Laurel Ridge Holiday Book Fair

WARTIME SEXUAL VIOLENCE
From Silence to Condemnation of a Weapon of War
Kerry F. Crawford
Reports of sexual violence in armed conflict frequently appear in political discussions and news media, presenting a stark contrast to a long history of silence and nonrecognition. Conflict-related sexual violence has transitioned rapidly from a neglected human rights issue to an unambiguous security concern on the agendas of powerful states and the United Nations Security Council. Through interviews and primary-source evidence, Kerry F. Crawford investigates the reasons for this dramatic change and the implications of the securitization of sexual violence.

Views about wartime sexual violence began changing in the 1990s as a result of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and then accelerated in the 2000s. Three case studies—the United States’ response to sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1820 in 2008, and the development of the United Kingdom’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative—illustrate that use of the weapon of war frame does not represent pure co-optation by the security sector. Rather, well-placed advocates have used this frame to advance the antisexual violence agenda while simultaneously working to move beyond the frame’s constraints. This book is a groundbreaking account of the transformation of international efforts to end wartime sexual violence.
http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/wartime-sexual-violence

THE PHD PARENTHOOD TRAP
Caught Between Work and Family in Academia
Kerry F. Crawford and Leah C. Windsor
What it’s really like to be a parent in the world of higher education, and how academia can make this hard climb a little less steep

Academia has a big problem. For many parents—especially mothers—the idea of “work-life balance” is a work-life myth. Parents and caregivers work harder than ever to grow and thrive in their careers while juggling the additional responsibilities that accompany parenthood. Sudden disruptions and daily constraints such as breastfeeding, sick days that keep children home from school, and the sleep deprivation that plagues the early years of parenting threaten to derail careers. Some experience bias and harassment related to pregnancy or parental leave. The result is an academic Chutes and Ladders, where career advancement is nearly impossible for parents who lack access to formal or informal support systems.

In The PhD Parenthood Trap, Kerry F. Crawford and Leah C. Windsor reveal the realities of raising kids, on or off the tenure track, and suggest reforms to help support parents throughout their careers. Insights from their original survey data and poignant vignettes from scholars across disciplines make it clear that universities lack understanding, uniform policies, and flexibility for family formation, hurting the career development of parent-scholars. Each chapter includes recommendations for best practices and policy changes that will help make academia an exemplar of progressive family-leave policies. Topics covered include pregnancy, adoption, miscarriage and infant loss, postpartum depression, family leave, breastfeeding, daily parenting challenges, the tenure clock, and more. The book concludes with advice to new or soon-to-be parents to help them better navigate parenthood in academia.

The PhD Parenthood Trap provides scholars, academic mentors, and university administrators with empirical evidence and steps to break down personal and structural barriers between parenthood and scholarly careers.

http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/phd-parenthood-trap

Human Security
Theory and Action, Second Edition
DAVID ANDERSEN-RODGERS AND KERRY F. CRAWFORD
Human security refers in its broadest sense to the protection of individuals from harm. Human Security: Theory and Action explores the theory and application of concepts central to this notion of security. It examines the conceptual roots of human security, connecting its origins to its applications and challenges in war and peacetime. With a unique focus on the evolving notion of responsibility for security, the text introduces the critical questions and priorities that underpin policies and actions.

The text is organized around four sections. The introduction offers an overview of human security and its basic tenets and historical foundations. The second section focuses on human security in armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, discussing such issues as the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, racial inequality, peacekeeping and peace negotiation processes, and humanitarian assistance. The third section identifies the long-term issues that are necessary for a durable human security, including human rights, food security, poverty, gender equality, health security, and environmental sustainability. The final section applies the concepts introduced in the book to twenty-first century concerns and offers insights on turning theory into action.

Integrated into the text are many case studies to broaden the student’s awareness beyond the conflicts and issues that dominate the media. By balancing theoretical explanations with concrete illustrative cases, both historical and contemporary, the text provides intellectually challenging and intrinsically interesting material and offers a unique, comprehensive introduction human security in war and peace.

