One thing the new year will bring is a new addition to the Dogwood Press team, and that’s Randy Pierce, the Mississippi Supreme Court Justice and the author of Pain Unforgiven, a fine suspense novel released in 2011.
And I’m thrilled to announce that his follow-up, Magnolia Mud, will be unveiled in April 2014! It’s about a fictional governor’s race in Mississippi and is set in the southern part of our state, although there’s action in locations ranging from Leakesville to Jackson to Booneville. This is quality fiction… there’s suspense, humor, tragedy, and interesting characters that will get under your skin and stay with you…and you’ll get a really fascinating look behind the scenes at what goes on in a high-stakes political race in our state.
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| Randy’s first novel, which is currently out of print but available for download through Amazon Kindle |
What I can’t wait to show you is the Magnolia Mud book cover. It will be totally unique to our Dogwood Press covers, and something that I think will not only be totally appropriate to the subject matter, but an image that will make a strong impression.
John Floyd, Valerie Winn, Randy, and I had a blast this past Saturday (October 12) at the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs, where we put on a seminar for a group of nice folks. I discussed how I go about putting together the plots in my Oakdale series and bringing characters in and out of the different volumes; John, a short story ace if there ever was one, discussed the different markets out there (print and web) for aspiring writers of short fiction; Valerie described the meticulous–and brilliant–research she did about the city of New Orleans circa WWII for Forsaking Mimosa; Randy touched on some of his own research (and observations) as he put together Magnolia Mud. It was great fun, and the four of us were delighted at the different kinds of questions from the kind folks who attended. We even sold a few books afterward, too!
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| Some shadowy folks, here…that’s Randy, Valerie, John, and me
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One of my favorites places to speak is my hometown library in Starkville, Mississippi. It was great to see old friends and visit with folks I haven’t gotten to see in many years. One of them, Dr. Nancy Hargrove, bought a copy of Last Chance Texaco, and I had to remind her that the very first college course I took (English Composition I) was taught to me by none other than her thirty years ago. As I was quick to remind her, I’m not surprised that I didn’t make much of an impression then–last time I checked, Mississippi State University still hasn’t named an academic scholarship after me.
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| I made a B in her class and am proud of it to this day!
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A couple of schedule reminders: Valerie’s appearance at the Zonta festival in Pascagoula was moved to November 16 by Hurricane Karen or Tropical Storm Karen or Cloudy Day Karen or whatever that “storm” turned out to be. (Remember all the damage to your property? You don’t? That’s because there wasn’t any.)
Also, John and Valerie will be part of the annual Christmas Extravaganza at Main Street Books in Hattiesburg, and John and I will visit the public library in the Delta town of Belzoni together on December 5.
If you prefer a download to a hardback these days, here’s a complete list of our available titles on Amazon Kindle:
JOE LEE – THE MAGNOLIA TRIANGLE
JOE LEE – THE LONG ROAD HOME
JOE LEE – LAST CHANCE TEXACO
VALERIE WINN – FORSAKING MIMOSA
JOHN FLOYD – CLOCKWORK
JOHN FLOYD – DECEPTION
JOHN LEE – THE LEGEND OF ROGER
Randy’s new book will be available through Kindle around the time we start his Magnolia Mud tour in April, too.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our many stops this fall. For updated books signings and complete information about all Dogwood Press titles, please visit www.dogwoodpress.com.
Have a wonderful day, and keep reading!