Category Archives: Episodes

George Weinstein — Hardscrabble Road

About Hardscrabble Road:

The entire MacLeod clan is haunted by secrets—and young Roger “Bud” MacLeod doesn’t realize he carries the biggest secret of all. Growing up poor in Depression-era South Georgia is hard enough, but Bud is also cursed with a stutter and a birthmark that disfigures his face. His hateful father and amoral mother make life worse still, despite his brothers’ efforts to shield him.

To survive in body and soul, Bud must discover his strengths and confront the sins of his parents. First, though, he’ll need to grasp his own truth: that he can’t embrace his future until he comes to terms with his past.

About the George Weinstein:

George Weinstein is the author of the historical novel and book club favorite Hardscrabble Road; the novel of forgotten U.S. history The Five Destinies of Carlos Moreno; the contemporary romance The Caretaker; and the mystery Aftermath, as well as the children's adventure novel Jake and the Tiger Flight. His work also has been published in the Atlanta press and in regional and national anthologies, including A Cup of Comfort for Writers. George is the former President of the Atlanta Writers Club and has helped over two thousand writers on their quest for publication through the twice yearly Atlanta Writers Conference, which he directs. On GeorgeWeinstein.com, you can read the first chapter George's books for free.

About SFK Press:

The path for an artist to reach a wider audience is no longer exclusively controlled by corporate gatekeepers measuring each choice purely by its economic return. This is the founding premise of SFK Press, an independent publisher based in Metro Atlanta.

In the Deep South, where the bespectacled Flannery O’Connor inhabits every literary tick, the contemporary narrative is dynamic. We’re marching far beyond the cynical stories of the 20th century. Authors have dumped the askew pastorals on their asses. We recognize that cultivating new voices requires broadening the definition of Southern writing. The hero isn’t always represented in a conventional fashion.

Steve Bassett Father Divines Bikes

About Father Divines Bikes

Offering an extensive look inside the history and urban problems — and how they began — in post-World War II Newark, New Jersey like never before, author Steve Bassett releases the first in the trilogy, Father Divine’s Bikes. In this noir crime thriller, Bassett melds character, time and place into a mosaic that uncovers the plight of a city on a downward spiral immediately after the war, a time when our nation was basking in the afterglow of victory.

A gangster war, three murders, a gun-toting paperboy, and the numbers racket lay bare a dark, compelling story in a world of poverty and hopelessness from which there is little hope of escape. In the autumn of 1945, a battle rages when the city’s competing mobs end their truce. When it gets bloody, other criminal forces are ready to move in. Citywide corruption is endemic. Bookies using Father Divine’s controversial International Peace Mission Movement as a front, recruit two Catholic altar boys, Joey Bancik and Richie Maxwell, to run numbers under the guise of newspaper routes. The boys quickly realize they are players in a dangerous game, but the easy money is too good to pass up. They are now petty criminals and being hauled into juvie court is a risk they’re willing to take. Two homicide detectives track Joey to a luxury apartment, but arrive too late to prevent the inevitable. Joey’s body lay in a pool of blood on the basement floor.

About Steve Bassett:

Born and raised in Newark\'s crime-ridden Third Ward, although far removed during a career as a multiple award-winning journalist, Steve Bassett has always been the proud sobriquet Jersey Guy. He has been legally blind for almost a decade, but this hasn\'t slowed him down.

Bassett has written two nonfiction books, The Battered Rich and Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell In and Out of Love During the Cold War. Continuing with his newest fiction release, Father Divine’s Bikes, readers share in his insights that earned him three Emmys for investigative documentaries, and the California Bar Association\'s Medallion Award for Distinguished Reporting on the Administration of Justice. He now resides in Placitas, New Mexico with his wife, Darlene.

Dawn Davis– Falling – The Tower Room Series

About Falling:

It is 1988 and Leo is about to experience a life changing adventure. Leo has just recently moved into the Rose Park mansion at the invitation of his cousin, Dilys, and finds himself awaiting the birth of his first grandchild, Charlotte. His daughter Francine, a whip-smart Toronto lawyer, is pregnant, and pregnancy has done nothing to soften the naturally jagged edges of her personality. When she is hospitalized over concerns with her blood pressure, it appears likely that Francine, incensed over her forced “incarceration” will soon be dragging the entire hospital into court. Leo is beside himself with worry and Dilys deems the situation ripe for Leo’s initiation into the mysteries of the Tower Room.
Suddenly transported to Queenston, Ontario in the year 1813 when the Americans are in control of Fort George during the War of 1812, Leo meets historical figures of the time, principally Laura Secord and her family – Loyalists who have moved to Upper Canada to start a new life.

The startling transposition of time and place changes Leo in ways he will only realize when he returns home – most importantly his relationship with the two young children who become his teachers in methods of survival during a time of war. Not knowing where he is or even who he is, Leo learns quickly what living on the edge is all about. The surprise that awaits him when he returns to his own time is one he could never have imagined.

About Dawn Davis:

Currently working on the final two books in the series, Dawn Davis is a retired teacher living in downtown Toronto, on the ravine, with Charlie, her Maine Coon cat. Falling is Book Two in the Tower Room Series. The Tree of Life, her debut novel, was published in 2015.