BOOKS BY MY FRIENDS LAURY A. EGAN, CHERYL KING & DAVID R. YALE

JANUARY 18, 2024

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Welcome to Books By My Friends! Today we are featuring authors

• LAURY A. EGAN

• CHERYL KING

• DAVID R. YALE

BOOK: The Black Leopard's Kiss & The Writer Remembers

AUTHOR: LAURY A. EGAN

GENRE: Literary

BLURB: The two linked novellas feature magical realism and fluctuating time periods, with Orlando-esque touches. Both plunge the reader into the slippery world of an aging writer as she delves into half-remembered childhood memories and re-experiences volatile relationships. The primary character is Sidonie Ross, first at age sixty-four and several younger ages and, in the second work, at ages seventy and eleven. The swirling structure, with its interwoven narratives, deals with the treacherous nature of memory and how the writer dives into the past in order to illuminate and understand it; how unhealed wounds from childhood re-surface in adult consciousness like emotional thorns, especially those relating to shame, guilt, disappointment, betrayal, and rejection.

3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Of my thirteen published novels, these two novellas are the strangest and most creative. They also weave in some autobiographical details--my childhood house and location--and feature an older writer. The cover photo is a portrait of me at 12 painted by my mother and was perfect for some of the time periods/ages explored in the book.

BOOK: Under the Pawpaw Trees (Sitting on Top of the World 2)

AUTHOR: CHERYL KING

GENRE: Teen historical fiction

BLURB: Sequel to Sitting on Top of the World June's new normal: Her brother is gone, her dad is gone, her mother is grieving, and June must find her place in the world. Her beau Jimmy is her only tonic. But when tragedy strikes again, she knows exactly who to blame for all her sorrows: Paul Burnett, the railroad bull who started the chain of devastation when he killed her brother. June sets out on a dangerous journey to make him pay, hopping freight trains to get where she needs to go, and accidents, floods, and attacks plague her route to revenge. Then when she gets to the Burnett farm in Lafayette, Virginia, she learns the truth about what happened to her brother out on the rails, and she's drawn right back into the things that made her fall in love with this place a year ago - including Paul. Now she must decide where she belongs - with Paul and his family, or back home with Jimmy in Maynardville, where everything she holds dear is there under the pawpaw trees.

3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: * adores animals * enters writing contests for fun * enjoys all things chocolate

BOOK: No Free Soup for Millionaires

AUTHOR: David R. Yale

GENRE: Women's Fiction, Counter-Historical Fiction

BLURB: When blue collar workers confront a factory owner for stealing soup at a neighborhood meeting, he and his millionaire friends start a war against the community’s budding campaign for worker’s rights.

3 FUN FACTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 1. He escaped from a stalled New York subway train by torchlight during the 1965 Northeast blackout. 2. He ran a children’s recreation program in a tiny one-room building that got front-page news coverage. 3. When his characters sing, he writes original lyrics and melodies for them.

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JOY E. HELD is an author, educator, editor, entrepreneur, and literary citizen responsible for this site and its contents. She is the author of

Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2020)

Writer Wellness Workbook: A Guided Workbook and Journal to Accompany Writer Wellness: A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity (Headline Books, Inc., 2023)

The Mermaid Riot (Melange, 2024) Young Adult Historical Fantasy

She writes spicy historical fiction under a pen name.

She is the winner of multiple writing and book awards:

West Virginia Writers, Inc. Annual Writing Contest, Honorable Mention, Novel, 1998.

New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention, Writer Wellness, 2020.

Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist, Writer Wellness, 2021.

Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, Member of the Year, 2020.

Northeast Ohio Romance Writers of America, First Book Award, 2020.

She is an adjunct faculty member in the Southern New Hampshire University Online MFA Creative Writing.

She is a proud graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction.

She is a member of The Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Joy is the founder and CEO of My WRITEDAY Subscription Box for writers and readers.

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