The second edition of Human Security: Theory and Action examines the conceptual roots of human security, connecting its origins to its application in a time of conflict, inequality, environmental stress, and the aftermath of a global pandemic.
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538159934/Human-Security-Theory-and-Action-Second-Edition

Cairnaerie: In a sweeping historical fiction, Cairnaerie unfolds across the landscape of Civil War Virginia and the war’s aftermath—a time when gentility is paramount and some rules are not to be broken…..Geneva Snow commits the unpardonable Southern sin, forcing her father to hide her at Cairnaerie. After years alone, she engages an unwitting young history professor to help. But when the forces of malevolence and revenge converge, her secret is exposed. Only this time, there’s nowhere to hide.
Fleuringala: Abandoned by her no-count mother in a shack on the outskirts of Lauderville, Virginia, seven-year-old Ruby Glory is alone in the world, her sole companion her faithful dog, Arly. Then along comes Tack Pittman. But this teenage son of the prominent Pittman family learns quickly that no good deed goes unpunished. Will Tack’s kindness be the end for the mismatched friends—or just the beginning.
https://mkbgraham.com

Releasing Me:
Inspired by true events, the fictional novel Releasing Me is the story of Meredith Pearson’s journey to healing from childhood sexual abuse. The novel begins at the moment Meredith enters the sheriff’s department and meets the lead investigator.

I had a rush of thoughts. “Because my mother said she was going shopping for antiques. Because she’s not leaving him. Because my friend told me that my step-father was cheating on her and I want to give her one more chance to escape. Because the Commonwealth Attorneys’ office told me there was no statute of limitations for child abuse. Because I was told you would be the person to help me.” Somehow I began a response and the words flowed faster and faster as I described the years of pain that had led me to today’s visit.

From there, Meredith shares her decade-long process of working through memories, dreams, family dysfunction, and the traumas and joys of life until she eventually finds peace through spiritual insight. Releasing Me helps provide valuable insight into the thoughts, emotions, and experiences that many victims face during their healing process. Beyond that, Releasing Me is relevant to all people who wish to believe that the human spirit can prevail regardless of the circumstances laid out in this life.
Valley Voices:
“The Valley is enveloped in deep weaves of arbor
which rise to echoing cobalt peaks
before cascading and fading into the horizon.
The Shenandoah twists erratically through the interior,
glittering rapidly in the sun
and lingering murky in its shadows”…

“It is from this Valley my poems are birthed.
They speak with the voices deeply rooted in my soul.”

In Valley Voices, Melissa DeDomenico-Payne shares her collection of poetry which reflects eclectic and unique styles and forms, university award winners, and new public releases. A reader can expect speakers and themes which poignantly extend from verse to soul.

The Land of Kaldalangra Series – A woman is kidnapped and taken to a realm of magic, conspiracy, and strangers with dark secrets. The three-book series takes readers on an adventure through destiny, courage, and the strength of community.

Finding Keepers – Starting a new life is never easy, but Alyssa Doe has turned it into an art form. Abandoned by her parents at age ten, six years in foster care has taught Alyssa how to get through life the hard way. Now sixteen and growing desperate, Alyssa finds herself puzzled by her newest keeper, twenty-five year old Jessica Sona. A feisty woman who won’t accept no for an answer, Jessica’s persistent stance on safety, family, and unconditional love are beginning to break down Alyssa’s walls and bring her hope, a dangerous emotion.

Can such a thing as family and love exist for a girl whose birth name is Doe, or will Alyssa be forever left finding keepers?

www.strongnovels.com
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B5L7H61
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099C8QLJ9
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B23JLBB
https://www.amazon.com/dp/069202249X

www.laurenkristenroberts.com/gemini-divided

For fans of DIAL A FOR AUNTIES, FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT, and Katherine Center’s THE BODYGUARD.

Everyone has secrets, but the skeletons in Jen’s closet are bigger than most.

By day, she writes fanfiction for her favorite TV show, Gemini Divided, but by night, she works as an assassin to pay her mother’s chemotherapy bills. Her world tilts on its axis the day she is assigned to kill Will Bryant-the handsome and charming star of Gemini Divided, and her celebrity crush. What could Will have done to land on someone’s hit list?

