazine had to let me go in favor of hiring a young, swanky writer with straight teeth, a beret, and a corduroy jacket. So here I sit in my circa 1973 blue velvet prom tux writing my column. Hey, don’t judge me. That tux was good enough for Donna Cooper, and even though it shrunk quite a bit hanging in the closet for fifty years, it’s still pretty sharp.

The ballet was named Coppelia, which, ironically, means “just shoot me now, ’cause I ain’t goin’” in French. It was written in France in 1870 by a couple of French guys, and I guess that’s all we need to say about that. The storyline goes something like this. For no particular reason, a crazy toymaker invents a doll that looks like a real girl, and everyone dances happily around the stage. The guy who played the part of the crazy toymaker must have been a senior man with the ballet company, because he was the

only male member of the cast who got to wear pants.

It’s probably in the union contract: time and a half after forty hours, thirty minutes for lunch, health insurance, and pants.

Anyway, to continue our synopsis, one of the local boys falls in love with the doll, which leads everyone to dance happily around the stage. This infidelity sort of ticks off the boy’s real girlfriend, and you can’t blame her for that. I mean, her fiancé has taken up with a windup doll! That’s kind of scurrilous behavior, even for French boys in tights. To demonstrate her ire, she and everyone else dance happily around the stage for a while.

Following that, there is a comedic episode in which the crazy old toymaker loses his keys—including the key that winds up the doll—while winking twenty-seven times at the audience. Assumedly the winking was written into the script as a means to let us know that something important was happening, although there is a distinct possibility that he was having a ballet induced conniption. The loss of the keys eventually leads to the discovery that the doll is just a doll, after all, which prompts everyone to dance happily around the stage for an extra-long while. And finally, the boy dumps the doll in favor of his jilted girlfriend. She takes him back, and everyone dances happily around the stage. The end.

I don’t claim to be an expert on the psyche of the human female, but I feel safe in making the observation that here in Georgia, very few women would take back a man who had left them for a doll.

The ballet was performed by the Moscow Festival Ballet. I have been told by people who know about these things— primarily Bernard—that this troupe is an excellent ballet company, and from all of the leaping and cavorting that went on (and on, and on), I am sure that this is true. To tell you the truth, though, I had already figured out that they were from Russia, or at least from somewhere nippy, because all of the male ballerinas had apparently tucked an extra pair of tightly rolled socks into their drawers in case of cold mornings.

Russian ballet has a long and distinguished history. Names such as Anna Pavlova and Marina Semenova are well known. Indeed, almost everyone remembers Mikhail Baryshnikov, a famous dancer who fled to theWest in 1974. It was believed at the time that he was defecting from the Soviet Union, but new facts have emerged that prove conclusively that he was just out looking for someplace to buy a pair of trousers. Unfortunately, it was dark, he got lost, and the troupe inadvertently left town without him. But just try explaining that to the KGB.

A male ballerina, by the way, is called a “ballerino,” which makes sense, I guess, even though the name sort of

sounds like something you might come down with a case of if you don’t boil your drinking water on a camping trip.

Camper #1:Are you okay? You look a little pale.

Camper #2: I think I might have a light touch of ballerino.

Camper #1: I told you to boil your water, but would you listen?

If you ever make it all the way to the end of a ballet, the first thing you notice is that they take bows. Lots and lots of them.And these are not just the regular little bows like your mama taught you to do back in the old days when she wanted you to be polite. These are the bows that come with arm sweeps and dramatic hand gestures, like the bows they have down at the circus. First the main ballerina bows and flourishes. Then the main ballerino follows suit. Then they bow together while flourishing each other. Then they bow separately again. Then they join ranks with all of the other dancers, and they all bow and flourish awhile. Then just the boys bow. Then the girls. Then the tall ones. Then the short ones. Then the ushers. Then the guys who sweep up after the show.

