Members’ Books

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The following books were written by Island Writers’ Network members

Women go missing—the best and brightest student leaders—in universities across Europe. Investigators are eventually taken to the desert kingdoms of the Middle East.
lencamarda.com
Can Dillon and Diana find love while they’re running from a killer?
www.debbygrahl.com
Investigating the suspicious death of a young American photographer in Granada, Spain, Spanish and American investigators uncover an unfathomable conspiracy to reacquire the lands the Moors surrendered to the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabela, in 1492.
lencamarda.com
A dark witch threatens Jared’s future happiness. Can he destroy their nemesis before his fiancée, Kendra, is seduced into a world of sadistic evil?
www.debbygrahl.com
An eclectic collection of poetry, from humorous to serious, lyric to narrative. Published by Cherry Grove Collections.
barry-dickson.com
Someone in Caterine’s family wants her dead, Can ex-cop Remi Micheaux discover the killer in time to save the woman he loves?
www.debbygrahl.com

 

Eighty-six poems on many subjects: daily life, sports, friendship, love, travel, rebellion, the Covid-19 pandemic, institutional racism, aging and more. Poems in different moods and forms, like fine wine, to be savored slowly and revisited glass by glass.
www.billnewby.net
“Sea Chests or a Carry-On” contains fifty fresh poems celebrating and exploring everyday life, personal relationships and change. From wearing ties to playing sports, from attic cleaning to expired medications, from changing barbers to changing homes – there is light, humor and challenge.
www.billnewby.net
In book one of the Steele series, Detective Cris Steele’s world is turned upside down. While helping solve another case, she continues to secretly work on her own while trying to keep her demons from the past hidden.
www.hbtyler.com
Four middle school teachers facing a hot political climate, an aerobics class, and menopause support each other through a challenging and sweaty school year. Lots of laughs and a few tears return you to what classrooms and venting with colleagues used to be like. A Kirkus Review indie selection.
sansingmcpherson.com

 

In this sequel to SWEAT SISTERS, Marianna navigates a love affair with her boss, Max, who’s locked in a gay marriage. They struggled to overcome discovery, disapprova,l and a new definition for a modern family.
sansingmcpherson.com

 

In book two of the Steele series, Detective Cris Steele slides down a slippery slope as she continues to search for her husband’s killer. She discovers the cost of her growing darkness, secrecy, burying of emotions, and losing her edge, could be her own life.
www.hbtyler.com
Called a “great book about friendship” by Pat Conroy, this co-authored collection of “mostly, mostly true” stories follows the zany misadventures of friends as they stumble through their boyhoods, finding chaos and stupid around every corner. In the tradition of a Bill Bryson and Jean Shepherd, it celebrates the magic of youth and the miracle of friendship.
Garrett and Lisa Hawk, owners of Snelling Institute and members of the secret Brotherhood of the Shield, have recovered from injuries they received fighting a remnant of the Aztec Empire, hidden in the Amazon jungle, for the Emerald Inlay. They now turn their attention to recover another Inlay hidden in China centuries ago by a silk trader that used the mystical powers of shaman priests to make their quest both difficult and dangerous.
Jim Sypult was no ordinary man, and his life was anything but. In the universe of college football, he was royalty: a gifted storyteller, master motivator, charismatic leader. He led, and they followed. He talked, and everyone listened. He told stories that held them captive and made them laugh. He rode every horse in the stable on a wild ride to his destiny and legacy–a game changer, winner, and wild-horse rider. Exemplifying the power of the human spirit and best of humanity, Coach Sypult transcended the gridiron. A champion of hearts and minds. An iconic coach. A legendary hero. Our time on this planet is ephemeral, but our heroes define us and live as long as one person remembers their greatness.
A teenager’s body is dumped at a city bus stop, and homicide detective Matt Sinclair catches the case. The killer is just getting started, and Matt must link the victims to each other to save his career and the people closest to him. www.brianthiem.com
Homicide Sergeant Matt Sinclair arrives at a murder scene and recognizes the dead woman hanging from a tree as a teenage runaway named Dawn he arrested ten years before. When the killer goes public, Sinclair and his partner must race to uncover the secrets Dawn was killed to protect before the killer unleashes a major attack on a scale the city has never seen before. www.brianthiem.com