The assignment gets Jen up close and personal with Will, who is just as kind in person as he is in the media coverage she obsesses over. When she stumbles onto the reason Will ended up as her target, she must make a life-altering choice: kill Will and keep her mother alive, or save Will and put herself in danger, leaving no way to fund her mother’s treatments in the future. She has to decide quickly, because in two days, the choice will be made for her.

Nature Guides, Wildflowers, Coffee table book, Children’s books

The Fellowship: A young woman’s experience leaving a spiritually abusive church
Go Right, A Bowl of Pho: Realistic fiction short stories
Late Check-Out (will be available on Kindle only for now): Cozy ghost stories

SaraRobertsJones.com

Suburban Legends is an anthology of adult short horror stories set in a suburban neighborhood where the HOA rules with a devilish power.
https://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Legends-Marie-Andrews/dp/B09VQBCX8T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S4HXPY0BIQS0&keywords=suburban+legends+marie+andrews&qid=1667947729&sprefix=suburban+legends+marie+andrew%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1

Phoenix Forge is the first in a series of YA fantasy stories where a young girl finds out she is the subject of a prophecy that could bring about the end of all things. She must find out the source of her magick and her own inner power to save everything she loves.
https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Forge-Chronicles-Book-Prophet/dp/B0BCZWX7ML/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1IQRM1T5IJLNS&keywords=marie+andrews+author&qid=1667947683&sprefix=marie+andrews+au%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-4

Facebook author page
https://www.facebook.com/Marie.Andrews.Author

Centered around the love letter to his wife made famous in Ken Burn’s The Civil War, this book tells the story of Major Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island. At the age of thirty-four, less than ten years after meeting the love of his life, Sarah Shumway, Ballou left his law practice and budding political career, his wife and two adored young sons, to take a commission as a major in the Union Army. He served for almost two months, but was struck down at the nearby First Battle of Manassas.
Undoubtedly the most moving Civil War tale since Cold Mountain, For Love and Liberty brings the war to life with startling detail, depicting not only the heroism of its soldiers, but also the courage of the families they left behind.

This is an alphabet book with photographs for each letter. The words are in English and Spanish. It is an alphabetic collection of photographs for people of all ages.

When you’ve lived your entire life mired in muck and filth, dreams might be the only thing you can cling to. And inside her prison, lost in a sea of thousands of other girls, Delaware has one colossal dream that revolves around a simple white ball. Captivating her from the screen of the portable television owned by one of the prison workers, it is her only glimpse of the place she calls Outside. Her dream is baseball.

Dellie’s Run is an empowering story of one girl chasing the elusive home run in the name of freedom—not just for her, but for the thousands she left behind. Along the way, she comes face to face with who she really is and why, according to the laws of physics, she’s basically destined to strike out. As Dellie sets off to defy these odds along with the companionship and scientific ingenuity of a curious young boy named Austin, she might just change the game for her kind—and for all of us on the Outside.

www.DelliesRun.com

I also would love to promote my upcoming anthology, The Dog Who Wooed at the World, and invite others to submit stories to the collection, as well as sell prints of animals featured in it:

I’m Laura Lee Cascada, a Virginia writer, activist, and mermaid. I’ve spent my life around animals, collecting profound lessons and using those to build a more humane world around me through writing and campaigning. But as a teen, I hid away in my room for months, paralyzed by social anxiety. In college, I met my soul dog, Powder, who mirrored me by trembling in the bathtub during every storm. But then something comical would happen: she’d “woo!” out loud, marking the end of the perceived danger, and carry on.

My upcoming book, The Dog Who Wooed at the World, is the first anthology from The Every Animal Project, compiled in the aftermath of an orange-sized cancer that stole Powder away. It’s both a reflection on how one dog’s inexplicable bravery helped me go from a whisper to a warrior, and my grappling with a world left devoid of that therapeutic “woo!” Readers will fall in love with this trembling pit-beagle, as her legacy emboldens them to follow in her pawprints and surmount their greatest fears. And you’ll encounter other extraordinary animals from around the world who have embodied immense courage.

You can submit your own story for inclusion in this empowering new collection today at www.everyanimalproject.com/contact.