With all of that hoopla going on, you’d think they had won the Super Bowl or something. It made me want to pour a cooler full of Gatorade over the whole bowing bunch of them.

Mandy Haynes, Editor-In-Chief

Mandy Haynes is a freelance writer for Amelia Islander Magazine, Amelia Weddings, author of two short story collections, Walking the Wrong Way Home, Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth Eva and Other Stories, and a novella, Oliver. She is the co-editor of the Southern Writers Reading reunion anthology, The Best of the Shortest. Mandy is the creator, designer, content editor, and publisher of WELL READ Magazine.

Raymond L.Atkins, Contributing Editor (OFF THE PAGE)

Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia, on the banks of the Etowah River in an old house with a patient wife and a lazy cat. His hobbies include people-watching, reading, and watching movies that have no hope of ever achieving credibility. His first novel, The Front Porch Prophet, was published in 2008 and was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. Camp Redemption, was awarded the Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction and the 2014 Georgia Author of the Year Award for Fiction. Sweetwater Blues was a Townsend Prize nominee, the 2015 GeorgiaAuthor of the Year runner-up for fiction, and the 2016 selection for One Book, Many Voices. South of the Etowah, his first creative non-fiction book, was released in 2016. It was nominated for a Push-cart Prize and was the 2016 GeorgiaAuthor of theYearAward runner-up for essay. In 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgia Writers Association.

Robert Gwaltney, Contributing Editor (INSIDE VOICES)

Robert Gwaltney, award winning author of southern fiction, is a graduate of Florida State University. He resides inAtlanta Georgia with his partner, where he is an active member of theAtlanta literary community. Robert’s work has appeared in such publications as The Signal Mountain Review and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. His debut novel, The Cicada Tree, won the SomersetAward for literary fiction. In 2023, Gwaltney was named Georgia Author of the Year for first novel.

Meet the staff

Ann Hite, Contributing Editor (MOUNTAIN MAGIC)

In September of 2011 Gallery, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, publishedAnn Hite’s first novel, Ghost on Black Mountain. In 2012 this novel was shortlisted for the Townsend Prize, Georgia’s oldest literary award. In the same year, Ghost on Black Mountain won Hite GeorgiaAuthor of the Year. She went on to publish four more novels, a novella, memoir, and most recently Haints On Black Mountain: A Haunted Short Story Collection from Mercer University Press. In December 2022, Haints On Black Mountain was one of ten finalist for the Townsend Prize. The collection was a Bronze Winner in Foreword IndieAward 2023 and GeorgiaAuthor of the Year Second Place Winner for Short Stories 2023.Ann received a scholarship to theAppalachian Witers Workshop Hindman Settlement in the summer of 2020 and was invited back in 2021. Her passion for history influences all her work.

Dean James, Contributing Editor (THE WRITER’S EYE)

Dean James is the USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks and Southern Ladies mystery series. A seventh generation Mississippian, he lives and writes in the Jackson, Mississippi area with four cats and more books than he can ever count. He keeps his younger sister Carolyn Haines locked in the attic. Despite his best effort she escapes constantly and wreaks havoc on the countryside.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton, Contributing Editor (INSIDE VOICES)

Jeffrey Dale Lofton hails from Warm Springs, Georgia. His years telling the stories of playwrights and scriptwriters as a stage and screen actor taught him the pull of a powerful story arc. Today, he is SeniorAdvisor at the Library of Congress, surrounded by books and people who love them. Red Clay Suzie is his debut novel, a fictionalized memoir written through his lens—gay and living with a disability— in a conservative family in the Deep South. It was longlisted for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and awarded the Seven Hills Literary Prize for Fiction, among other distinctions.

Claire Hamner Matturro, Contributing Editor (CLAIRE

CONSIDERS)

Claire Hamner Matturro is a former attorney, former university writing instructor, avid reader, and the author of seven novels, including four published by HarperCollins. Her poetry appears in various journals including Slant and Lascaux Review. She is an associate editor ofThe Southern LiteraryReview and lives happily in Florida with her crosseyed rescued black cat and her husband.

