One Month Until I hit the Pacific Crest Trail…by Ken LaSalle, author of Heaven Enough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BA0j0I0hq0&feature=em-subs_digest
Ken LaSalle, author of Heaven Enough, a story of love lost, found, and eternal on the Pacific Crest Trail. Published by Limitless Publishing Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency
Loss, suffering and grace enrich the soul of A Good Girl
by Jim Fraiser
For the Sun Herald
One of the great pleasures of reviewing books is that of discovering rare jewels, especially those written by up-and-coming Mississippi writers.
One of 2017’s best will surely be A Good Girl by Ocean Springs author Johnnie Bernhard, who as much as any writer since Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy, offers a breathtaking tour of the human heart in conflict with itself, desperately searching for grace and redemption in the face of unremitting loss.
Bernhard’s is a story of a troubled family of Irish descent, whose forebears survived centuries of British-enforced “servitude and ethnic cleansing,” only to endure a diseased “coffin ship” trip to America. But historical suffering only sets the stage for Bernhard’s modern tale seen through the eyes of Biloxi resident, Gracey Mueller Reiter, who feels the guilt of not having supported her deceased mother and father as she should have when they were living and dying.
“My dad died last night,” Bernhard has Reiter say. “All I could think of is how much more I should have loved him, and stayed with him to the end. I left my father alone to die … in his shame and loneliness.”
Reiter knows she served her mother in much the same manner: “I saw her sitting alone and worried,” Reiter confesses. “I knew her pain and walked away from it.”
Sadly, this is a universal story, one that reminds us that we all suffer irredeemable loss and having no way to redeem ourselves with those we failed, we must seek redemption elsewhere.
Lest you think that reading this novel is a form of suffering in itself, or if you’re accustomed to thriller novels and believe this is very far from your thing, remember that few writers share this rising author’s capacity for living, breathing prose that oozes the very substance of humanity from every pore.
Bernhard’s sentences are filled with the stuff of what blues and country music singers refer to as “soul” and “high lonesome.” She begins this novel with the poignant phrase, “I am lost,” and soon notes that Reiter’s father was “the last of a chaotic gene pool, with one leg left and a body oozing with cancer.”
She even uses scene-setting description to further elucidate Reiter’s inner turmoil: “But as the sun climbed higher in the sky, the day with all its expectations and disappointments was rising around her as the traffic increased on the (Biloxi Bay) bridge.”
As with all novels painting our communal suffering on recognizable canvases, there is a silver lining to every well-drawn cloud — if we have the patience to discover it. As Reiter’s priest reminds her, “Confession is not a torture chamber. You should look at it as a second baptism.”
Even Bernhard’s choice of artists for her book’s cover art — oft-awarded Mississippi painter Grady Byrd of Ocean Springs —only serves to prepare the reader for a heart-warming story of redemption that he or she will remember long after Easter, St. Patrick’s Day and Passover have given way to the dog days of summer.
A Good Girl by Johnnie Bernhard Publisher: Texas Review Press (March 28, 2017) Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency https://loiaconoliteraryagency.com/authors/johnnie-bernhard/
Read and listen to Kathryn Brown Ramsperger talk about a multitude of subjects leading up to the release of her first novel, The Shores of Our Souls (July 2017).
January 17, 2017 – Judith Briles’ AuthorU – “10 Tips for Publishing Success (especially if you have an MFA)” By Kathryn Brown Ramsperger http://authoru.org/10-publishing-tips-for-publishing-successfully.html
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An Interview with Sacha Sterling
http://shoresofoursouls.com/2017/03/an-interview-with-sacha-sterling/
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Creation + Innovation = Revolution
http://shoresofoursouls.com/2017/01/creation-innovation-revolution/
Jeanne Skarsiaris and Jeanie Loiacono, her agent @ Loiacono Literary Agency Published by Black Opal Books
Friday evening, Jeanne Skartsiaris’s book launch for Dance Like You Mean It at Dunn Bros Coffee was a grand success! What a turn out! If you want to have a FUN book launch or signing, book the room @ Dunn Brothers Coffee – Addison, TX 3725 Belt Line Rd, Addison, TX 75001. They have coffee, wine, and beer, along with all kinds of great eats!