This is an LGBTQ ghost story.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53356494-the-haunting-of-the-antique-brooch

Beginning with Wobbly Man, these are collections of my poetry leading up to my current project, The Broken Poem and Other Strange Ideas About God. These poetry hybrids are dialogue-driven creation myths in which Beauty, God, Darkness, Silence, Light and Gravity create and relate with one another in “the beginning”.
While I’ve published more traditionally in the past, The Broken Poems are hand-published, meaning I personally design, layout, print, fold, bind and cut each book by hand. It’s a marvelous craft which I thoroughly enjoy and will be offering as a class at the Valley Makers’ space in Winchester, soon.

All books are available at www.thesockdrawerpoet.com

Memoir, essays, and reflections on self-publication; Elizabeth’s Story, a fictionalized reflection of a young woman’s journey; a collection of essays and stories

An Act of Kindness – a story about two young boys, one giving something to the other boy. Little Bruce the Spruce Tree – a story about a family with one little boy who has trouble talking and his relationship with a Christmas tree. All it Took Was a Brother’s Love – the relationship between two young brothers. one brother has trouble communicating and experienced his first day of school, his reaction to it, and his younger brother trying to calm him down.

A Winchester native…
A baseball pioneer…
The man who should have been Jackie Robinson in 1922.
The story you don’t know.

A poetry collection of musically rhythmic and mystical folklore. James Cole’s Crow, come home comprises a collection of voices and forms that takes the reader to the edges of narrative and legend.

chapbook of poetry is not out until late November / early Dec – so better for next year

An original poetry and art collection

Overflowing with vulnerability and raw honesty, Face is a declaration of self worth and owning your space after breaking, rebuilding and rising again.

TW: This book contains some references of abuse and trauma

I have:
Adult mystery/ suspense, drama, supernatural stories
Poetry
Young Adult Fantasy and Poetry
Children’s books ages 3 to 11

Author website: www.pamwebber.com
Facebook: @authorpamwebber
Twitter: @pamwebber1
Instagram: @pbwebber1

THE WIREGRASS (2015)
Where angels and demons dance.
Five mischievous, pubescent cousins converging on the sleepy Southern Wiregrass town of Coffee Springs, Alabama for the summer, what could possibly go wrong? In short, everything. Laugh out loud as fourteen-year-old Nettie and the other cousins fight to hold onto the mischievousness of their youth, empathize with them as they struggle with the unrelenting changes of puberty and first love, fear for them as they uncover an unspeakable evil that stalking the beautiful place and people they love, and walk with them as they cross into adulthood. This haunting story uses the uniqueness of the Southern Wiregrass to support loveable and unlovable characters as they take the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions, from laugh out loud funny to soul crushing sadness. Their story promises to stay with the reader for a lifetime.

MOON WATER (2019)
Blending Virginia history and Native American lore.
Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the summer of 1969, Moon Water finds Nettie, 16, with her boyfriend wanting to breakup just as they are figuring out the sex thing. Nettie’s lifelong nemesis is jabbing her with perfectly polished nails, while her hellfire and brimstone preacher refuses to baptize her. Amid this turmoil, a Monacan Indian medicine woman gives her a cryptic message about a coming darkness, a blood moon whose veiled danger threatens Nettie and those she loves. To prepare for the darkness, Nettie and her best friend, Win, make a treacherous journey into the mountains to build a mysterious dreamcatcher of ancient elements.

LIFE DUST (2022)
An extraordinary tale of second chances.
Nettie and Andy have been soul mates since childhood. While planning their wedding, Andy must deploy to South Vietnam for a year. To deal with the loss, Nettie dives into her work as a nursing intern in a busy emergency room and inadvertently walks in on a nursing supervisor and surgeon during their late-night tryst. The couple begin a campaign to discredit Nettie and sabotage her internship.
Meanwhile, Andy is leading a jungle reconnaissance squad when he receives orders to escort high-ranking female freedom fighter, Bien, to a clandestine meeting with an enemy officer who wants to defect. Bien believes the officer may be her long-lost brother who was conscripted as a child. However, Andy thinks his unit is walking into a trap that could cost him everything.
Struggling to survive in different worlds, Nettie and Andy navigate the best and worst of human nature as they try to find their way back to each other.

https://www.bclnovels.com/works

THE WOODSMAN
Jackson Clay is a recluse living off the grid in the Virginia mountains. His child: disappeared. His marriage: collateral damage. His only salvation: finding the lost.

