Résultats lu par "Lee Ann Howlett" dans Toutes les catégories

A collection of previously published columns describing life in Florida for North Carolinians.

Come sit on the porch a spell. Let's talk about times gone by and folks we remember, about slow summer evenings and lightning bugs in a jar. Listen to the music of a creaky swing and hand-cranked ice cream and cicadas chorusing in the sultry night air. Let's talk about how things used to be in the South - and for some of us, they way they still are. Welcome to the world of Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, where award winning authors Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis, Debra Dixon, Donna Ball and Nancy Knight come together for the first time to create this poignant, humorous collection of nostalgic tales.

This tale is as much a story of the psychology of people as it is of ghosts. How much do grief, ego, spite, and revenge play into our ideas of ghosts and being 'haunted'? This was an early Henry James story before he wrote "Turn of the Screw."

The terrorized children of Governor's Road grew up without resolution or closure to the most devastating event of their young lives. Their friend, a child their age, disappeared one afternoon and somehow, they never seem to learn what happened. Saddened parents decide to protect their children, and the obvious fear recedes in the face of the calm that settles back over the neighborhood. But, fear never really disappears until it's confronted.

From 1897 to 1917 the red-light district of Storyville commercialized and even thrived on New Orleans' longstanding reputation for sin and sexual excess. This notorious neighborhood, located just outside of the French Quarter, hosted a diverse cast of characters who reflected the cultural milieu and complex social structure of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, a city infamous for both prostitution and interracial intimacy.

Blanche Devine is a middle aged woman who has lived in the same small Midwestern town most of her life. She decides she wants to purchase a 'real' home in a pleasant neighborhood in the town. Because Blanche has a past as the town's 'scarlet' woman, many of the self-described good and respectable people do not want her as a neighbor. Edna Ferber wrote mostly about women and their place in society along with their plight when they did not follow society's norms.

A woman dies and discovers that the afterlife allows her to choose a soul mate for eternity if she felt she was denied one in life. After complaining that her husband never understood her and had many habits that annoyed her, she is introduced to another soul who seems to be her perfect match. Who will she choose? This story touches on ideas of different types of love and how our wants and our needs may be two very different things.

Miami's vice cops, move over. There's a new sheriff in town, rather a feisty Florida Highway Patrol Trooper named Floy Turner, who juggles motherhood with fighting crime. With refreshing authenticity and transparency, Turner doesn't hold back as she tells her stranger-than-fiction, true-to-life anecdotes of what goes on behind the badge in drug-ridden 1980s Miami when cocaine was king and her town housed one of the major drug hubs in the country.

Vickie's daughter is dead. Just one more dead druggie among the hundreds that die each year in Jacksonville's drug infested slums. Vickie needs to find answers. Was it really an accidental overdose, or a murder? To find the answer, she must leave her safe life behind and plunge into the terrors of the drug culture. Will the search lead her to love? Or will she end up on a morgue slab, just one more casualty in the war against drugs?

After a painful divorce, Casey returns to the haven of her childhood, great grandmother Weesie's tiny log cabin. Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia, the cabin rekindles memories of her happiest years as a young child enjoying Granny Weesie's tales of treasure. Casey seeks a peaceful refuge she will share only with her cat, Smokey. However, much more than early memories await Casey in Bluejay, Georgia.

A young woman, Helen Leicester, becomes concerned about her brother Francis when he begins spending all of his time locked in his room studying. At first Francis insists that he is fine, but eventually admits that he is not feeling well and agrees to see the family physician. The doctor prescribes a medication - a white powder which is mixed with water - and Francis begins to feel better. However, this "cure" doesn't last very long and Francis begins exhibiting peculiar and disturbing behavior.

In this lively and enlightening study, Kathleen B. Casey explores the ways in which the gender- and race-bending spectacles of vaudeville dramatized the economic, technological, social, and cultural upheaval that gripped the United States in the early 20th century. She focuses on four key performers: Eva Tanguay, Julian Eltinge, Lillyn Brown, and Sophie Tucker.

Based on actual letters Fitzgerald sent to his sister to help her on how to be more attractive for men, Bernice Bobs Her Hair is the story of a socially hopeless girl being changed into a socially attractive girl to end up attracting the boy of her helper. The story is a depiction of the changing face of youth during Fitzgerald's time and has been adapted into several movies as it remains a story that impressed all readers over the years.

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

This story is told from the perspective of Peggy, a teenager in the tiny town of Riverbank. Peggy is good friends with a girl named Nelly Deane. Nelly is considered by many to be the prettiest and most fun-loving girl in town. What happens to Nelly in the ensuing years after Peggy leaves Riverbank for college and then abroad is related through Peggy's infrequent visits back home and the letters she receives from one of the older women of Riverbank.

1891... Spinster librarian Olive Wilkins is shocked to learn of her brother's violent death at a saloon gaming table and her sister-in-law's subsequent murder, traveling far from her staid life to rescue her niece and nephew, now orphans. She arrives to find the circumstances of her brother's life deplorable and her long held beliefs of family and tradition, shaken.

Some people will go to almost any lengths to win fame and public admiration. Christmas at Alpine Village tells the story of just such a person. As each year passes without her winning the coveted Best Business Christmas Decoration prize in the small town of Newkirk, CA, more lights are added, and more ribbons and evergreens are hung, all to no avail. But, while the prize continues to elude her, other events are occurring that are ultimately of far more value to those who live at the Village.

Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator's family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures....

Tess Gentry fled her home 10 years ago to find a normal life, in a place where male wolf shifters didn't exist. As the daughter of one, the odds of having compatible DNA to carry cubs were high, and becoming a broodmare to increase the furry population was, for her, an intolerable position. Now she's come back home to take care of her mother and, as fate laughs, she finds herself face to face with her destiny. From the first tantalizing touch of hunky Sheriff Caleb Bennett, her defenses crumble and her own wolf howls in ecstasy.

Terrifying things are happening to Kay Weden, a 40-something single mom and high school teacher in Salisbury, North Carolina. Despite having no known enemies, Kay's home, car, and peace of mind are under attack throughout 1993. Most chilling of all are the senseless attacks on her only son and the shot fired in the night through a wall of her house, which narrowly misses his head as he sleeps.