News/Announcments

Here at last...

January 22, 2007

My new novel, titled NOW YOU KNOW, has arrived in bookstores.

NOW YOU KNOW is the story of three grown sisters who are uneasily and unwillingly reunited the summer after their mother's death with her lifelong intimate friend yet polar opposite, Libba Charles, a mercurial, contradictory, fascinating author. Alice, Allegra and Edie have long felt excluded from the two women’s relationship. The sisters resent Libba for siphoning away their mother’s love and attention, for using details of their lives in her fiction, for inheriting their family’s beloved summer cottage, and suspect as well that she assisted Frances’s dying. Yet "Look after Libba" were their mother’s final words. When unforseen circumstances keep Alice, Allegra and Edie near to Libba, their own struggles and failures — infidelity, fears of worthlessness, alcoholism — surface. Against the flashbacked history of Libba and Frances’s intense, devoted friendship, the sisters confront not only their own issues as grown women, but the stunning reasons behind an unshakeable intimacy they have simultaneously admired, envied, and resented.

The story takes place in the North Carolina mountains, and I very much had Black Mountain and Montreat in mind when I wrote it. This is my first novel with a third-person point of view rather than a first person. Ultimately, NOW YOU KNOW examines dynamics between sisters, between mothers and daughters, and the compromises and commitments women face in marriage, children, and careers. Most of all, though, because this is what I do, NOW YOU KNOW portrays not only the powerful alchemy of women’s friendship -- the devotion and details that comprise it -- but the obligations and sacrifices that love compels us to make.

Like many retail businesses, bookstores order from reps, and your local bookseller may have -- huge mistake...! -- not selected NOW YOU KNOW from last year's catalog. Just ask them to order it. NOW YOU KNOW is also available on amazon.com, where it's listed as NOW YOU KNOW, A NOVEL, bn.com, and booksense.com.

Events

April 7, 2009

Tuesday, April 7, 2009: Bookclub appearance at "The Women's Reading Club;" Winston-Salem NC 10:30 a.m.

April 1, 2009

April 1, 2009: High Point Literary League luncheon and book signing. 12:00 noon. High Point, NC

February 26, 2009

February 26, 2009: "Author! Author!" appearance for St. Catherine's School Auction, Richmond VA. 7:30 p.m.

October 21, 2008

October 21, 2008: Bookclub appearance, Greensboro NC 12:00 noon.

October 14, 2008

October 14, 2008: Bookclub appearance, Winston-Salem NC. 12:00 noon

October 10, 2008

October 13, 2008: Bookclub appearance, Greensboro NC. 12:00 noon.

September 2, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008: Bookclub appearance, noon. Atlanta GA

May 28, 2008

May 28, 2008: Bookclub appearance, Greensboro NC. 7:00 p.m.

May 9, 2008

May 9, 2008: book club appearance, Greensboro NC 11:00 a.m.

April 26, 2008

Saturday, April 26: Writers and Readers Festival, Jamestown Public Library. 9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Jamestown, NC.

April 24, 2008

April 24, 2008: Eat, Think, and Be Merry. 3rd Annual Author Event to benefit Planned Parenthood. 6:30-9:30 p.m. Contact Sharon Dooley, 336/373-0678 ext.123

April 1, 2008

April 1, 2008: Barnes & Noble, Greenville NC, 7:00 p.m.

March 4, 2008

March 4, 2008, 11:00 a.m.: Study Club appearance, High Point NC

February 14, 2008

Thursday, February 14, 2008, 11:30 a.m. Lecture Club appearance. Greensboro, NC.

February 12, 2008

February 12, 2008: Bookclub appearance, 7:00 p.m. Southern Pines, NC.

January 8, 2008

January 8, 2008, 12:00 p.m. Bookclub appearance, Greenville NC.