RACHEL KEENER
Rachel Keener is the author of The Killing Tree and The Memory Thief. Both novels are inspired, in part, by her Appalachian heritage. A graduate of Carson-Newman College, Rachel moved to North Carolina to attend law school at Wake Forest University. It was there, during an intense law class, that Rachel began writing The Killing Tree. By the time she completed law school she had more than a degree, she had a manuscript as well. Following the release of The Killing Tree, Rachel completed her second novel, The Memory Thief. Today, Rachel calls the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina home, with her husband and two sons. Visit Rachel online at www.rachelkeener.com
PEARL WEAVER'S EPIC APOLOGY
Pearl Weaver is obsessed with stories. When loss leaves her reeling, Pearl seeks peace from the writing lessons of her father, a brilliant Southern writer. If you don’t like something, he taught, cross it out and choose a better plot. Although his lesson was intended for ink and paper, Pearl uses it to choose a new life for herself, straight from the pages of classic literature. Soon she discovers that what’s perfectly poised within a masterpiece, is disastrous in the real world. Pearl flees to the ends of the earth, only to discover that some stories are impossible to escape. Facing terrifying consequences, Pearl must choose her next plot. Will she recreate herself once again? Or will she learn that freedom doesn’t have to be fictional?
THE MEMORY THIEF
Center Street/Hachette, 2010
When Angel sets fire to the trailer she grew up in, it isn’t the end–it’s the beginning. Probably no one will come looking for her, but even if they did, Angel knows hidden paths through the tobacco fields that surround her home better than anyone, learned from many a night hiding out from Momma and Daddy’s fights. But now they and her older sister have all gone off, and Angel is left with nothing but a few memories in her pocket and the vague notion that somewhere out there is someone who may want her. And Angel will do what she has to until she finds her–after all, her Momma taught her well how to steal, and how to survive on her own.
Like Angel, Hannah has never fit into the world. She and her adopted sister Bethie are daughters of missionaries who follow the rules of a small and strict religious sect, where modesty is prized above all else. Wearing floor length polyester skirts, and never cutting their hair, the girls are teased and live apart. Until the summer they move to James Island, South Carolina, and Hannah secretly gets a job working at Cora’s Steampot Motel, cleaning rooms and toting steaming buckets of oysters to the guests. Slowly, Hannah begins to escape the confines of her strict upbringing, and soon meets a boy who will change the course of her life irrevocably.
As these two young women come of age, their paths will connect, and Hannah’s past will prove to mean everything to Angel’s future.
Difficult to put down. — Publishers Weekly
THE KILLING TREE
Center Street/Hachette, 2009
It’s the summer after Mercy Heron graduates from high school, and she’s living in the household of her domineering grandfather and a grandmother whose behavior has always been erratic–some folks even call it crazy. They’ve raised Mercy since her mother died giving birth to her under the June apple tree, after Father Heron locked her out and ignored her pleas for help.
Mercy’s days are spent working at the local diner, and hanging out with her wild best friend Della. Unlike Della, she’s never seriously considered leaving the insulated community on Crooked Top mountain. Not until that summer when she meets Trout, a man who opens Mercy’s eyes to a world beyond what she’s known–both physically and emotionally. Their relationship must be kept secret, because Father Heron won’t approve of his granddaughter being involved with a migrant worker. But when Mercy tries to escape, she’ll learn just how powerful, and ruthless, her grandfather can be. And the truth of her past will threaten to forever bind her to the mountain.