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Book Review: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
I’ll admit I was “influenced” by Reese Witherspoon’s official book club to put Clare Leslie Hall’s book Broken Country on my TBR list. I didn’t know much about it other than it was a mystery, but I requested it on my Libby app anyway. I knew it would take a few months to become available, and that was fine with me because I wasn’t lacking for anything to read when I requested it. But gradually, I noticed many of my friends on Goodreads completing the book and rating it favorably. To be transparent, I’ve read books praised by Reese’s list before that didn’t blow me away, so I added Broken Country with a…
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Create Vivid Settings In Your Writing This Summer
I often struggle to find my writing groove in the summer. This past year, I officially became an “empty nester” with two kids away at college from August through May. Their absence has given me more time to write. When the kids were younger, I had a hard time balancing my summer schedule with pool time, enrichment activities, and work. I’ve been freelancing or working remote for most of my career, so this is nothing new. But among the juggling, I embrace the opportunities for new ideas I always find during my summer breaks and travels. Last summer, we rented a home in the Boone/Blowing Rock area of North Carolina to help my…
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The Disappearance of Tyler Doyle from South Carolina
On January 26 of 2023, 22-year-old South Carolina resident Tyler Doyle went duck hunting off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a friend in a 16-foot jon boat and has been missing ever since. It was a rough day on the water and there was a small craft advisory out that afternoon. He dropped his friend off at the north jetty on the Intracoastal Waterway and traveled further out in the boat to put out some duck decoys, staying in contact by phone. The friend lost sight of Doyle as he went around the south jetty. Not long after, Doyle called the friend to say the boat was having mechanical issues and…
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Celebrating Five Years of Podcasting!
When I started my true crime podcast Missing in the Carolinas five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints) and inspire me to broaden the context of my storytelling. I’m not going to lie–it’s been a labor of love. I don’t have a team, other than a few family members (you know who you are!) and I don’t make a profit off the podcast. I believe that I could make money off…
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Who Murdered Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey in Asheville, N.C.?
In 1986, a free vacation getaway turned into a nightmare for an Ohio couple visiting Asheville, North Carolina. Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey, ages 33 and 29, respectively, had traveled to the area from Hanover Township, Ohio, after winning a three-day trip to Asheville through Wesley’s job. The couple had been staying at a nearby hotel, the Great Smokies Hilton, and a member of the maid service saw them come out of their room as they left for a day of sightseeing on May 18, 1986. Their bodies were found early the next morning by a group of teenage boys. They had both been shot multiple times with a .38-caliber handgun. Buzzard Rock is…
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Book Review: Trespassers and Other Stories by Áine Greaney
Hello again, fellow readers! On April 5, I shared the details about author Áine Greaney’s new short story collection, Trespassers and Other Stories, and wrote about a time and place where I personally struggled to fit into a new environment. Today I’m back to share my thoughts after reading the book in support of her participation in WOW’s Blog Tours. Book Summary From coastal Massachusetts to rural Ireland, the characters in Trespassers struggle to reconcile past and present, place and displacement, loss and hope. A woman travels from her Massachusetts home to her native Irish village to care for her estranged and sick father. Back in her childhood home, she comes face-to-face with…
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Book Review: The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner
When Jennifer Weiner announced the plot for her latest novel, The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. Weiner is well known in publishing for her exploration of the complicated female relationships we all experience, especially as mothers, daughters, and sisters, and this book examines all that and more against the backdrop of the music industry in the early 2000s. Synopsis: Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were thrust into the spotlight as The Griffin Sisters, a pop duo that defined the aughts. Together, they skyrocketed to the top, gracing MTV, SNL, and the cover of Rolling Stone. Cassie, a musical genius who never felt at ease in…
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Book Spotlight: Trespassers and Other Stories by Áine Greaney
Today I’m excited to participated in the WOW! Women on Writing blog tour for Áine Greaney, in support of her book, Trespassers and Other Stories. Learn more about the book below, and read through to the end to hear about a time in my life when I struggled to fit into a new place. Book Summary From coastal Massachusetts to rural Ireland, the characters in Trespassers struggle to reconcile past and present, place and displacement, loss and hope. A woman travels from her Massachusetts home to her native Irish village to care for her estranged and sick father. Back in her childhood home, she comes face-to-face with previously unspoken losses. A wealthy couple…
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Why I Love the Libby App
When my kids were younger, I used to frequent the library almost weekly, even more during the months of June, July, and August when the summer reading programs were in full swing. During the height of the pandemic, my visits came to a screeching halt. I was focused on keeping my job as a magazine editor and trying to launch a podcast. I knew there was an app called OverDrive that was supposed to allow you to check out books from the library digitally on your Kindle, but I found it clunky and difficult to use. Around 2022 I discovered the Libby app, which is owned by OverDrive but much more user-friendly. All I…
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Who Murdered Pamela Mitchell Hoy?
On July 25, 1990, 41-year-old Pamela Mitchell Hoy had dinner with her husband Fred Hoy at a Burlington restaurant, and then went home and packed her gray Dodge van with her clothes and grooming tables, exercise runs, and crates. Pam raised and showed Italian greyhounds and was preparing for a trip that would take her to South Carolina the next day to a competition. She had plans to take her 11-year-old daughter on that trip. She went back inside the house to give her oldest daughter a magazine before leaving. She was expected at her parents’ home later that evening around 10:30 p.m., but never arrived. Pam Hoy grew up in the Greensboro…