We publish our books as both print and ebooks and you'll find them available from online booksellers or through your favorite independent bookstores. See our favorites listed to the right.
Myrna Merron’s poems have the gift of a
well-turned image, as well as insight into human inner workings, digging deeper
and deeper, past the psychological and into the spiritual. Her explorations of
memory, family, and aging are tinged with sepia as well as acceptance.
--Marjorie Hudson, author of Accidental Birds of the Carolinas and Indigo Field
Available online or through your favorite bookstore.
Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she
saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. Or did she?
Lizzie was charged with the August 1892 murders, tried in a
court of law, and acquitted, but the court of public opinion convicted her
anyway and for the rest of her life she was hated, feared, reviled, and
shunned. But what if she really was innocent?
What if, in May 1927, with Lizzie near death, Emma,
Lizzie’s older sister, breaks decades of silence and grants a lengthy interview
to an eager young reporter from the Boston Globe? What if in that interview Emma reveals what really
happened that terrible August morning thirty-five years earlier? Her story
connects the known facts of the case with a few previously unknown to expose a
complex web of greed, petty jealousies, infidelity, loneliness, cruelty,
betrayal, and several serious mistakes in judgment.
This novel answers the prosecution’s central question, “If
not Lizzie, then who?” At that point only one question remains. Why was Emma’s
story never published?
C.F. Stice's historical novel is a fresh look at a story we all think we know. It's a great read!
Everything Was & Everything
Is tells four stories of fathers and sons, husbands and wives, long-held
friendships, aging, loneliness, and connection in the Twenty-First Century.
John T. Welch is a deep observer and a tender storyteller who brings readers
into his characters’ worlds and reminds us of our shared humanity. True
storytelling takes on a universality that transcends times and space. True
storytelling can heal. Welch achieves true storytelling in his collection of
novellas.
M. Ruth Little’s memoir, The Book
of Ruth, shows what happens when an artist and a historian inhabit the same
life. The ghosts she tames are those she carries from her childhood and those
she finds in the lost places of North Carolina. The artist examines those
ghosts from all sides and uses her art to understand them. The historian sees
old and forgotten houses, crab shacks, commercial and farm buildings. The
artist envisions the lives that once inhabited them, and the historian fights
to preserve them so that we may all remember.
In the dead of winter,
sixteen-year-old Ben Landry is exiled to a remote island in Lake Michigan,
learning to hunt with his uncle and cousin and hiding out from gangsters. On
his fi rst day there, he sees a girl at the edge of the woods, her long, white-blonde
hair swirling around her. Or is it merely a gust of wind, a rising spiral of
snow, and his imagination? Ben wants to be back home with his friends, his swim
team, and reliable Internet service. But his father’s enemies have threatened
him and his family. As Ben explores the island, the pale girl reappears. He
wins her trust and discovers she has a story to tell, of her past life and a
tragic death on the island. Ultimately, the unlikely duo become allies in a
battle against time and the dangers that stalk Ben. Will he survive, and if he
does, how will having befriended this haunting figure affect him? Will it
alter his relationships and change his life forever?
C.F. Stice adds another fine young adult novel to her list of publications. A great book for shared family reading.
Mirinda Kossoff took one flight in
her father’s Cessna Skyhawk as he piloted and navigated by landmarks that
revealed themselves through openings in the trees below. A short three years
later, he was dead at age fifty-six.
Memory of that ride fueled Kossoff’s desire to understand
who her father was and the forces that shaped him. And by extension, how he
shaped her life. Her need to know and to understand became a life-long pursuit.
The Rope of Life: A Memoir is a daughter’s story told
with love and compassion. Readers will come away wiser about family bonds and
the ways in which they can hurt or heal.
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Seventeen year-old DARLA KAYE DIAMOND, the child of carnival stunt motorcycle riders, dreams of a better life than the one into which she was born, but even with her gifts and talents will she be able to leave carnival life or will she discover that her choices merely allow her exchange one kind of carnival for another as people and circumstances conspire against her. 
Pretty
Much: A Memoir is the story of a girl named Clara, born when little girls wore
white ruffled dresses, though she preferred handmade brown jodhpurs she
stitched in pink. Clara, of necessity, grew into a woman who made her own way
in the world. No obstacle she encountered deterred her from having her own way,
“pretty much.” Her daughter, Betty, grew up in Clara’s shadow and then had to
find her way out from under it to realize her own dreams. 
Our first new book in 2019 is a poignant memoir that celebrates our shared humanity. Linda Patterson’s What We Do for Love: Cats in the Family explores the lessons she and we can learn from life with animals. Her cats amuse, annoy, confound, comfort, and delight. But her book is much more than a collection of cat stories. It shows us how love and loss are part of what it means to be human and how our animals can show us the way through dark as well as bright days.
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C.F. Stice's new book, Always Yours: Memoir of an Adopted Child, explores all these issues with good writing and compelling story-telling.
