A strong willed, independent woman, all Ella Mayfield wanted was to help her widowed mother and siblings survive during the Civil War. Invasions by Union soldiers and Kansas Jawhawkers into Vernon Co. Missouri forced Ella to join a Bushwhacker band. Brave and daring, Ella dressed like a man, was a crack shot and superb horseman. Her dangerous exploits are legendary while she served as a spy and faught to protect her home near Montevallo, Mo.

Chanell, a small-town Southern beautician, finds herself suddenly shunned by regular clients and lifelong friends. When the reason for the social lynching comes to lightand the power of racial hatred rears its ugly headChanell discovers that the unspoken past of her town is alive and well. But Chanell decides to fight back. An intense and honest, powerful and evocative novel of old passions in the New Southfrom a critically acclaimed Southern writer.

Benefits Charity “This is a family memoir, of sorts, told one newspaper column at a time, a variety of memories stitched together like a patchwork quilt.” So writes columnist Keith Huffman in describing this nifty collection of Southern essays that pay tribute to a charming bunch of characters who personify small-town life. Reflecting on his childhood in the West Alabama town of Gordo, Huffman shares the stories and memories of the folks who made their marks on him, including: • Pawpaw Buck, the ornery-though-lovable old coot, whose dying wish was to get baptized by the very country preacher who’d been damned determined to save his soul for decades; • Doe Doe, the author’s father, a Crimson Tide fanatic and big-rig ace, whose One True Love was a black and silver 1979 Ford F-150 that flaunted its glorious name across its gleaming windshield: Silver Bullet; • Mawmaw Sue, expert remover of deadly splinters and master engineer, who once used a shoestring to keep a push mower running long enough to finish the job; • Aunt Lorene, a beast of a card player, who lacked neither a winning hand nor mocking grin for her brother, Henry, the man who not only named himself but fulfilled an old psychic’s prophecy that he’d “go overseas and find a gold mine.” Other stories involve bootlegging shenanigans, a drunken cage match with a wild cat, plus the author’s burned luck and bitter fishing tragedy. Huffman also shares about how he learned the fine art of backroad skepticism; his ongoing ponderings over how life as a turtle could have turned out; and his musings over the joys of fatherhood... proving that parenting is no easy task, especially when a young’un holds a grudge after dreaming his mother ate his dinosaur. This collection also includes other newspaper features Huffman has written over the years, highlighting examples of Southern hearts, tragedies, and triumphs.