 

Homicide sergeant Matt Sinclair identifies the body buried in a shallow grave as his former partner. Although the police brass want to pin the murder on an outlaw motorcycle gang, Sinclair will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means sacrificing his former partner’s reputation and his career.
www.brianthiem.com
Coach of an inner-city high school cross country team seeks personal redemption while teaching a unique group of athletes about the sport of distance running.
www.onyoumark.com
A mother and son’s chaotic journey through the years of his addiction. She was determined to save him.
lindaleehenderson.com

A guide to help others with the difficult decision-filled transition of negotiating the Nursing Home experience for a loved one.
www.supportgiver.com
Welcome to Your Mind-Body illustrates how the mind and body communicate through “molecules of emotion,” neuropeptides and hormones that interact with our immune system, proving that emotions can literally make us sick.
www.kimkachmann.com
“Maybe if I shave my legs/Spring will come” opens Elizabeth Robin‘s poem “Silk Purses,” a line that suggests the way this collection voices both the mundane and grander concerns of our lives, sometimes with a sly irony. http://www.elizabethrobin.com
Where Green Meets Blue continues Elizabeth Robin’s lyric inquiry into loss, and the struggle to maintain equilibrium. The title is taken from “Whereafter,” the poem searching a resting place for grief and longing: “where green meets blue/ i remember, he loved that view.”
http://www.elizabethrobin.com
What do you do when a half-drunk guard comes into your half-way house and, attempts to rape a woman prisoner? Protecting her leaves a dead guard and incentive for four prisoners to run and form new lives.
Siblings Delta & Jax discover a human skeleton and a mysterious message in a bottle in the salt marsh of Hilton Head Island, sending them on a race to uncover the island’s secrets and complete a task forgotten since the American Civil War.
susandiamondriley.com
Delta and Jax become disaster-magnets after finding an ancient carved turtle figurine on the beach. Now they must travel throughout the Carolina Lowcountry–and through time itself–in order to break the turtle’s curse before a hurricane destroys their island home.
susandiamondriley.com
When an assault lands Olivia Callahan in a hospital as a Jane Doe, she arises from a coma with no idea who she is or why she has been dumped at a hospital in a location hours from her home. When her family locates her, they are shocked to discover she is a completely different woman than the one they’d known and loved.
www.Kerryperesta.net
Fourteen-year old Charlotte is initially lonely and bored, but she soon learns that her new home on a remote barrier island is quite an exciting place. Encounters with robbers, a ghost, an eccentric neighbor, and a most unlikely hero change her perspective in this lighthearted 19th century historical fiction.
http://www.smc-books.com/
Fifteen-year-old Charlotte and her friends learn that knowing the truth and having evidence that is admissible in a court of law are two different things. Complicating their struggle for justice is the fact that their only link to the truth is a ghost.
www.smc-books.com
Do you struggle when life gives you lemons? The truth is life doesn’t always go as you planned or as you wished. It’s what you do next that matters most! Chuck’s Lemonade will inspire you to develop habits that will help you find gifts when life gives you lemons, make your days great, and turn your lemons into lemonade! https://chuckslemonade.com/my-book/
Huxley the Aquarius is about a dog’s journey from life in an animal shelter to being adopted and rescued by his forever family. Told in Huxley’s voice, the story and real color pictures are sure to delight children and adults of all ages https://chuckslemonade.com/my-book/

 

