| |
I’m writing from Columbus, Ohio.
It’s still dark out. Still early. My flight boards in 47 minutes. An hour later, I’ll be in Chicago. If all goes to plan, I’ll make it home in time to pick up the kids from school.
It’s been a fun, fast trip, chock full of good people, good food, and good times.
Thousands of librarians descended on Ohio over the last week for the Public Library Association Conference, or “PLA” for short. This was my first time at the conference. I was amazed by the energy, the pure bookish love that filled the air.
There were panels with authors like Ta Nehisi Coates and Craig Johnson. My good buddy Ace Atkins was also in attendance and just so happened to be signing books at the booth across from mine.
The writing world is small and interconnected. Authors and librarians are oftentimes introverts, but cram all of us together for a few days, and literary sparks are bound to fly.
One bright spark at this year’s PLA was an author by the name of Juliet Grames. Juliet is the woman behind the bestselling “Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna,” and the forthcoming “The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.”
And, lucky for you, Juliet will soon be in Arkansas.
On Tuesday, April 23rd Juliet will give a reading at Arkansas Tech. The event begins at 6pm and is being held in the Ross-Pendergraft Library.
To say I’m excited would be an understatement. Juliet’s work touches on womanhood and her Italian heritage. She is a wordsmith of the highest order, and she also happens to be my editor.
I don’t know how she does it, but, yes, Juliet Grames is a bestselling author and a top-notch editor. In 2023, Juliet was awarded the Mystery Writers of America’s Ellery Queen Award, which is given to the best crime-fiction editor each year.
If you make it over to ATU to hear Juliet speak, you won’t be sorry. Last night, I watched her wow an entire conference room with talks of pasta, organized crime, and hilarious/heart wrenching stories from her extended Italian family. At breakfast this morning, I overheard a table of librarians still buzzing about “The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.”
Juliet is on her way back home now, just like me and all the other lucky authors who attended PLA. I’m not sure whether she has any layovers, or if she’s flying into La Guardia or JFK. I know something better. I know where Juliet will be on April 23rd at 6pm.
As for me, my 47 minutes are up. It’s already boarding time, but I’d like to conclude by offering a heartfelt thanks to all the librarians out there. Keep fighting the good fight, one book at a time. We need you now more than ever.
| Books authored by Eli Cranor |
Broiler
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
The troubles of two desperate families—one white, one Mexican American—converge rest in the ruthless underworld of an Arkansas chicken processing plant in this new thriller from the award-winning author of DON’T KNOW TOUGH.
Gabriela Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo are hardworking, undocumented employees at the Detmer Foods chicken plant in Springdale, Arkansas, just a stone’s throw away from the trailer park where they’ve lived together for seven years. While dealing with personal tragedies of their own, the young couple endures the brutal, dehumanizing conditions at the plant in exchange for barebones pay.
When the plant manager, Luke Jackson, fires Edwin to set an example for the rest of the workers—and to show the higher-ups that he’s ready for a major promotion—Edwin is determined to get revenge on Luke and his wife, Mimi, a new mother who stays at home with her six-month-old son. Edwin’s impulsive action sets in motion a devastating chain of events that illuminates the deeply entrenched power dynamics between those who revel at the top and those who toil at the bottom.
From the nationally bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author of Don’t Know Tough and Ozark Dogs comes another edge-of-your-seat noir thriller that exposes the dark, bloody heart of life on the margins in the American South and the bleak underside of a bygone American Dream. |
Don't Know Tough
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension.
Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy’s bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy—save him from his circumstances, and save his soul.
Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs. |
Ozark Dogs
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. |
| Previous columns: |
• Writing from a Dusty Floored Gym
• Writing From: My office with an icepack on my lap
• Writing from the Waffle House
• Writing from: Two-years into this "author" gig
• Writing from: Trut grit county
• Writing from: The rafters in the basement
• Writing from: A land of dripping noses and all-night coughs
• Writing from: Another Dimension
• Writing from Fearrington Village, North Carolina
• Writing from My daughter’s basketball game
• Writing from My thirty sixth year
• Writing from Forrest City, Arkansas
• Writing from Nap Time
• Writing from Winter Park, Colorado
• Writing from the end of the year
• Writing from First United Methodist Church
• Writing from the end of the first semester
• Writing from the cusp of another visit
• Writing from a Razorback Game
• Writing From: The End
• Writing from Oyster Island
• Writing from Jayne Lemons
• Writing from Bed
• Writing from Witherspoon Hall
• Writing From: Coco
• Writing from the Beach
• Writing From: Crooked Creek
• Writing from a Nursing Home
• Writing from a Firework Tent
• Writing from a Boat
• Writing from the Stars
• Writing from the Pool
• Writing from the Kitchen
• Writing from Summer
• Writing from Kindergarten
• Writing from Mom
|
• Writing from a Plane
• Writing from Home
• My second novel’s publication
• A New Marriage Milestone
• An Invitation to the Party
• Writing from a Thunderstorm
• Writing from a Soundbooth
• Writing from “Jazz Beach"
• Writing from the Sabbath
• Writing from somewhere between Little Rock and Russellville
• Writing from my back deck
• Writing from the morning of my thirty-fifth year
• Writing on the day of the college football National Championship
• Writing from the space between breaths
• Writing from 2022
• Writing from the glow of a plastic Christmas tree
• Writing on a rollercoaster of triumph and disaster
• Writing from the drop-off line at my daughter’s elementary school
• Writing with Thanksgiving on my mind
• Writing from the crowd before the start of a Shovels & Rope show
• Writing from the depths of a post-book-festival hangover
• Writing from the Ron Robinson Theatre
• Writing to you on Halloween Eve
• Writing from my bed on a Saturday morning
• Writing from my office with two darts clenched in my left hand
• Writing from the shade of my favorite tree
• Writing from my desk on a Tuesday morning
• Writing from a pirate ship
• Writing from the airport
• Writing from the hospital
• I'm writing from the water
• Writing from my wife's Honda Pilot
• Writing from my office |
|
