(In Alphabetical Order)
The following titles are available from Black Bay Books. Ordering information can be found at the bottom of the page. For more information about each book click on the Our Authors link on the sidebar.
With a style somewhere between a hipster and a Japanese landscape painter, poet Len
Schweitzer has mastered the poetics of image. In this, his first full-length book of
poems, he presents us with such exotic pictures as a “fedora glazed with paris rain”
and a “dead man’s skull rattling with silver coins.” He invites us to recall the scent
of frangipani, the taste of mangoes and honey, the caress of a warm Gulf Stream breeze,
and a hundred other bottled-up sensations that awaken the senses like an after-dinner
tipple, sip by sip, poem by poem. Price: $14.00 trade paperback.
These are all stories of race. Written between 1917 and 1947, they are the author's attempts to
describe the racial situation in the South in the early part of the 20th Century. Like her
award-winning novel, The Other Room," the stories are sensitive, original, and important.
Introduction by Hedden scholar P. V. LeForge.
This book is avaialble as a $3.99 e-book only.
In his third collection of poetry, Rick Campbell ranges from baseball to teaching to Florida landscape.
The history of mental illness in his family is a backdrop to these beautiful lyrics.
"Down to the Waterline contains a tapestry of several beautiful interwoven themes: that nature
must be reckoned with when determining waterfront property lines; that we seldom if ever fully
anticipate the repercussions of our technological achievements; that societal progress means
more than bettering the human community—we now realize the whole biocommunity must be bettered;
that often the natural world is far more beneficial to human society when left in its natural
state. Applying these themes to the history of Florida's public/private property battles
creates a fascinating tale."--David C. Slade, Esq., editor of Putting the Public Trust Doctrine
to Work. Down to the Waterline is the definitive study of Florida water boundaries. Price:
$24.95 trade paperback, $39.95 hardback.
Poems about golf, written by two guys serious about their game, but not too serious to stop and take a
good look around the course and a good look inside themselves as well. Here are poems that will ring
true inside everyone who has ever swung a club--poems that make you realize that, if you put forth your
best effort, there are no bad days in golf. Price: $10 trade paperback.
Shrimpboat captain Carla Conway thought her life was enough of a mess before she found her old
nanny dumped like a rag doll in the belfry of a long-abandoned church. With the help of her crusty
first mate Comer--and little from the sheriff--she investigates the old woman's death. What she
finds takes her deep into the myths and legends of the Florida swamps--and into the mystery of
her own origin.
Forthcoming in 2017. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sara made a dozen trips into the hardest-hit areas of Mississippi, delivering feed and hay to needy, rescued horses. The story of her incredible adventure is told here in a series of updates to all of the horse owners who contributed time, money, and effort into the project. Illustrated with pictures taken by the author. Price: Pending.
LITTLE SAIGON is a three-act play dramatizing the Vietnamese refugee crisis in the U.S. right after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The Hoang family--at least most of them--have survived the trip to Florida. But getting jobs and sticking together may be a harder proposition than the boat ride.
ALL TRAMP'S DAY and THE EDGE are both one-acts. In the former, an old vagabond wanders into a record store in a college town. In the latter, a young divorcee tries to make sense of her life by studying to be a clown and explaining her actions to her father.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
Things are always a little wonky in the small town of Pine Oak, Florida. But lately reporter
Sue-Ann McKeown, feels like every crazy thing is landing on her desk. For starters, a former
mental patient demands that Sue-Ann write his story—or else. But why her? What is the meaning
of the coded messages she hears on the local pirate radio station? And why has her new best
friend quit her job and left town for parts unknown? Her investigations lead her behind the
walls of a mental institution and into a secret compound in the woods where broken ex-soldiers
hide from the world. And, oh yeah, Sue-Ann’s post-traumatic stress syndrome—a souvenir of her
time reporting on the war in Iraq—is kicking in . . . Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
Leaving Miami for the sunny shores of Panama City was supposed to be a good thing for the Rankin
family. Vicky has her PI license and Rick finally has a real job. But things aren't going to be
that simple. Instead, they are drawn into the nefarious doings of Snag, proprietor of a mysterious
museum on the edge of town where boards creak, cadavers reek, and laughter echoes down from the
rafters.
Poems about farms and horses and dressage. The e-book is a special edition featuring two extra poems, one
of which is "My Husband's an Ass," written by Sara Warner. Price: $13.95 trade paperback; $25 Limited
edition hardback.
This is a collection of short stories featuring Sue-Ann McKeown, GIna
Cartwright, and all the rest of the characters in the little Florida town of Pine Oak, Florida. In
story-sized snippets, Mysteries in Small Towns chronicles the development of Sue-Ann and Gina's
relationship, but it also goes into questions of sport-Horse breeding and gaited-horse training. But
the two also are called on to solve puzzies in Montana and New York City. The stories are only loosely
connected to each other, but all take place after Secrets in Small Towns.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
This book was a top-five finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Awards contest iln
2 categories: Mystery Fiction and Regional Fiction. Sue-Ann McKeown returns to her
home town of Pine Oak after a crushing six months of war
reporting in Iraq. Her mother has died in a tragic riding accident and her father has
sold most of the family's possessions and run off to Italy. Sue-Ann herself has broken
up with her long-time photographer boyfriend. And, oh, yeah, she is also suffering from
a mysterious disease that makes it difficult for her to focus on her new job as reporter
for The Pine Oak Courier. The only good man available in Pine Oak is her boss--but he is
dating the office manager, who happens to be Sue-Ann's old high-school rival. Then someone
reports that a dead goat has been found in a dumpster and a mysterious Pirate Radio Station
begins sending her weird messages. Well, what else is there to investigate in this dump?