Dawn

Major, Contributing

Editor (TRIPLIT with D Major)

Dawn Major is an associate editor at Southern Literary Review and a graduate of the Etowah Valley Creative Writing MFA Program. In 2019, she was awarded the Dr. Robert DriscollAward as well as Reinhardt University’s Faculty ChoiceAward, both in Excellence in Writing. In 2018, she was a recipient of the James Dickey Review Literary Editor Fellowship. Major is a member of the William Gay Archive and has helps edit and publish the late author’s works. She also advocates for southern authors on her blog SouthernRead. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her family. The Bystanders, Major’s debut novel, just won finalist for 2024 GeorgiaAuthor of theYear for Best First Novel.

Annie McDonnell, Contributing Editor (ANNIEASKS)

Annie McDonnell,is a lifelong literary advocate. High Point University, NC ‘91. Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author of Annie’s Song: Dandelions, Dreams & Dogs. It was acquired by Pandamoon Publishing and set to be rereleased in the Spring, 2025. Founder of The Write Review Literary Community, Podcaster, Book Reviewer, Author Consultant and Matchmaker. Teaches workshops on all of this! Annie has been introducing us to books and authors since 2006, when she began reviewing books for Elle Magazine. Proud Stiff Person Syndrome Warrior.

Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth: Eva and

Other Stories by Mandy

Haynes

"Mandy Haynes' writing voice is as smooth as fabled Tennessee whiskey.And she's a Southern front porch storyteller. The back porch is for those who wander all over the place and never get a good story told, them that don't know what's boring and what's not. Mandy knows good stories and this collection, SHARPASASERPENT'S TOOTH, like her first, WALKING THE WRONG WAY HOME, proves her top shelf skill as a writer and gives readers more than they came for." -Sonny Brewer, author of The Poet of Tolstoy Park, and other novels.

"Mandy Haynes captures the authentic southern stories readers love. She writes, not with stereotypes readers can spot from a mile away, but with wisdom which comes from the calloused hands of a great author." -Renea Winchester, author of Outbound Train.

"Mandy Haynes gives us a direct line into the heart of the Deep South. To understand what is genteel and genuine, one must also understand what is not. Strong female characters who get the better of villains who seek to destroy them abound in this brilliantly crafted collection of short stories. She is Flannery O'Connor's equal in the new millennium. I can't wait to read whatever Haynes writes next! Brava!" -Marci Henna, author of When We Last Spoke and What Lies Ahead

"Mandy Haynes pushes us into the carnival tents of holy roller snake oil barkers wielding serpents against the hearts of innocents who see their nakedness. She shows us preachers both benevolent and malevolent. She places us behind the eyes of girls who chunk rocks and aim arrows at bad guys who might once have taken them in, but who figure it out and serve up just desserts. It's no wonder such a young woman might be enthralled with a guitar strumming rebel who tangles with a serpent handler. This is a slithering snake pit of gothic tales that rattle and hiss with the truth we don't always like to see." -Joe Formichella, multiple literary award winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, finalist for a New Letters Literary Prize, and author of five works of fiction, including Waffle House Rules and three works of nonfiction, including Foreword magazine's book of the year/true crime Murder Creek

"Mandy Haynes writes about the poor and damaged, about simple folks with fire and crazy pulsing through their veins. In the story "Eva" she displays the ugly drippings of an evil soul beside the strength and wisdom of a child. With a warped sense of humor and an eye for sweet revenge, Haynes, in her collection of short stories "Sharp as a Serpent's Tooth," reveals herself to be an emerging talent with a command of southern dialogue and a tendency to create dirt-underthe-fingernails characters. She'll be around for the long haul." Brenda Sutton Rose, author of Dogwood Blues, nominated for 2015 Georgia Author of the Year for First Novel, nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize in Fiction for her short story Samuel's Wife.