Finding Hollis

Author: Pauline Knaeble Williams

Format: E-Book, Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

E-Book Price: $4.99

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-938473-14-2

E-ISBN: 978-1-938473-15-9

Book Description

…the sway of the trolley, the unusual passenger, the truck’s raspy muffler, the woman’s torn dress, and her own inability to help. Frances is determined to let the details of the disturbing incident go. She’s certain that by Monday her life will return to normal and the wrung-out feeling inside will be gone. Yet she soon finds that neither the sound of her typewriter nor the lunchroom chatter will erase the dying woman’s final request: “Find Hollis”.

Finding Hollis, a novel set in 1944 in North Minneapolis, is a journey in search of more than just a name. Within it the threads of three separate worlds become interwoven—first by circumstance, then by understanding.

“[Pauline] knows how to both break and heal hearts in her debut novel, ‘Finding Hollis’…masterfully portrayed”

-Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“a gripping tale… A great debut novel!”

-Fmr. MN Rep. and author of Kathleen Vellenga

“History, land, and compelling characters collide and connect what it really means to search for meaning. Finding Hollis is worth it.”

-Renowned Sociologist Dr. Anton Treuer

About the Author

Pauline Knaeble Williams was born and raised along with her eleven siblings in North Minneapolis. She attended Macalester College in St. Paul, MN where she studied sociology and history. She currently resides in New Jersey where she works as a preschool teacher. She lives with her husband and two children in a house with lots of sunshine.

Events

Meet Pauline Knaeble Williams:Sunday September 14
Book Signing
Barnes & Noble HarMar
2100 N Snelling, Roseville MN…
2 pm

Monday September 15
Book Signing
Common Good Books
38 S. Snelling, St. Paul MN
7 pm

Tuesday September 16
Book Reading
Maeve’s Cafe
300 13th Ave. NE Minneapolis
7 pm

Wednesday September 17
Book Reading
East Side Freedom Library
1105 Greenbrier Street St. Paul
7 pm

Thursday September 18
Book Reading
Webber Park Library
4203 Webber Pkway Minneapolis
6-7:30 pm

Saturday September 20
Book Reading
Rockford Road Library
6401 42nd Ave. N. Crystal MN
2 pm

Luce Women

Author: Liz Kisacky Severn

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-938473-22-7

“A fast-paced story that will keep you reading till the wee hours … Sure-handed poise and a light touch.”

– Lin Enger, author of The High Divide and Undiscovered County

 “With prose fresh and crisp as autumn air, Severn’s debut novel will transport you to Luce, Minnesota, population 5,000, just a stone’s throw from Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, Lewis’s Gopher Prairie, and Lovelace’s Deep Valley.”

– Thom Tammaro, three-time Minnesota Book Award winner

“Liz Kisacky Severn’s first novel is a delightful debut. Its zesty narrator, Trudy, under suspicion of committing a serious crime, lovingly renders the lore of the land and the secret lives of its inhabitants. Read this one with relish.”

– Alan Davis, author of So Bravely Vegetative and Rumors from the Lost World

Book Description

After wealthy recluse Lyle Staybler dies under mysterious circumstances, Trudy Pluth becomes a person of interest. Townspeople mount judgments against her and enemies lurk in the shadows. Her few remaining friends offer support as they help Trudy renovate an old house. It’s a diverse group: Trudy, who looks at people as projects in need of repair; Martha, whose Minnesota-nice persona masks her sadness and fears; Iris, a person of color transplanted from the East who’s not sure how she fi ts in; and Greta, with a scandalous life that offers fodder for small-town gossips.

About the Author

A native of Maryland who currently lives in the Midwest, award-winning author and Minnesota State University–Moorhead professor, Liz Kisacky Severn has worked the full gamut as a writer: reporter, columnist, assistant editor, public relations writer, copywriter, and freelance writer/editor. Severn teaches various writing and literature courses, among them the study of creative non-fiction that explores issues of death and grief. Her fiction appears in American Fiction ’97, Carve Magazine and Storyglossia and has received honorable mention in The New Millennium. Luce Women is Severn’s debut novel.

Dead Too Long

Author: Ron Handberg

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-93847326-5

Book Description

Reporter Gabriel “Gabby” Gooding’s unexpected arrival at Channel 7 is met with suspicion and resentment, and her first assignment, which involves the discovery of a long-dead body in the basement of a Minneapolis home, pits her against the rest of the staff because she suspects it was murder rather than suicide. Her troubles are compounded when, before she gets a chance to settle in, Gabby is forced to confront a figure from her past who has tracked her down to the Twin Cities. As the suicide/murder investigation unfolds, Gabby and photographer Zach Anthony must also follow the twisted trail of this fugitive hiding in plain sight-a fugitive who would do anything to protect his identity … and his freedom.

About the Author

Ron Handberg is an award-winning journalist. He has been news director as well as vice president and general manager of Emmy and Peabody Award-winning station WCCO television, a CBS affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He lives in Minnesota.

Sera Tojours: A Daddy’s Love Will Always Be

Author: Amy Lynn (Illustrator), Tim Pearson (Author)

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-938473-19-7

“This little book, with its charming illustrations, provides an opportunity for young children and their fathers to share their feelings about the changes in their lives. Divorced dads can read this reassuring book with their children to let them know that although daddy doesn’t live there anymore, he will always be there for them.” -Constance Ahrons, Ph.D., Author, The Good Divorce and We’re Still Family Professor emerita, University of Southern California, Former Director, Marriage and Family Therapy Doctoral Program.

