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YA Appalachian Books
 
 
 

 

 

New Issue of Books for Readers with reviews of books by Sabaa Tahir, Rebecca Roanhorse, Julian Barnes, Jane Austen, Brandon Taylor, Joshua Leifer, Pauletta Hansel, Carter Sickel, Stephen King, and reviews by Joe Chuman, Elaine Durbach, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Joel Weinberger, Danny Williams--and more!

 

October 2024 Adventures in the
Written Word with Danny Williams


Meredith Sue Willis

MSW's Books

 
10-9-24

 

Featured MSW Books for October & November 2024:

City Built of Starships Book Cover Image

Soledad in the Desert  & The City Built of Starships 

 

This page is about Meredith Sue Willis, her teaching, projects, and books, which include novels and short fiction for adults; stories for children; and nonfiction on writing and the writing process. For a full list of her books, see the column on the right. Click here for information about MSW's upcoming appearances, teaching and workshops. There is also information for writers (Resources for Writers and A Journal of Practical Writing) along with reviews of all kinds of books and excellent things to watch, listen to, and read online. If you discover broken links or typographical errors, please email msw@meredithsuewillis.com.

 

 

September "Adventures in the Written Word"

 

 

Latest Reviews of MSW Books and
Videos of MSW:

New 5 star review of Dwight's House and Other Stories

Hilton Obenzinger Reviews Love Palace

 A Review of an MSW Novel Using as a Teaching tool for Writers

Libraries Today:  Interview with
Meredith Sue Willis about her writing and Their Houses

Video of MSW on "The Craft of Storytelling"


 

 

New Issue of Books for Readers with reviews of books by

Sabaa Tahir, Rebecca Roanhorse, Julian Barnes, Jane Austen, Brandon Taylor, Joshua Leifer, Pauletta Hansel, Carter Sickel, Stephen King, and reviews by Joe Chuman, Elaine Durbach, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Joel Weinberger, Danny Williams--and more!

 

 

 

Announcements

  • Issue # 236 of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readersis has reviews of Books by James Lee Burke, Kate DiCamillo, Donna Meredith, Elana Ferrante, Tana French, Joe Conason, Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, Ian McEwan, Cat Pleska, Illyon Woo, and more.
  • Books for Readers is soliciting reading suggestions and reviews of all kinds of books. I tend to review older books that I missed along the way and books from small and indie presses that deserve more attention. We desperately need alternatives to the handful of remaining (and way too powerful) Big Book Reviews. These publications, like all of us, have limited angles of vision. The antidote, IMHO, is lots of places sharing other world views and ideas. And YOU, dear reader, are invited to send me reviews (from little blurb length to substantial essays). Spread the word on what you're reading.
  • Don't miss the latest installment of Danny Williams's Adventures in the Written Word. Editor and writer Danny Williams tells amusing tales about writing and editing--and passes on some serious hints for writers at the same time.

 


Trespassers
MSW's Novel of the 1968 Sit-ins
at Columbia University

Trespassers Book Cover Image

"Trespassers, the final volume in Meredith Sue Willis's luminous Blair Morgan trilogy, brings its West Virginia-born heroine to the brink of adulthood and to the epicenter of her generations' rage...."

                -- Carol Herman in The Washington Times

More about Trespassers

 

 

 

We Miss George Lies

George was one of the great gentlemen of West Virginia Letters. Learn more about him here.

 

 

Women of Appalachia Speak

MSW and others reading at Women of Appalachia Project Women Speak at the Frank & Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State 4-13-24. Left to right: Patsy Kisner, Kristi Stevens Walke, Jennifer Browne, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Rose Smith, Meredith Sue Willis, Bonnie Proudfoot, Susan Truxell Sauter, ,Nathalie Sypolt, Cat Pleska.

 

 

Review of Love Palace

 Hilton Obenzinger says,  "In Martha, Meredith Sue Willis has created a great hardboiled narrator. She’s been hurt and pissed off,mainly by her two “rotters,” her father and her ex-husband, and the world that’s dealt her a tough hand, and she finds relief through sex and constant instability, confiding in her therapist, when she can afford her. She’s ready for change, and stumbles into the Love Palace, a church, a social center, and an organizing HQ for its elusive charismatic spiritual leader, and by happenstance she becomes its administrator. The Love Palace is among the last low-income housing buildings in the riverside New Jersey neighborhood being overrun by gentrification, and it becomes the focal point for a fight to save what’s left. The Love Palace is a catalyst, pulling together multiple lives and stories into a pulsating community. Martha ends up cajoled to marry a much younger man, scion of the rich couple who owns the Love Palace as a project of their church – or at least we think they own it. The Love Palace community fights eviction and demolition, and knowing who owns the building is crucial – and knowing the truth about the spiritual leader as well. The novel is filled with surprises and revelations as the mysteries peel away, and Martha grows increasingly capable of handling the madness of seduction, deceit, and betrayal. Love Palace, the novel, is a delight to read, and Martha is a tough character worth meeting again and again." 

Buy it from Bookshop.org or any of the usual online hardcopy suspects.  Also available as a Kindle book on Amazon, and for most e-reader formats at Smashwords.com.

 

 

"The Craft of Story Telling" video with Meredith Sue Willis

This video is presented by Samantha at Frances House. Frances House
offers copyediting, proofreading, and research assistance for fiction
authors who want their book to be at the top of everyone’s list. Based
in Canada, serving authors from all over the world, you may visit
Franceshouse.co for more information and to connect with Samantha.

For Writers

  • For marketing your books and for all indie-publishers, take a look at some free (and paid) tools at Kindlepreneur. Free QR codes among other things.
  • Notes on using "past habitual" passages in prose narrative:  this is the unspecified past of "she always used to" and "every Sunday in summer we would."  In fiction and other story telling, this is a natural drafting technique which often works best in finished stories when it comes into focus/leads to a very specific example of the habitual scene.  "Every Sunday after church we would gather for a cold dinner.  At least, we did until the fateful Sunday just before the war when Brother stood up and announce,..."

 

E-book Versions of MSW books

Meli's Way Ebook Cover ImageOradell at Sea Ebook Cover ImageLove Palace Ebook Cover Image
Dwight's House Ebook Cover Image
Higher Ground Ebook Cover ImageOnly Great Changes Ebook Cover ImageTrespassers Ebook Cover Image
A Space Apart Ebook Cover ImageRe-Visions Ebook Cover ImageOut of the Mountains Ebook Cover ImageThe City Bulit of Starships Ebook Cover Image

(To buy any of these books as e-books, click on the image. They are also available
at the Kindle Store and at the Nook Store as well as the
iBook store and other e-book stores.)

 

 

In Memoriam

pet parakeet

Taxicab Willis-Weinberger Extraoredinary
Budgerigar
March 2006-March 30,2020

 

 

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black horsey
Irene Weinberger Books.... an imprint of
Hamilton Stone Editions
Check us out!

 
Images and photos found on the various pages of this web site may be used by anyone, but please attribute the source when it is specified.
 

 

Creative Commons License
Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

 

 

 

Thanks Wikipedia