But what Sue-Ann finds runs deep into the history of Pine Oak and teaches her things she
had never expected about courage, perseverance, and love. Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
On a chilly evening in March, 1917, 17-year-old Virginia Lampley disappears from her upper-class home in Richmond, Virginia. Her straight-laced parents never see or hear from her again. Seventy years later, her granddaughter Christine begins an earnest search for Virginia, using a single diary entry as the only clue to her whereabouts.
In March, 1977, austere and cheerless reference librarian William Wilson begins his own diary in an attempt to explain why his existence is so loathsome to him. When he meets Christine by chance in the library, he begins to be as obsessed by her as she is by her grandmother. When he finds that she has been writing a journal about her activities, his boring life takes a turn that he never could have imagined. Their search takes them not only into the life of the theater in the early 1900s, but into their childhoods as well, where it turns out that nothing is what it seems.
Three notebooks; three diaries; three very different fates. Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
This is a reprint of the prize-winning novel about a young woman who unknowingly signs up to
teach classes at an all-black college in New Orleans in 1920. It is one of the best--and
earliest--views of breaking the color line as well as a touching love story of a man and
woman of different races. The new introduction by Hedden scholar and biographer P. V. LeForge
brings the novel into historical context and gives a brief sketch of this wonderful, but
heretofore forgotten writer. Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
This is the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition of P. V. LeForge's first
collection of stories. With settings as diverse as Florida, Mexico,
India, and China, these finely wrought tales with their vibrant
characters and unique situations paint a picture of life that is
rich, diverse, and hopeful.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
This is the book that launched the career of award-winning poet P. V. LeForge. Serious and quirky at
the same time, these poems will transport you into realms that you were never sure--but always
hoped--really existed. Includes the underground classic "Anting." Price: $10 trade paperback.
Forthcoming in February, 2014. In her third adventure, Sue-Ann McKeown discovers a runaway boy--totally
buzzed out on designer drugs--zonked out near her farm. Trouble is, the Sergeant who answers her distress
call seems a little too eager to take the boy back to the juvenile detention center. Her investigation
takes her back to her days in Iraq, to an abusive orphanage, and to a sleazy bar called The Red River Saloon,
where all manner of ex-convicts and local low-lifes gather for purposes that Sue-Ann must discover.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
"These are poems that testify not only to Rick Campbell's ever-increasing skill as a poet, but to his
tenderness, his courage, his deep appreciation for exactly the way water flows, light falls, and the
many ways we honor and dishonor our workaday lives." --Robert Dana
Paul Czarda drinks whiskey in order to write, and write he must. Driven by his imagination, he has
left the world of others. Then the world comes knocking. A teenaged girl delivers his newspaper
and offers him her body. Suddenly the teenaged girl goes missing, and Czarda finds himself stalked
by a cinematographer obsessed in filming a snuff movie.This is available available as an e-book only
at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/119328, where it is available for iPad, Nook, Kobo, Kindle,
and most other e-book reading devices. It is also available from most of the other major on-line
e-book retailers. Price: $2.99.
When researcher Teena Shostekovich returns home to find her computer files stolen, she suspects
it has something to do with the case she’s working. But a call from the thief complicates things
and nothing gets any clearer when Detective Logan Deo arrives. Meanwhile, as the story of cowgirl
Jessie Weston unfolds on the shores of Lake Ponder, Teena and Jessie’s paths veer ever closer to
collision. This book is the Winner of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in General Fiction
is a finalist in Suspense/Thriller, and is the overall GRAND PRIZE winner for all fiction.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
Melanie Love's plans to move to Pensacola to be near the father are jolted sharply when he
drives his car into the ocean and drowns, an apparant suicide. Alone in his house--hers now--
she looks for clues that might explain why such an apparantly successful and happy man
would take his own life. What she finds is hidden deeply in his own past, into the seemier aspects
of the Vietman War, and into time itself.
"Campbell's poems are personal, even intimate, but their metaphors and meanings have a broad and
tough reality." --Iron Horse Literary Review
LeForge's second full-length book of poems includes poems from 1980-2010. No clinkers in this one.
Price: $13.95 trade paperback.
Sisters Xande, Yolande, and Zoe Calhoun make up XYZ Investigations
in 1974 Miami. The oldest, Xande, is a young hippie with blonde
dreadlocks; 23-year-old Yolande is a pistol-packing, curly-haired
lesbian, and Zoe, well, Zoe is missing. These six interconnected
stories are not only lively and puzzling murder mysteries, they also
tell the touching story of the three Calhoun sisters within the
context of a very odd time in America's history. Drugs, male hustlers,
rock music, spousal abuse, and even horses find their way into
Yolande's secret files. By the author of the popular Small Town Series.
Price: $14.95 trade paperback.
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