PUBLICATIONS

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Canopies of Bones and Breathable Air by Wanda McNabb (May 2025) reveals the discovery of experience through the innocence of the author's sensations as well as her growing awareness about the haunting disguises and beautiful revelations that shape her life. McNabb's first book of poetry offers an artist's search for connection within orchestrated life and the shock of surprises that secrets surge into unexpected situations. Canopies of Bones and Breathable Air is a tribute to an artist's grappling with her capabilities as well as how McNabb's relationships collide with her artistic vision.

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INSPIRATION TO ACTION: A TRIBUTE TO JILL EICHHORN (August 1, 2024) is a collaboration emphasizing the dedication of Dr. Jill Eichhorn to the field of Gender and Women's Studies, the Clarksville community, and her sacred friendships and mentorships. She was a professor, an activist, and a peacekeeper. This book dedicated to Dr. Jill Eichhorn was created by a group of her colleagues, students, and friends, in partnership with her family. Inspiration to Action is a book of creative nonfiction and poetry written and artwork created by over thirty contributors honoring Jill. The book includes an essay, written by Jill, about her work as a professor and director of Gender and Women Studies, as well as artwork created with her students in Interdisciplinary Studies courses at Austin Peay State University. 

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THE BLUE BOX AND MEMORIES THAT LIVE IN THE BONES by Sharon Mabry (January 2024)

A salad-eating dog, the haunted trunk, a 'possum who drinks coffee—The Blue Box and Memories that Live in the Bones by Sharon Mabry is a collection of stories about Mabry’s growing up years in the mountains of East Tennessee, some of the adventures in her 56-year marriage, and her thoughts on retirement after teaching for 52 years at Austin Peay State University. Mabry writes with wit and candor about her mother’s declining health and the changes to her family home. Throughout her life, Mabry finds the humor that lives within each moment. The Blue Box and Memories that Live in the Bones is a collection that glimpses into the inner joy that maintains Mabry’s dimpled cheeks and smiling eyes. It’s a contagious outlook that will inspire readers to find amusement in their own reflections.

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FINALIST 2023 American Writing Awards--Best New (Debut) Fiction

FINALIST 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards--Mystery 

THE POSTMASTER'S DAUGHTER by Sharon Mabry (October 20, 2022). When a marriage proposal brings together two families in East Tennessee, the wealthy and powerful Cantrells and the hardworking and respected Putnams, everyone is shocked by a sudden murder that halts the union. Sharon Mabry’s first novel, The Postmaster’s Daughter, is a literary fiction performance that shows Mabry’s ear for character details and her ability to weave a murder plot that keeps the reader’s interest on the stage of the novel. The Postmaster’s Daughter not only leads you into the working kitchen and tastes of cinnamon buns made by Viege Putnam, but it also takes you for a ride in Jack Cantrell’s ‘29 Model J Duesenberg Phaeton. Mabry arranges each scene and action with precision.

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FINDING GRACE AND GRIT by Khristeena Lute (May 2021). New Orleans author Grace King’s childhood turns from Civil War era refinement to navigating the bayous with her family on a flatboat and then emerging to a different life in New Orleans after the war. In the present day, Meredith Mandin becomes fascinated by the life of Grace King after her husband returns from the war in Afghanistan, and they begin a new direction for their family. In her debut novel, Finding Grace and Grit (May 2021), Khristeena Lute shows how Meredith and Grace risk poverty and social suicide as they carve daringly different futures than the ones society had prescribed.

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THE BEGINNING'S END by Nikki Martin (June 22, 2021) reveals a surprising struggle even while reconnecting readers with their favorite characters from her series. The Awake While Dreaming series covers the lives of Kale and Kayla in book one, A MOMENTARY DARKNESS (2018). While the second book, THE BEGINNING'S END returns with some of the heroines and heroes from the first book, Martin introduces compelling new characters whose lives change the fate of everyone.

