Tuesday 04/23/2024 at 11:00 AM
C. E. Smith
(A Pocket Wild: Notes from a Carolina Marsh) at Hot Fish Club
C.E. (Chip) Smith is "the voice" for the natural world in Murrells Inlet. Known and loved for his brilliant black-and-white photography and his piercing, evocative essays on what he calls this "pocket wild" – essays that grew from articles published in his weekly newspapers the "Inlet Image" and "Barefoot Messenger," and in the much-missed "Lowcountry Companion" – and respected by area scientists for his rational analysis of "the data" and its implications for our future, Chip doesn't just talk the talk. In post-Hugo 1992, he started the now-regionally recognized "Spring Tide" clean-up of the creek, when more than 600 Inlet enthusiasts brought in 75-150 tons of trash and hurricane debris. For the first decade the yearly haul ranged from 12-15 tons and, in recent years (under the auspices of Murrells Inlet 2020), between 300-400 volunteers annually harvest about 3-5 tons of flotsam and jetsam out of the marsh and from along the roadways – an improvement but a job without end. His lyrical, informative essays celebrate the natural workings of the Inlet marsh while soberly examining the effects of economic development. Reading Chip will send you marshside to explore for yourself . . . or get you googling to learn more. Whether you’re a "been-yere" or a "come-yere," you will find new knowledge, new understanding, and new feelings of protectiveness for this "pocket wild" from a prose poet who loves the place, learns all he can, and shares it with you.
$35

Saturday 04/27/2024 at 11:00 AM
Billy Baldwin, Macon Rutledge & Hannah Marley
(Archibald Rutledge's How Wild Was My Village) at McClellanville Town Hall catered by Joe’s Catering/Buckshot's
The second CLASS Publishing reprint of Archibald Rutledge's work "How Wild Was My Village" (first published for brief circulation in 1969) has an interesting literary origin and history, which William (Billy) Baldwin (who should be the current SC poet laureate) recounts in his new Foreword to the book. The question posed to the village residents (all renamed to protect the guilty) is "what was the defining moment of your life," which some recount from beyond the grave while others from living memory. With bold illustrations by D.P. McGuire and set in free verse poetry, the tales told are filled with violence, longing, regret, fear, betrayal, redemption and love – all of the burdens of humanity, whether the stage is a metropolis or a tiny community like McClellanville.
$40

Monday 05/06/2024 at 11:00 AM
Johnathon Scott Barrett
(Ship Watch) at Pawleys Tap House & Grill
Set around the renowned and historical homestead at the center of the drama, "Ship Watch" weaves together six intertwined relationships that extend from the gentrified city of Savannah and into the wealthy enclaves of Sea Island, Highlands, and Atlanta's Buckhead. The novel's characters are drawn in the loom by the family's elegantly formidable matriarch, Grand Martha, and form a multi-generational tapestry that includes the misfortunes of divorce and betrayal – but in more and even better measure opportunities for redemption, rediscovery, and the rarified gift of 'second love.' By combining an encompassing setting having a solid sense of place along with characters that are captivating and rather extraordinary, "Ship Watch" is a sometimes bittersweet, yet often comedic, Southern tour-de-force debut novel. Heretofore, Johnathon, a seventh-generation Georgian who has a deep appreciation for the history, foodways, and culture of the South, has been celebrated for his highly readable, highly eatable, and highly entertaining cookbooks – "Cook & Tell," "Rise & Shine," and "Cook & Celebrate!"
$35

