In celebration of National Library Week 2019, the Winston County Library will be hosting a myriad of award winning authors. On Monday, April 8 authors, Janet Brown and Joe Lee will be at the library from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.
On Tuesday, April 9 Jim McAdory, an Agriculture and Natural Resource Agent with the Extension office will speak on raised beds and container gardens from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
The library will host Bingo with Venita beginning at 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 10. Historian and author Tony Turnbow will be at the library to present a Natchez Trace History program at 11:30 a.m., Friday, April 12.
Janet Brown is the author of three previously published books, numerous articles, short stories, and poetry. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, was a writer and editor for University Publications, and taught creative writing at Arkansas State University. She is the winner of an Eppie and is twice a winner of the Eudora Welty Fiction Award for the Novel. A proud mother of three and grandmother of two, she has traveled extensively but considers Mississippi her home.
In Brown’s book, Emily Durham appears to have it all—an accomplished, hard-working husband named Alex, three beautiful young children, and a lovely old home in the wilds of South Dakota after a move six weeks ago from her native Mississippi.
What’s missing, though, is warmth. The mind-numbing winter cold and the bleak, desolate surroundings underscore the growing disconnect between Emily and Alex, a rising executive with a cutting-edge IT firm. A young mom, she’s now a thousand miles from home and isolated in a strange, barren land where she knows no one.
So it’s disconcerting when she sees—or thinks she sees—a young girl in a yellow dress in her home on an especially frigid afternoon just before Alex arrives from work. This coincides with the news that her estranged father has passed away, and when Emily returns to the Ross Barnett Reservoir area of Madison County, her world turns upside down when she’s not only visited at the wake by an old boyfriend, but the young girl in the yellow dress makes another appearance—and causes a car crash.
Once back in South Dakota, the chill between Emily and Alex becomes more pronounced. When she finally begins to question her sanity, it’s time to do some digging into this mysterious cutting-edge technological enterprise—and Alex’s somewhat spooky business partner. Suddenly Emily doesn’t know who to trust, including M.A. Klugh, the enigmatic detective she hires.
A tightly-written, haunting tale of just how far enterprising scientists are willing to take their highly-secretive mind-control experiments, Mississippi author Janet Brown’s DEADLY VISITS explores the concept of good and evil through a technological medium that wouldn’t have been possible even a few short years ago. You’ll never look at your cell phone again the same way.
Joe Lee has a background in radio, television, and journalism and was a radio disc jockey and a television weatherman before becoming a full-time writer. He is Editor-in-Chief of Dogwood Press, a small but traditional publishing house headquartered in Brandon, and has published ten different Mississippi authors including former WLBT chief meteorologist Barbie Bassett, Derringer Award-winning short story author John Floyd of Brandon, and former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Randy Pierce. A graduate of Mississippi State University, Joe has over 1,000 non-fiction news and feature stories to his credit and writes for several Mississippi newspapers and magazines. 40 Days, the sixth volume of his critically-acclaimed Oakdale series, is his eighth novel. He lives in Brandon, Mississippi, with his family.
In Lee’s book photojournalist Duane Key is almost fifty when the first clue gets his attention: a text message refers to his upcoming milestone birthday as 40. Flattery will get you everywhere, he replies. Several days later, as he’s being bombarded with the number 35 (the price of a can of green beans, the morning temperature, a song on a radio countdown), he mentions the numerical coincidences to an old friend but finds them more curious than troublesome.
That soon changes as Duane, a devoted father but a flawed man, feels a strong need to ask forgiveness of the people he has hurt and even goes to a priest for guidance. He ends his romance with a woman half his age, then attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife and grown daughter when he learns that his ex is near death.
The numbers keep coming—20, 19, 18—and it soon dawns on Duane what really might be at stake: he might not live past the countdown. Which, based on the calendar, ends Easter Sunday.
His concern—swiftly bordering on fright—increases each day. Who’ll take him seriously if he shares his deepest fears? The priest? His wife? His best friend? His girlfriend, who he loves with all his heart? Six-year-old Chad, the son Duane absolutely adores? And what if Duane, after feeling strongly enough to make major revisions in his will, is wrong about everything?
Taking place in the seemingly serene Mississippi community of Oakdale, 40 Days is a story of redemption, forgiveness, and the ultimate leap of faith for a man who realizes he must do better..
Tony L. Turnbow has studied the history of the Old Natchez Trace for more than 30 years. He practices law in Franklin, Tennessee. With a Bachelor of Arts and a concentration in southern U.S. history from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law, he has continued to use his training to explore unpublished primary sources about the Natchez Trace. He authored “The Natchez Trace in the War of 1812” in The Journal of Mississippi History, and he has published articles in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly and the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation journal “We Proceeded On.” He also wrote a full-length play “Inquest on the Natchez Trace” about the mysterious death of explorer Meriwether Lewis. Mr. Turnbow represented the Natchez Trace Parkway Association on the Tennessee War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, and he was the recipient of the Tennessee Society U.S. Daughters of 1812 “Spirit of 1812” award.
In the course of writing a book about Lewis’s death, Mr. Turnbow discovered unpublished accounts of Andrew Jackson’s 1813 Natchez Expedition. He spent seven years tracking down additional letters, journals, and other records to piece together details of what he considers one of the most pivotal events in Jackson's life. Kirkus Reviews calls his new book Hardened to Hickory: The Missing Chapter in Andrew Jackson's Life "An impressive combination of scrupulous scholarship and powerful storytelling."