Book Description

This charming little book is a story for a father to share with his children to start a conversation and, most of all, assure them that whether being separated by divorce, service to country, work, no matter what, a daddy’s love will always be.

About the Author

This is my first book and a book written from the heart. I have always shared books with my sons for Christmas, birthdays and special moments in life. A book that we could read together with a story that had special meaning for us. But, there were no books out there for a father and his children facing being apart, and questioning what would their relationship be now. Thus, this book was born. This is a story for a father to share with his children to start a conversation and, most of all, assure them that whether being separated by divorce, service to country, work, no matter, A Daddy’s Love, Sera Toujours. A Daddy’s Love Will Always Be.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR: Amy Lynn: Like poetry, every painting has a story, and in this case my innocent and whimsical painting style merged together perfectly with Tim’s quietly captivating and deeply heartfelt verse. Being a child of divorced parents, it was a story I personally related to and connected with deeply.

In the Midst of Bounty

Author: Kathleen Vellenga

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-938473-30-2

“A memorable historical time, and a memorable novel.” – Renowned author and professor Cheris Kramarae

Book Description

Attitash and Elisabeth may believe their rare friendship will endure these desperate times, but nothing is easy in the New World.. As many newcomers from England arrive, they bring both opportunity and greed. The demand for food increases, and so does the fear of the Native people. The fragile peace treaty between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag is threatened by treachery, and the friendship between Attitash and Elisabeth faces its toughest challenge.

About the Author

A graduate of Macalester College, Kathleen Vellenga taught young children and was an active volunteer as well as a mother of three until she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1981. In 1991, she received an award from the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and three other state ethnic councils for her legislative efforts to support the needs of our children and their families. Kathleen left the Legislature in 1994 to become the executive director of the Saint Paul Children’s Initiative, a new early childhood collaborative. Her volunteer activities include working with young mothers in a community based maternal/infant clinic. While considerable historical research is the basis for the plot, Vellenga drew deeply upon her personal relationships for the emotional heart of the story. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Night Shade

Author: Pauline Knaeble Williams

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 9781938473296

Book Description

Early one summer morning in 1850, as Penny McGinty leans over a cookstove in the sweltering Philadelphia kitchen, a knock from a slender fist upon the back door of the tall, narrow house interrupts the hum of insects hovering in the yard’s overgrown garden. At first, neither Penny, nor the wealthy family for whom she cooks, nor the niece who spends her hours reading in the upstairs drawing room, nor even the man tending his horse in the stable just beyond the stone wall at the back of the garden will recognize the sound of the knock for anything than it is. Penny McGinty opens the door and invites the traveler inside. Thus, begins Night Shade, a story of awakening, sacrifice, and struggle as the conflict for the nation’s soul looms.

About the Author

Pauline Knaeble William’s first book, Finding Hollis, was a finalist for the Midwest Book Award in 2014. She grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. Night Shade is her second novel.

Popeye: A Memoir of Cultural Barbarian

Author: Thomas J. Hickey

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $19.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 9781938473319

Book Description

POPEYE: A MEMOIR OF A CULTURAL BARBARIAN, dubbed “Forest Gump meets Jack Kerouac,” chronicles Tom Hickey’s colorful life and growing struggles with alcohol addiction, mental health, and numerous suicide attempts. From his Irish Catholic midwestern upbringing, raucous college years, European cultural barbarianism, life in Poland behind the Iron Curtain, raising a family out West, and the Great Recession, to his current mental health issues, addictions, and homelessness, POPEYE is a page-turner. Not intended to cure or caution, POPEYE merely tells the tale of one man’s life in his own words as if he were sitting on the stool next to you.

About the Author

Thomas J. Hickey is a fourth generation Cub’s fan who grew up Irish Catholic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and attended the College of St. Thomas in St.Paul, Minnesota. He has raised millions for charities including the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center only for himself to also struggle with addiction and depression. A proud parent of two adult children (Gina and Luke), Hickey currently lives a transient existence on the Florida Panhandle.

Tides of the Kennebec

Author: Kathleen Vellenga

Format: Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback Price: $16.95

Release Date: Now Available

ISBN: 978-1-938473-34-0

Book Description

Strangers in Our Midst introduced us to the friendship formed between Elizabeth and Attitash in 1620, and across the first years of Plimoth Plantation; In the Midst of Bounty showed a growing colony in tension with itself as well as the Indigenous people of the area; and now, Tides of the Kennebec carries that rare relationship across several decades as each woman explores the meaning of friendship and family, as well as telling the story of the competition between the desires of Boston financiers and Plimoth settlers for the Abenaki’s trapping bounty in Maine and how Indigenous people paid the price.

About the Author

Kathleen Vellenga spent fourteen years as a Minnesota State Legislator, focusing on breaking down cultural barriers and empowering people. As executive director of the St. Paul Children’s Initiative, she led the establishment of multicultural Family Centers in St. Paul, including the American Indian Family Center. The Minnesota Indian Affairs Council honored her “in appreciation of your effort to support the needs of our children and their families.” She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.