If you could not make it, the next book signings are April 1, 2017 @ Southlake B&N and April 2nd @ Half Priced Books Northwest Hwy; both from 1-3pm.
A dilemma some writers run into, that the protagonist in Skartsiaris’s novel most certainly does, is how to write a book that is out of character or genre and still be able to market and promote it without criticism, ridicule, or shame. Cassie writes a racey romance using a pseudonym and it skyrockets to the top of the best seller list, but she is a wife, mother, and a respectable nurse in a major hospital. On top of all that, she is obligated to promote the book.
As an agent, I have run into this several times, making this most realistic. Dance Like You Mean It is a must read for any writer or person who has to think or step outside the box to do what they are passionate about. Take that chance!
Thomas E. Simmons book launch for The Last Quinn Standing (book two of the Quinn Saga)– Gulfport B&N, Cross Roads Shopping Center, Saturday, March 11th 2:pm to 5:pm!
You will also be able to get ALL of his books personally autographed: The Man Called Brown Condor – MWSA Gold Medal winner- 2015 (Skyhorse Publishing) AND the recipient of the Mississippi Historical Society’s Award of Merit (March 4, 2017), Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts of Ordinary Soldiers Land, Sea, and Air – MWSA Gold Medal winner- 2016 (Taylor Trade Publishing) Escape from Archangel (University of Mississippi Press) and By Accident of Birth (book one of the Quinn Saga – TouchPoint Press) Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency Thomas E. Simmons
Jeanne Skartsiaris’s Dance Like You Mean It Launch Party!
Friday, March 10th – 7:00-8:30pm, Dunn Bros Coffee, Book Signing and Party! Y’all come and enjoy Texas hospitality, meet Jeanne, and get an autographed copy of an awesome book; one which will encourage closet writers and support those who have taken that first step, or have even been published before! Dunn Brothers Coffee – Addison, TX3725 Belt Line Rd, Addison, TX 75001
Jeanne Skartsiaris, author of Dance Like You Mean It, will speak for Fresh Fiction www.freshfiction.com @ Chocolate Angel Cafe & Tea Room https://www.chocolateangel.com Campbell Road Village Shopping 635 W Campbell Rd # 310, Richardson, TX 75080 (972) 234-8099 Monthly Afternoon Tea at the Chocolate Angel Cafe & Tearoom – Come have tea with us on the second Saturday of every month (except June and November). Enjoy scones while talking about your favorite books. Afternoon Tea costs $25. Sat, March 11, 2017 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM CST Special Guest is Jeanne Skartsiaris You are always welcome to bring your books for trade. Don’t miss out on any North Texas events! Sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Three chances to meet Judge Douglas McCullough, author of Sea of Greed!
March 18, 2017 9 AM Hilton Doubletree, 100 Middle St, New Bern, NC 28560 (252) 638-3585 uspsd27.org
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March 27, 2017@ 6:30pm Wayne Community College Memorial Drive, Goldsboro, NC www.waynecc.edu
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April 5, 2017 @ 6:00 pm Craven County Bar Chelsea Bistro 335 Middle St. New Bern, NC
www.cravencountybar.org
Missed Amanda Matti’s interview on VOC Radio? No worries! Listen now!
Amanda Matti on Veterans Operations Command (VOC) Radio March 5, 2017
https://soundcloud.com/user-937783808/voc-radio-march-5-2017-amanda-matti#t=15:20
Johnnie Bernhard, author of A Good Girl, is pictured with Dr. Kim Vaz-Deville, author of The Baby Dolls: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition, presented at the 2017 Jambalaya Writer’s Conference in Houma, Louisiana on March 4, 2017. Both authors were presenters at the 2016 Words and Music Literary Feast of New Orleans.