30-day journal challenge will inspire you to think better so you can live better. What would make today great is up to you. There are no rules when it comes to your great.
https://chuckslemonade.com/my-book/
This journal challenge will help you create a new habit of thoughtfully considering the concept of gratitude. It will also inspire you to appreciate what you have and the things you should be grateful for.
https://chuckslemonade.com/my-book/
Scoot’s New Home is an illustrated children’s book about a little boat with a big heart who faces his fears and makes new friends when he moves to a new home on Hilton Head Island.
In Scoot’s Savannah Rescue, Scoot, encounters a bully and discovers the power of forgiveness and friendship. Illustrations depict familiar local scenes and landmarks around Hilton Head Island.
This is a children’s picture book appropriate for ages 6-11 about the Gullah culture and the history of Charleston and surrounding Lowcountry, It is a heart-warming tale of a grandmother who sits on her front porch, snapping peas with her granddaughter, telling her about their history. It is a bold colorful book with 30 original illustrations done in the Gullah style. Readers LOVE the artwork.
https://www.josieolsvig.com/
This is a historical fiction novel about the Gullah culture and the history of antebellum Charleston. The book goes into great deal about Charleston as the epicenter of the African slave trade and its prominent role with race-based slavery. The book is based on six years of thorough research, including numerous Gullah interviews, visits to plantations & historically black institutions, as well as review of slave narratives and primary documents.
https://www.josieolsvig.com/
The Girl Who Kicked Over an Anthill. All physicist Lisa Randal wanted was to find out why her ex disappeared without a trace. No biggie, right? Just unraveling a riddle that has haunted her for years. So, Lisa and Darcy, her engineer girlfriend did what any high-tech nerds with access to top secret technology would do. They invent a machine that allows them to see and hear events from the past. What’s the harm in that? Well, apparently it’s a big effing deal to somebody and finding the answers Lisa craves has plunged them both into a deadly game of cat and mouse with people in the business of keeping secrets. Good news — Lisa has the key to her Scoobie Doo mystery. Bad news — People are trying to kill both of them. Could be worse. Could be raining. From the author of The Starforce Saga, a thrilling and witty new tale that explores the subtle falsehoods inherent in memories, and the implications of a window into the past on privacy and security through the lens of two snarky, lesbian nerds.
Richard Wright
A scandal rocks the banking industry in Nashville Tennessee and threatens the safety of the father of one of the employees causing her to rally a group of friends to try and uncover the truth.
It is 1911 and nine-year-old Lily, an American-born child of Sicilian immigrants, who loves to sing out her artist heart and wants to prove she is not a little kid, learns that it is not easy to be a big kid in the crowded Lower East Side tenement neighborhood, skirting old-world traditions, tackling bigotry, disasters, and dotty bakers, and crossing treacherous streets by herself.
www.storiesserved.com
A young journalist finds herself at odds with some of the most powerful men in Nashville when she attempts to stop them from shutting down one of two competing newspapers.
Antoinette Martin believed herself to be a healthy and sturdy woman—that is, until she received a breast cancer diagnosis. Cancer is scary enough for the brave, but for a wimp like Martin, it was downright terrifying.
www.storiesserved.com
Four friends from Nashville Tennessee vacation on Hilton Head Island where one of them has an unexpected encounter with a Gullah woman while visiting a local cemetery.
Hope you are hungry. Becoming America’s Food Stories recalls the tales that have been told around my family’s dinner table. The stories explain the motivations over bowls of macaroni. The antics play out while slurping soup and laughter echoes throughout the dining room. Pull up a seat. There’s always room.
www.storiesserved.com
Cassie Whelan has the power to heal any wound. But the one thing she can’t fix is her own broken heart. http://www.wrightstuff.info/

Cassie’s growing into her new role as a hero and life is looking up. Well, except for the girl hitting on her boyfriend, the bigots picketing outside her home, and the government spying on her. Oh, and there’s an invasion of dragons – from outer space. But, yeah. Cool. http://www.wrightstuff.info/

When a dying young woman appears, ripped from a dystopian alternate reality and wearing the face of her greatest regret, Cassie must return to the team she left behind, the friends she abandoned, and the man she loved – still loves – but doesn’t believe she deserves. Saving this one girl could bring the redemption Cassie craves for her past failures. Or it could doom two worlds.
http://www.wrightstuff.info/

Join Island Writers’ Network today