Wednesday 05/15/2024 at 11:00 AM
Roger Jones
(The Final Victory) at The Village House
Based on true events, "The Final Victory" is an exhilarating debut novel that acts as a "metaphor not only for the struggle to survive but also a pathway for redemption." After he is diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, Tripp Avery feels like all is lost. He finds himself coaching a team of twelve men and eight women with cancer diagnoses of their own, hoping to qualify for the Mixed Masters Dragon Boat national championship and defy their prognoses. If they win, they will represent the United States at the International Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong. But soon things get complicated, as four of Tripp's teammates struggle with physical limitations and the psychological weight of their conditions. Members of the team collapse under the pressure and one is hospitalized. Faced with confronting his own failings and struggling to find a way forward, Tripp begins to question his motives, wondering if the win is worth the trauma. Despite the odds, he resolves to rally the team toward a comeback that seems impossible, if only for one final victory. In author Jones' case, the businessman, philanthropist, humanitarian and avid athlete completed his first novel – a goal set during a 2012 trip to East Germany to receive an intensive radiation treatment for neuroendocrine cancer – after attending many writing classes and conferences and by following the oft-voiced advice: Write what you know. Pre-publication accolades from Mary Alice Monroe, Cassandra King, Bill Curry, Patti Henry and Jeffrey Blount ring with heartfelt praise for Roger Jones' debut.
$35

Tuesday 05/21/2024 at 11:00 AM
Deb Richardson-Moore
(Through the Window) at Hot Fish Club
Riley Masterson has moved to the vibrant city of Greenbrier, SC, anxious to escape the chaos that has overwhelmed her life. Questioned in a murder in Alabama, she has spent eighteen months under suspicion by a sheriff's office unable to make an arrest. But things in gentrifying Greenbrier are not as they seem. Her cousin has an ulterior motive for inviting Riley into her home, and pieces of Riley's past shadow her. As she struggles to forge a new life, forces are gathering in the tension-plagued neighborhood where glitzy new homes rise alongside crumbling mill houses, and everyone, it seems, is able to peer into a neighbor's window. When murder explodes, someone unexpected is caught in the crossfire. Detectives are left to ponder: Are the deaths personal or the result of rich and poor living in such close proximity? And will Riley take the blame as someone so meticulously planned? Author of five fiction titles and a memoir, "The Weight of Mercy," about her early years as a pastor at the Triune Mercy Center in Greenville, S.C., Deb is a former national award-winning reporter for "The Greenville (SC) News" and a popular speaker at book clubs, universities and churches. She has won numerous awards for community involvement, including the 2020 Humanitarian Award by Upstate Housing Connections and the 2017 Leadership Greenville Distinguished Alumni Award.
$35

Wednesday 05/29/2024 at 11:00 AM
C. Hope Clark
(Edisto Bullet) at Quigley’s Next Door
In Book Ten of this mystery series, when a storm blows out power to half the beach, all hell breaks loose on Edisto Beach. Police Chief Callie Morgan is called to investigate a break-in at El Marko's, the restaurant owned by the man who's unexpectedly become a real part of her life. Then she sees Mark slide an unspent .41 caliber bullet from the bar into his pocket. A bullet seemingly left as a calling card. A bullet he has no intention of mentioning to her. Before they got involved, Callie knew ex-SLED agent Mark Dupree had a past, one he kept carefully buttoned-up and private around her. She understood, but now that past has come calling and his secrets could get someone killed. Suddenly, the man she thought she knew so well is disappearing, lost in secrets he won’t share. Soon more bullets are left as warnings, all on the doorsteps of people in Mark's life. Adding to the uncertainty and chaos is a new-to-town physic, warning anyone who will listen that she sees danger around Mark, vowing that within six days someone will die. The hell of it is, Callie isn't certain the psychic is wrong. She's got six days to unearth a past Mark doesn't want her to know and to protect the town she loves from whatever blew in with the storm.
$35

Wednesday 06/05/2024 at 11:00 AM
Caroline Cleveland
(When Cicadas Cry) at The Village House, Litchfield
As the founding partner of the Charleston law firm Cleveland & Conley, LLC, Caroline Cleveland represents private and public employers, including law enforcement. A native South Carolinian, she inevitably writes from a Southern perspective. She gravitates – both as a writer and a reader – toward mystery and suspense, unable to resist a character with a dark secret. In this stunning debut by a South Carolina attorney, Zach Stander, a lawyer with a past, and Addie Stone, his indomitable detective and lover, find themselves entangled in secrets, lies, and murder in a small Southern town. A high-profile murder case—A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tension, this is not only a murder case, but a powder keg. A haunting cold case—Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander's case? A killer who's watching - Stander takes on Jenkins' defense, but he's up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them? Ideal for fans of mystery, suspense, and thrillers in the vein of Karin Slaughter's "Pretty Girls" and Stacy Willingham's "A Flicker in the Dark," as well as for readers who followed the high-profile Murdaugh murder trial, held in the same small town as in "When Cicadas Cry."
$35

