BOOKS
Are secrets worth the price they cost to keep?
Ten-year-old Tina Hamilton finds out the hard way.
In 1968, trouble erupts when northern exploitation threatens her tiny southern Appalachian town. Some folks blame the trouble on progress, some blame the space race and men meddling with the moon’s cycles, and some blame Tina’s father. A past he has hidden catches up to him.
The clash of progressive ideas and small town values escalates the collision of a father’s past and present.
All That Is Hidden awards:
- Pacific Book Review finalist for fiction (May 20, 2025)
- American Legacy Book Awards finalist for Coming of Age (May 2025)
- Three 5-star Readers’ Favorite Reviews (May 2025)
- First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Southern Fiction (April 2025)
- First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Literary Fiction (April 2025)
- Winner of the Artisan Book Reviews Book Excellence Award (2022)
- Semifinalist in Serious Writer’s Book of the Decade contest (2022-2023)
Most fairy tales have happy endings, but is it too late for this one? After all, Mrs. Charlotte Rose Gordon is eighty-eight. This disgruntled town recluse has grown weary of fighting the dragons of her past—including the desire to clear her husband’s name of a 1918 crime.
Dragons of a different kind pursue Carrie Kruisselbrink.
During 1980, the summer of her private rebellion, Carrie defies parental expectations and pursues her café dream. While waiting for funding, she takes a job with Mrs. Gordon.
As Mrs. Gordon unfolds the story of her oppressive childhood and delightful friendship with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum, Carrie never expects to encounter her own fears and soul-searching.
In this modern-day fairy tale that weaves between 1980 and the early 1900s, Mr. Baum’s influence impacts each woman’s personal quests on a hero’s journey neither anticipates. Can Carrie and Mrs. Gordon find common ground in battling their respective dragons?
literary fiction, biographical fiction, dual timeline (1980 & early 1900s), historical fiction
A Hundred Magical Reasons awards:
- First Place in American Fiction Awards (American BookFest) for Literary Fiction (June 17, 2025)
- Hawthorne Prize Winner for Fiction (May 25, 2025)
- First Place in The BookFest for Literary Historical Fiction (April 2025)
- First Place in the Firebird Book Awards for Biographical Fiction (April 2025)
- Literary Titan Gold Book Award for Fiction (March 2025)
- Bronze Medal for the Illumination Book Awards for General Fiction (February 2025)
- Three 5-star Readers’ Favorite reviews
Two co-workers seek the same information. One wants to publish it; the other has good reasons to keep it hidden.
As Leslie Wickersham, Raymond University grants officer, seeks information to unravel a family mystery, English professor Gregory Stafford seeks an elusive interview with one more Buckwalter relative for his upcoming author biography. While Greg and Leslie guard coveted details from each other, her goals are further complicated by letters of blackmail threatening to reveal all she has worked hard to hide.
In this dual timeline novel alternating between 2015 and the 1950s, loyalty is tested and secrets abound when family honor collides with truth. Leslie grapples with the trade-off: how far will a person go to help a loved one thrive?
women’s fiction, dual timeline (2015 and 1950s)