To buy Always Yours, please use this link. https://www.createspace.com/7192074
In her collection of essays, Peace Like a Monkey, Marya Plotkin brings her experience living and working in Tanzania home to the U.S. Her humor, empathy, tenderness, and insight bring East Africa to life for readers. Her visit to a nail salon turns into a lesson in the challenges of delivering health care in an impoverished country then into a story about the importance of personal connection. She and colleagues disregard the cynical wisdom that the person who appears to be injured by the side of the road may be a robber waiting for a sympathetic passer-by, and prove that the urge to be kind should prevail. She loses a valued book, only to find it months later, far from the place it went missing, and spins a tale of its travels that illustrates the flow of things and people in a world that values connection above all else. And then there is the monkey.To buy Peace Like a Monkey, please use this link. https://www.createspace.com/7197936
Mary Ann Claud's trilogy follows the generations of a legendary southern textile family. The third novel, Alex Dances, will appear in 2018.
Whirlygig: The Dancin' Man's Daughter: It’s 1999. Volly Brunson comes home to Parkersburg, SC, determined to resurrect the family’s failing textile business and to assume the responsibilities she has run away from for the past ten years. In her early thirties, with a failed relationship behind her and an MBA in hand, Volly faces an aging business, a dysfunctional family, and the But she’s smart and she’s ready. Or so she thinks.
Ellen Rogers writes great mysteries full of North Carolina locales and themes. Every time the bells over Lanie Montgomery's shop door ring, the reader looks up to see who has come in. It’s always someone interesting, funny, and sometimes dangerous.
Southern Pines, NC, horse country. Peaceful, beautiful. Deadly.
Deadly Trust is a fine who-done-it, well-plotted with good characters you will to be happy to see again in the sequel. Well, some of them are in jail now and some of them are dead, but Lanie Montgomery, her dogs and friends in their new adventures will be a treat.
Linda Hardister Rodriguez has published two novels with us, each based on a story she knows well from life.
On January 8, 1959, the triumphant Fidel Castro leads his forces through the streets of Havana. Thousands of Cubans celebrate, cheer him on, and dream of a better life. The corrupt dictator Batista is gone and democracy is here in the form of this savior, Fidel.
No one is more excited than 14-year-old Francisco. He makes his way through the crowd to come face-to-face with his new hero.
A short 20 months later, Francisco fears for his life as Castro’s government forces him to leave his family, his country, and his culture.
Fleeing the Sharks: A Cuban Family Story tells of a revolution’s broken promises, of shattered families driven from their homes, and of a nation betrayed. For years, author Linda Hardister Rodriguez listened to her husband’s Cuban family story and it caught hold of her imagination. The result is a story that places the reader in the shoes of a boy coming of age while one of the 20th Century’s most formative events destroys the world as he has known it.
Linda's first novel, Up From the River, tells a very American story.
Imagine. You are a small town southern factory worker--disabled on the job--and you believe what your boss, your surgeon, and the government bureaucracy tell you. Everything will be fine. All you have to do is wait. You will return to your middle class life. Imagine people lying to you. Linda Hardister Rodriguez explores the fragile edges of middle class American life in her novel, Up from the River.
Jasmine Kumalah is a brilliant young writer. We are proud to publish her first book.
Three young men are brutally murdered in a city where people are struggling to recover from a tragic civil war. Detective Alu is given the job of finding out who killed them, and why.
Holding Demons in Small Jars
Landis Wade's Courtroom Adventure Series combines legal expertise and gentle humor. You'll want to read all three.
The Christmas Heist: A Courtroom Adventure
Remember watching out the window for snow to start falling? Remember hoping for a snow day? Sea Snow by Leslie and Lindsay Bigoness will stir all of those memories. You'll share a day of adventure with their characters, Bailey and Skye. The illustrations by Susanne Frueh will further transport you. Share this book with a child, or curl up on your own to dream with it.
Sea Snow is available as a beautiful limited-edition book. For information about ordering, email seasnowbook@gmail.com or lystrabooks@gmail.com.
In After the Race, Michael B. Jones has written a father and son drama to rival
Nora Gaskin is the founder of Lystra Books & Literary Services. Her new novel, The Worst Thing, will appear in 2018. Please read her first novel and the non-fiction book that is related to it.
Time of Death by Nora Gaskin.
A murder 1963 on Christmas Eve began a long search for justice. The search ended with justice half-served. And innocent man was exonerated, but a murderer went free, too. This true story contains the seeds that became Nora's novel, Until Proven.
Until Proven: A Mystery in 2 Parts by Nora Gaskin.
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| Until Proven: A Mystery in 2 Parts |
The two families aggrieved by the first murder suffer again with the second—and find that four decades are not enough for healing. When the old scars are torn off by the second murder, the pain of each is magnified.
Tim Keim is an accomplished and talented yoga teacher.
Dynamic Dozen: 12 Accessible Yoga Poses for Bone Density, Strength, and Balance by Tim Keim provides the knowledge you need for health and healing. Watch for Tim, reading and teaching. http://timkeim.wordpress.com/
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