Tuesday 06/11/2024 at 11:00 AM
Zackary Vernon
(Our Bodies Electric) at Caffe Piccolo
Welcome home a native son … graduate of Waccamaw High School and a precocious art, lit and film student who used to visit the chocolate shop next door to Art Works when it was home to the Moveable Feast and so much more for 20+ years. These days, Zackary Vernon is a writer and scholar based in Boone, NC, an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University. His work has appeared in a range of magazines and journals, including "The Bitter Southerner," "Carolina Quarterly," and "Southern Cultures," and he received the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize from the "North Carolina Literary Review." In his debut novel, a Southern teenager struggles to understand his gender and sexuality amongst a conservative, religious family, but he finds comfort in the writings of Walt Whitman and support from a cast of eccentric small-town characters. Our Bodies Electric is a coming-of-age story (“Poignant and comic,” says Ron Rash, the acknowledged arbiter of quality Southern writing) that celebrates the exuberance of youth, the individual quest for sexual identity, and the joy of finding connections in the most unexpected of places.
$35

Wednesday 06/19/2024 at 11:00 AM
Margaret Seidler, author, and John W. Jones, artist
(“Payne-ful” Business: Charleston's Journey to Truth) at Litchfield Country Club
This recent release coincided with an exhibit at the Charleston City Gallery displaying the original artwork created by Jones to illustrate the shocking discovery of ancestral ties by Seidler, a native and eighth generation Charlestonian. Instead of the medical genetic markers that were her object, the author discovered her Payne ancestors' bustling slave brokerage business on Broad Street, which supported the city's deep-seated and undeniable role in promoting the economic system of slavery. "'Payne-ful' Business: Charleston's Journey to Truth" follows Margaret Seidler's mission to learn and process her family's genealogical past. Using extensive research and personal experience, Seidler discusses the realities of Charleston's racial history while highlighting the historians, journalists, and community members who work to reconcile those truths. The book features authentic, historic slave advertisements brought to life by vivid paintings by artist John W. Jones (previously acclaimed for his pioneering book, "Confederate Currency, the Color of Money") that uncover the humanity hidden beneath the detached advertisement descriptions. Never has anyone taken the stilted, chattel-based text of human beings advertised for sale or rent and redefined them into living, conscious individuals depicting both their humanity and poignant familial relationships. Seidler hopes that acknowledging a more complete truth about our past will motivate us to bridge today's racial divide.
$35

Wednesday 06/26/2024 at 11:00 AM
Lee G. Brockington
(Pawleys Island: Stories from the Porch) at Pawleys Plantation
More than two decades after the Pawleys Island Civic Association published this treasured book of memories and years after the passing of many of the 40 stories' authors, a new edition – with an updated introductory note and island history by contributing author and book editor Lee G. Brockington; fresh nostalgic photos from the extensive collection PICA contributed to the Georgetown County Library Archives; and a heartwarming new cover painting by artist Maura Kenny – is available to become your treasured book of porch stories. As "Walter Edgar's Journal" recounted: "Nature is a dominant presence in almost every single account. For most, one of the greatest attractions is the benevolent landscape – ocean, sand, sun, and marsh. You need to understand that this island is not simply a vacation spot. It is an experience. In today's busy world where people resort to aroma therapy and other fads in an attempt to relax and unwind, those who get to Pawleys need no treatment. Just being on the island is enough to rejuvenate an obsessed workaholic. Screen porches are still the location of choice for reading, napping, visiting, and swapping tales. Despite Hugo and beachfront development, Pawleys is still Pawleys. It is a place; it is a lifestyle; it is memorable; 'it's still glorious.'"
$35