Bücher von Ann McMan

Salem West and Christel Cogneau have assembled a powerhouse lineup of Bywater Books and Amble Press authors to explore, subvert, and reinvigorate the bountiful feast of All Hallows phantasmagoria in this stunning collection.To the living, "soul food" has a specific meaning, history, and flavor. But what does "soul food" mean to the demon, ghost, fiend, witch, spirit, or vampire? How does their ingenuity and wit rise and fall in the taking, baking, erasing, embracing, and defacing of sustenance?West and Cogneau have challenged their authors to explore these and other questions in surprising and fascinating ways. Sometimes sweet and other times terrifying, sometimes warm or otherwise demented, these stories set the table for an otherworldly feast of delight and intrigue.Let the banquet begin . . .Soul Food Stories is packed with literary confections by award-winning authors, Anna Burke, Jenn Alexander, Jacob Budenz, Virginia Black, Cathy Pegau, and Ann McMan.Featured stories include: "The Five Year Revenge Agency" by Anna Burke"Tilly's Tarts" by Jenn Alexander"Of the Air and Land" by Jacob Budenz"Ravenous" by Virginia Black"In Speary Wood" by Cathy Pegau"Perhaps You Missed My Signs" by Anna Burke"Ghost Writer" by Ann McMan

Jill Fryman (Friday to her friends) is a Line Supervisor at a truck manufacturing plant in a small southern Indiana town-and life on the assembly line is almost as predictable as her love life. When it comes to matters of the heart, Friday always seems to be making the wrong choices. Things go from bad to worse when El, a sultry labor organizer from the UAW, sweeps into town to unionize the plant right after it's been bought out by a Japanese firm. Sparks fly on and off the line as Jill and El fight their growing attraction for each other against a backdrop of monster trucks, fried catfish dinners, Pork Day USA, and a bar called Hoosier Daddy.

Diz and Clarissa Are Back for the Holidays! It's Christmas Eve in Baltimore, and you know what that means . . . snow.Lots of it.Join our dynamic duo as they battle the elements, quirky friends and family, and two marauding dogs in their annual ill-fated attempts to enjoy a quiet Christmas alone.Originally published in 2014, this Christmas collection features the short stories, Nevermore!, A Christmas Tree Grows in Baltimore, and Blended Families.But wait!There's more!In the Bywater Books reissue of Three, you get a (plus one)!This updated edition of Ann McMan's romantic comedy classic includes the fourth tale of Diz and Clarissa, 'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas.This trilogy (plus one) is a holiday omnibus not to be missed!

Two-time Lambda Literary Award-winning author Ann McMan introduces readers to a spinster postal investigator for the Winston-Salem Dead Letter Office who finds herself enmeshed in the mystery of solving who is sending undeliverable love letters to the towns 18th-century hortus medicus.The year is 1960, and Gunsmoke is the most popular show on TV. Elvis Presley tops the Billboard charts, and a charismatic young senator named John F. Kennedy is running for president. And, in North Carolina, four young Black men sit down at a Woolworths lunch counter and demand service.Enter Esther Jane (EJ) Cloud, a forty-something spinster who manages the Dead Letter Office at the Winston-Salem post office. EJ leads a quiet life in her Old Salem ancestral home and spends her free time volunteering in the towns 18th-century medicinal garden.One sunny Spring morning, EJs world is turned upside down when she is handed a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person at the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writerand into a surprising, head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden.When EJ is forced to read the letters to look for clues about the anonymous sender, what she discovers are lyrical tales of a forbidden passion that threaten to unravel the simple contours of her unexamined life. EJs official quest soon morphs into a journey of self-discovery. Her surprising accomplice on this quest becomes a savvy, street-smart ten-year-old wielding an eye patch and a limitless supply of aphorisms. Together, the unlikely duo makes pilgrimages to a tiny town called Paradise to try and crack the casewhile ultimately learning better ways to navigate the changing world around them.Dead Letters from Paradise was named one of Shelf Unbound's 100 Top Notable Indie Titles of 2022.