I’m almost done writing the last chapters of the final book in the 1979 portion of the series, but editing, cover design, etc. will take until at least autumn 2025. With luck, it will go on sale in time for Christmas next year.
For those of you waiting impatiently to know what’s next for KD Stuart, Matt Hunter, and their friends…and enemies, rest assured you will find out. I have not abandoned them. Chestnut Cove: Revenge and Rapprochement picks up days after the end of Chestnut Cove: Belles and Balls. I promise an eventful end to Matt and KD’s quest. Stay tuned for more information in 2025!
Good news! My next book, Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters, will be available for sale September 26! As discussed in my previous post, this book takes place in 1958. Matt Hunter and John Stuart are now college students at Coughton Tech. Other returning Chestnut Cove characters include John’s wife, Sandra, and their young daughter, KD, as well as John’s grandmother, Kathryn Stuart, and other members of the extended Stuart family.
We also meet a major new character, Matt’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Kohler. Lizzy is an aspiring prosecutor who is as sharp as Matt and a perfect match for him. Along with her studies at Coughton Tech, she works for the school newspaper, hoping it will help her develop investigative skills which will be of use in her future career trying criminal cases.
Now that you have some idea who some of the “daughters” are, we turn to the “devils” referenced in the title. Stuart foil Vaughn Michaelson returns to stir up trouble. Then there is the mysterious murderer who opens the book’s action. Sorry, but no hints as to who that person might be. You’ll just have to read to find out, but don’t settle on who you think it is too early because there will be several twists along the way…and possibly more bodies, not to mention one or two more people who definitely qualify as devils!
If you haven’t read them yet, all my Chestnut Cove books can be found here on Amazon!
Now it’s time for me to get back to writing. I’m working on a set of short stories–which are quickly evolving into novelettes–to fill in some of the Stuart family’s activities between the conclusion of Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters in 1958 and the start of Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits in 1979. And yes, somewhere lurking on my “to do” list is the follow-on to Chestnut Cove: Belles and Balls. So many stories yet to tell!
Fall is coming, so it must be time for me to get another novel published. Or at least that’s my goal. Assuming the stars align, Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters will be released in the next month or two.
This story picks up a little more than two years after the end of Chestnut Cove: Love and Lessons. Second cousins Matt Hunter and John Stuart are attending college. John’s wife, Sandra, and their daughter, KD, are there, too, of course. More importantly, Matt has met the love of his life, Elizabeth Kohler.
As the story progresses, the reader will be reintroduced to characters from both Love and Lessons as well as my Chestnut Cove books set in 1979, which tell the story of Matt and his Stuart cousins long after the events of 1955-1958. A word of warning though: Devils and Daughters is a thriller. