The Great Pandemic Book Launch and Frolic; otherwise known as the Marvelous, the Mystical, the Fantastical Saint Patrick's Day Book Party for Marly Youmans's Charis in the World of Wonders

Ethereal Reception to Follow

Place: In your airy, wondrous imagination

Book release date: 17 March 2020 St. Patrick's Day

Time: 12:01 a.m. - 11:59 p.m.

Book Party Saint: Patrick, naturellement!

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available at indies and online outlets
Amazon and bn.com

Lavishly illuminated
by the artful hand
of Clive Hicks-Jenkins
of Wales

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Praise for 
Charis in the World of Wonders

“Charis in the World of Wonders confirms once more Marly Youmans' place among the magi. There is indeed ‘a dark and amazing intricacy in the ways of Providence’, as this spellbinding novel attests.”

—John Wilson, Contributing Editor, Englewood Review of Books

“Charis is a prismatic grace journey that awakens our dulled senses and ignites our adventurous hearts. A seventeenth-century girl pilgrim, with dark shadows of Salem foreboding over her, begins a refractive journey as a faithful exile toward a golden sea.”

—Makoto Fujimura, Artist; Author of Culture Care and Silence and Beauty

“Imagine if William Faulkner had decided to rewrite Last of the Mohicans. What you would have is something like Charis in the World of Wonders—a wild adventure tale written with grace and insight.  Youmans' prose is fluid, sharply witty, and deeply rich in symbolism—the work of a master.”

—J. Augustine Wetta, OSB, Author of The Eighth Arrow and Humility Rules

“Youmans’ magnificent storyteller brings the early days of Europeans on the American continent vividly to life, in all their wonder and sorrow.”

—Emily Barton, Author of Brookland and The Book of Esther

“From the pen of an award-winning novelist and poet comes the story of Charis, a girl who loses everything and finds love and acceptance in an age of fear and uncertainty. This book is that rare thing, a novel containing characters who are both historically accurate and completely relatable.”

—Fiorella De Maria, Author of A Most Dangerous Innocence and The Sleeping Witness

A writer I greatly admire and have sometimes written about, Marly Youmans, has a new book coming late in March from Ignatius Press: Charis in the World of Wonders, with cover art and illustrations by the incomparable Clive Hicks-Jenkins. This novel, set in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, should occasion a piece that tackles the whole sweep of Youmans’s work. She’s not part of any fashionable faction, and much as I would be delighted and surprised to see it receive generous attention in the New York Times Book Review and other such outlets, I am mainly hoping that First Things, Commonweal, Image, and other kindred publications will not let this opportunity pass.  

—John Wilson, "Desiderata," First Things 

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Praise: 
from writers and artists on social media

James Artimus Owen, writer and artist: This book, written by my dear friend Marly and illuminated by one of my great inspirations, my friend Clive, is a great example of What Truly Matters in the world. What keeps me going in a world of seemingly ever increasing darkness? Shining lights. Just like this.

Makoto Fujimura, nihongan painter, cultural catalyst, writer: Ok. Cannot help to tweet. “Charis”, Marly’s next novel coming out, is one of the most beautifully wrought writings of the “burning bushes” all about us that I’ve encountered in recent times.  Absolutely mesmerizing novel. #kintsuginovel #culturecare

John Wilson, editor: Every writer is in a sense sui generis, but some to a greater degree than others--@marlyyoumans, for instance. 

Makoto Fujimura: What a stunning, beautiful story Charis is. I can’t stop thinking of it. Hortus continues to roam in my mind, bringing all of us to freedom.

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Charis

“When I swung over that windowsill, everything changed for me. We are meant to go in and out of doors in civilized style, but my mother bade me climb into woodsy wildness and a darkness flushed with crimson light and torches…” 

Clambering into the branches of a tree, a young woman flees flaming arrows and massacre. She will need to struggle for survival: to scour the wilderness for shelter, to strive and seek for a new family and a setting where she can belong. Her unmarked way is costly, heroic, hard.

For Charis, the world outside the window of home is a maze of hazards. And even if she survives the wilds, it is no small, simple matter to discover and nest among her own kind—the godly, those called Puritans by others. She may be tugged by her desires for companionship, may even stumble into a sharp, intense love for a man, and may be made to try the strength of female heroism in ways no longer familiar to women in our century. 

Streams of darkness run through the seventeenth-century villages of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Occult fears have a way of creeping into the mind. And what young woman can be safe from the dangers of wilderness when its shadowy thickets spring up so easily in the soil of human hearts?

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A note from the illuminator:

Marly Youmans' historic novel 'Charis in the World of Wonders' chronicles the journey of its protagonist on her horseback flight from destruction to sanctuary and from sanctuary to an unexpected madness that had me gnawing my knuckles as I read.

Marly is a peerless writer and at Ignatius she has an editor and team doing everything to ensure that the book's jacket and the illustrations within do justice to her illuminating narrative. Not for the first time with Marly I'm steeped in a world of early American folk art, of embroidered samplers and nature not yet crowded out by man. At its heart, Charis on her courageous Hortus, who must carry her to safety and a new life. The image here is just a tiny corner of the cover artwork. It has been, as it always is in the company of Marly, a revelatory journey.

--Clive Hicks Jenkins, pilfered from facebook

Bailey, new edition of "The Astrologer"

A new edition from MDA Books.

Please see the original post about Scott Bailey's The Astrologer here.

And there's a new review by critic David Myers here: "Despite its historical setting, The Astrologer is not really a historical novel at all. It is a self-concealing but ambitious attempt to resuscitate the revenge tragedy. The delight of reading it lies in the discovery and tracing of Bailey’s scheme." While you're there, take a look around the blog. D. G. Myers is well worth reading.

Scott G. F. Bailey's "The Astrologer"

Moses Lake, Washington: Rhemalda Publishing, 2013
Where to buy your very own copy...

About THE ASTROLOGER

Denmark in 1601 braces itself for a hard winter. King Christian IV has moved the royal court from Copenhagen to the remote castle Kronberg, from where he will launch a military campaign to purge Denmark of rebellious factions. What the king doesn’t know is that he’s brought his bitterest enemy with him to Kronberg. Soren Andersmann, the Danish royal astrologer, has smuggled a trunk full of poisons, daggers, and a venomous snake into the castle. Though Soren knows nothing of the assassin's trade, he has sworn to be the instrument of justice. The king has murdered Soren's mentor and spiritual father, Tycho Brahe, the most famous astronomer the world has seen. Soren will have his revenge.

Inhabited by the spirit of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” while set in historical Europe at the threshold of the Renaissance, The Astrologer is at once a tale of vengeance and an exploration of the unfinished battle between deeply-held tradition and newfound ideas of progress. The man of science and philosophy must choose between conflicting loyalties to science, to family, to God, and to Denmark.

 

Visit Scott's web page for the book here.

Praise for a debut

The Astrologer is a marvelous story of fierce revenge and murder as staggering as the constellations above. I simply couldn't look away. A vivid debut!

--Michelle Davidson Argyle, author of The Breakaway and Monarch

It's elegant, it's sly, it's funny as all hell, and the unreliable narrator is both heroic and heartbreaking; a poignant embodiment of the Enlightenment fairytales our society likes to tell itself.

--Tara Maya, author of The Unfinished Song and Conmergence

A philosophic stunner that evokes the wintry islands of Beowulf and the castles of Hamlet. Set in the predawn of the Enlightenment, Bailey's stargazing protagonist struggles against the dark forces that forever keep us ignorant. Haunting, expansive, poetic, and it has sword fights.

--Layne Maheu, author of Song of the Crow

Tiffany Trent, The Unnaturalists

Praise for THE UNNATURALISTS: 

"Fast-paced, heart-wrenching, magical and fascinating." (Tamora Pierce, author of The Song of the Lioness quartet )

"Utterly ingenious! Tiffany Trent has more fine invention at her fingertips than a roomful of magical Leonardos!" (Ellen Kushner, World Fantasy Award-winning author )

“By St. Darwin and his Great Apes, The Unnaturalists is unnaturally good! Few authors can mix science and fantasy the way Tiffany can; her science-worshiping New London is perfectly original and perfectly realized, and Vespa Nyx is a heroine to cheer for. So much steampunk is just more of the same; The Unnaturalists is captivatingly different.” (Ysabeau Wilce, Andre Norton Award-winning author of Flora’s Dare)

"Thrilling, intricate and magical, The Unnaturalists is a formidable entry into the steampunk genre. Vespa Nyx is a spunky heroine we can all root for, and Tiffany Trent's worldbuilding skills are unmatched. This book will delight anyone who loves magic, gadgets and brilliantly drawn settings. I highly recommend it." (Caitlin Kittredge, author of The Iron Thorn )

"Thoroughly magical...leaves readers wanting more." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Science, magic, myth, and alternate history all work together to create an intriguing alternate world with more depth than many books in the genre. This is a world worth visiting." (Publishers Weekly) 

"An entertaining mix of steampunk and fantasy." (School Library Journal)

Book description: 

In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger.

Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.

As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.

Tiffany Trent Bio:

Tiffany Trent is the author of The Unnaturalists, a young adult steampunk fantasy which won the 2012 Green Earth Book Award Honor. She is also the author of the Hallowmere series and the recipient of a Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Work-in-Progress Grant. Her short stories have appeared in Magic in the Mirrorstone, Corsets and Clockwork, Willful Impropriety and Subterranean magazine. She is the co-editor of Breaking Waves: A Charity Anthology for Gulf Coast Oil Spill Relief. When not writing or editing, she’s either contemplating pie, out playing with bees, or wrestling with the jungle of her garden. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband and a passel of critters. Visit her at tiffanytrent.com.

Raymond L. Atkins, Camp Redemption

Mercer University Press, 2013

"Raymond L. Atkins once again reflects the South and all its beloved contradictions in his new novel Camp Redemption," says Ann Hite, author of the award winning Ghost on Black Mountain. "Beautifully crafted, his storytelling is an art form only found in the best Southern literature."

Travel to Sequoyah, Georgia, to meet Early and Ivey Willingham. Early is a lifelong underachiever who occasionally smokes marijuana, drinks malt liquor, and watches the world go by. Ivey is a modern day prophet who sees dead relatives and angels in her sleep. Together they own Camp Redemption, a failing Bible camp in the North Georgia mountains.

After they are forced to close the camp, Early and Ivey begin to attract a motley collection of people in trouble. First to arrive is Jesús Jimenez, an abused runaway from Apalachicola, Florida. Then Millie Donovan arrives, children in tow. Charnell Jackson—an out-of-luck lawyer on the dodge—is next on the scene, followed by Isobel Jimenez—Jesús’ mother—and her other children. Hugh Don Monfort, the local bootlegger, is the final arrival. Trouble looms as these travelers settle into their new home. Gilla Newman and the deacons at the Washed in the Blood and the Fire Rapture Preparation Temple covet the camp, and they intend to have it. Juan Jimenez is searching for his fugitive family, and he means to have them back. Charnell Jackson is sought by a variety of creditors, Millie Donovan is looking for a second chance at life, and Hugh Don Monfort is just one step ahead of the law.

All these threads converge on a frigid morning in high Georgia, and from that moment forward, nothing is the same at Camp Redemption.

This book is a riot. Ray Atkins is richly talented and funny as you-know-what. Go ahead and get Camp Redemption right now. I guarantee that you’ll delight in this read as I did. —Lauretta Hannon, author of The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life 

At once smart and funny, Raymond Atkins’s Camp Redemption is a gripping elegantly told tale that will keep you up reading long into the night. All hail a new master of Southern fiction! —Jeffrey Stepakoff, author of Fireworks over Toccoa 

Camp Redemption showcases the best of Raymond Atkins’ talents in Southern fiction: characters who move in with us, for better or worse; a plot that keeps the pages turning; and the stately, elegant prose of a born storyteller. Alternately hilarious, sad, and downright scary, this is Atkins’ best novel yet. —Melanie Sumner, author of The Ghost of Milagro Creek and The School of Beauty and Charm 

Camp Redemption is the best novel yet by award-winning Raymond Atkins, one of the most original new authors in the South today. Atkins is a brilliant writer who captivates the reader with his quirky yet lovable characters. I simply couldn’t stop reading. The book is at once funny, ironic, poignant, tender, and lyrical. —June Hall McCash, author of Almost to Eden and Plum Orchard

Raymond L. Atkins resides in Rome, Georgia, where he is an instructor of English at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. His first novel, The Front Porch Prophet, was published by Medallion Press in 2008 and was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. His second novel, Sorrow Wood, was published by Medallion Press in 2009. His third novel, Camp Redemption, has been released by Mercer University Press and was awarded the Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction. He is currently writing his fourth novel, Sweetwater Blues. 

More on Ray Atkins: www.raymondlatkins.com
More on Mercer University Press: http://www.mupress.org