When Sara Beth Parker, a quiet, girl-next-door teenager, disappears in the middle of the night, Detective Angela Cole is assigned the case. A black woman in a department of white men, she’s gotten to where she has by working harder and being better than her peers.

But as leads begin to dry up, Detective Cole feels herself becoming desperate. And when a colleague introduces her to Jackson, she will break her own rules and place her and her case’s hopes in his hands.

Determined to breathe life into a case that has quickly gone cold, Jackson begins to unravel a tangled web of secrets and lies that quickly put him in the crosshairs of a sociopathic killer and his heavily armed cult. With the help of a charismatic boor named Bear, Jackson learns that the cult may be responsible for a sinister plot much larger than just Sara Beth. Outmanned and outgunned, Jackson and Bear will take the fight to the group, prepared to sacrifice everything, including themselves.

COUNTRY ROADS
Set several months after the breakout novel THE WOODSMAN, Jackson Clay and Bear Beauchamp return in an all-new adventure!

It was supposed to be a quiet night for Bobbie Casto and his friends in their small town of Rion, West Virginia. But when two Sheriff’s Deputies with ulterior motives harass Bobbie and his friends, things quickly spiral out of control. A gun is drawn. Shots are fired. And when the smoke settles, Bobbie Casto finds himself on the run, wanted for the attempted murder of a police officer.

So when Bear Beauchamp finds his business partner, Raymond Byrd, abetting the young man, he calls the one person he knows will help:

Jackson Clay.

Together, Jackson, Bear, Ray, and Bobbie try to piece together what really happened that night, but their search for the truth will put them in even more peril. Prying eyes aren’t welcome in this part of the Mountain State, and devils prowl this “Almost Heaven.” When they uncover an organized crime racket that stretches to the highest levels of state government, the group quickly goes from hunters to hunted.

But unexpected enemies can lead to unexpected allies.

Now, banded together with a pair of likeable, tough-as-nails doomsday preppers living off the grid, Jackson, Bear, Ray, and Bobbie are in a race against time to prove his innocence and bring the guilty parties to justice–before they’re silenced for good.

Pray the road they’re on isn’t a dead end.

When reputed criminal, Theo Jackson, proposes a donation to the city for a new youth center, the mayor sends police officer, Denton Jones to negotiate the terms. Theo and Denton were once friends before taking different career paths. Denton’s efforts inexplicably make him a target for a corrupt city official, but a dishonest bureaucrat is the least of the city’s problems. Theo uncovers evidence of an international criminal organization facilitating human trafficking in the city. Repulsed by the crime, Theo enlists an unlikely coalition of clergy, law enforcement, and criminals to try to stop it. In the process, readers are dragged into the uncomfortable gray areas of life where the wrong thing sometimes seems a better choice than the right thing; where a little bad turns into almost good; and where dark white and light black become the same color.

In his debut poetry collection, Death Throes of the Broken Clockwork Universe, Wayne David Hubbard illustrates journeys through physical space and abstract worlds of emotion.
Combining choreological precision with playfulness, readers enter the mind’s eye of a poet standing along the shoreline of powerful forces that shape all lives: time, place, and love.

Written over a ten-year period, the collection calls to mind the poetry of Lorine Niedecker, Rae Armantrout, Larry Eigner, and Carl Phillips. Importantly, these poems resist thick, impenetrable themes, instead celebrating ordinal wonders of life that are hidden in open view.

This spare book offers strong, memorable imagery and questions that will delight thoughtful readers.
(https://waynedavidhubbard.com/clockworkuniverse)

Mobius
“How do you know when you are home?” Author Wayne David Hubbard began to explore this question with paper and pen one summer evening. What unfolded was Mobius – a book of lyric prose that explores the timeless subject of home.

Each page is a meditation on love, memory, place, time, nostalgia, loss, travel, and other elements which people commonly reference whenever they speak of home.

Mobius is written in a minimal style to invite the reader to ponder their own meaning. You may discover what the author did. Answering simple questions about one’s definition of home is well worth the quest.