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Mallory and Eli Cranor
I’m writing from the third floor of the Ross Pendergraft Library.
I made the walk over during my office hours, trying to get a feel for the author event that’ll take place on Tuesday night, November 7th, when Ramona Emerson rolls into town.
Ramona is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. Her debut novel, Shutter, was longlisted for the National Book Award. Shutter is equal parts gripping crime thriller, supernatural horror, and poignant portrayal of coming of age on the reservation.
Do I have your attention yet?
If not, then let me add that the novel’s main character, a forensic photographer for the Albuquerque police force, can see the spirits of the bodies she photographs. Which, of course, causes quite the predicament for our protagonist and propels the novel’s action along at a breakneck pace.
Over the last year, I’ve gotten to know Ramona well. I learned she was once a forensic photographer. I’m still not sure if she can see spirits, but I plan to ask her on Tuesday night, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Ramona to Arkansas.
Our talk is scheduled for 6pm at the Ross Pendergraft Library on the Arkansas Tech University Campus. Light refreshments will be served, but I’m hoping you’ll get so much more out of our chat than just food or drink. I’ve got a feeling like this night is going to be special.
Sitting here, in the very room where I’ll be on Tuesday, I’ve been thinking back on Ramona's and my relationship. From the outside, we’re about as different as two people can be. A white guy from Arkansas, and a Diné writer from New Mexico, separated by almost a thousand miles and a nearly fifteen-year age discrepancy.
Yet our words connect us, the stories we choose to tell.
The first time Ramona and I were on a panel together, the moderator asked us how it felt to write so brazenly about our homes. Ramona answered first, stating that it was terrifying. It was refreshing to hear I wasn’t alone. Writing about the place, the people you love can be scary, but knowing there were other authors out there doing the same thing helped me through that fear.
Over the last year, Ramona and my debut novels have been nominated for many of the same awards. We’ve been to many of the same banquets, sat at the same tables, and watched as our books went head-to-head during the award presentations.
Those banquets aren’t always easy, even if you win. Ramona and I have won some, lost some, but the results have never impacted our relationship. You can learn more about a person from an hours’ worth of competition than you can from a week’s worth of talk, and here’s what I’ve learned about Ramona Emerson.
She’s a champ, a forensic photographer turned filmmaker turned award-winning novelist, and I cannot wait for you to meet her.
Copies of Shutter will be available for purchase at the event, and a book signing will follow the discussion.
Hope to see you there.
Don't Know Tough
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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
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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. |
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