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RIPE FOR THE PICKIN' by Shana Thornton (March 4, 2022). The Family Medicine Wheel series: Book Two. A legendary family treasure is rumored to be buried on the Ballard Farm, and generations have searched for it while pretending as if they don't believe in it. Robin goes looking for it, and instead discovers that she's a songwriter, leading to the creation of her folk/bluegrass band, Poke Sallet Queen and the Family Medicine Wheel.  Ripe for the Pickin' by Shana Thornton is an adventure filled with road trips, old maps, and stories that Robin is shocked to have as her inheritance. READ MORE HERE  

An OnPoint Radio suggestion as Best Summer Reads 2014! Set on the Massachusetts coast, The Mosquito Hours is a multi-generational story about how the women in a family attempt to keep secrets about their desires, spirituality, and motherhood. READ MORE HERE

A Momentary Darkness is the first novel in the dreamstate series, Awake While Dreaming.  
A Momentary Darkness explores the realm of fantasy by experimenting with alternate worlds and lives. This is a story within stories that can be enjoyed by anyone who dares to wander into their dreamscape.

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Southern Independent Booksellers Okra Pick 2014

Southern festivals, folk music, families falling out & returning- "Shana writes a magical story that stays with you long after the final page. As with one of the characters, 'She knows real magic.'" -Virginia Brown, author of Dark River Road & the Dixie Diva mystery series

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Authors have proclaimed that this novel is a "literary gift" & that "book clubs will love this." Talking Underwater explores the balance between the elation of family summers at the ocean & the ways we navigate unbearable heartache to find new ways of being.​​ READ MORE HERE

GRACE AMONG THE LEAVINGS by Beverly Fisher is a child's perspective of the Civil War. When the book opens, Grace's father is a prisoner of war and her mother is missing. READ MORE HERE.

OVER 200 WRITING PROMPTS (June 2023)

Some never shared on the website. In The Nudge Writing Prompts, Shana Thornton gives you the writing elbow--prompts for all types of writers, from fiction novelists to memoirists, poets, and those who want to journal for self-reflection. You'll discover writing prompts with questions for further character development, thematic prompts, vocabulary prompts, historically-based nudges, and self-reflection prompts for you as a writer. You'll find tools for revision and editing and suggestions for getting the most out of your characters. The Nudge Writing Prompts work for the lone writer and in class settings, writing groups, and between pairs of friends.

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A new issue of the Legacy Trail is available now, 2024. In 2019, our publisher, Shana Thornton, founded The Clarksville/Montgomery County African American Legacy Trail, a free community publication that features places of significance honoring African American leaders and locations. Created in 2019. READ MORE HERE

Journey with Luna on her Adventures to Pawnassus, where she meets the literary dogs of her time and tries to fulfill her dreams. After being abandoned, Luna finds a home close to Nashville, but her troubles are not over, and she needs the friendship of Mia & her family to inspire a belief in the future.

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S. Teague is joined by 30 contributors in this first collection of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction that celebrates the life-changing practice of yoga. These writers reveal how yoga opened new pathways of self-awareness and creative expressions. READ MORE HERE

The second volume of our yoga journal delves into the poignant journey of yoga as it heals, restores, and revitalizes life after life. The contributors embrace the human touch of yoga and its spiritual passages, physical inner presence, & timeless message. READ MORE HERE

BreatheYourOMBalance: Yoga and Relationships (February 2021) explores our connections in writings created both before and after the every day reality of the coronavirus pandemic. Sarah Michelle is joined by over twenty contributors in the aptly-themed Breathe book, a collection of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. The writings reveal our attempts to discover understanding in ourselves, as well as our families, friendships, and communities with the aid and inspiration of a yoga practice. 

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S. Teague & Shana Thornton write a book that inspires creativity by offering affirmations, prompts, and expressions about the seasons of life.​​ READ MORE HERE

Ellen Masters's husband has been repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq for a decade, and during that time, Ellen cares for their young family and home, starts a career, and searches for her own strength by training for a marathon. READ MORE HERE