Romantic
Times Magazine
Discover
the Art of Southern Storytelling
by
Cindy Schwalb
September
19, 2000
The ladies of BelleBooks invite you to join them in a celebration of small-town
nostalgia, simple folks and sultry days in their new anthology
SWEET TEA
AND JESUS SHOES. For those who have never encountered the charm of southern
storytelling, the experience is like no other. It begins with a humble,
unassuming narration, or just the opposite, a swift kick in the shins.
Southern stories adopt a poetic rhythm and heighten the senses with exactness:
a rose bush that blooms on the same day every year, the three tingling
scents that linger on a certain street corner, the exact way to eat corn
on the cob. Characters dish out colloquialisms that border on Forrest
Gump-style brilliance. And nature, quite often in the form of heat, provides
a backdrop inseparable from story or people. The difference in a southern
story is, of course, plot, for true southerners see a hundred new stories
in every day. Their whole lives are lived and remembered through a series
of tales. And no two are alike.
SWEET TEA
AND JESUS SHOES is a special collection for all of those reasons,
but what makes this anthology a little sweeter is the women behind it.
Time-honored favorite romance authors Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain,
Debra Dixon, and Donna Ball have joined up with women's fiction writers
Virginia Ellis and Nancy Knight to form BelleBooks-the first publishing
company dedicated to preserving the tradition of southern storytelling
through the eyes of women.
With
more than 200 books between them and numerous awards, we can expect to
share an exciting future with these formidable belles: their talent will
build our keeper shelves. In their first release, slice-of-life tales
tackle southern issues and values, offer autobiographical sketches, promote
eccentricity and even include traditional southern recipes. But most of
all,
SWEET TEA
AND JESUS SHOES will charm us into being life-long fans
of these southern belles.
FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
DEBORAH SMITH
Director of Marketing
Phone: (706) 864-3306
Fax: (706) 867-6119
E-Mail: debbsmith@aol.com
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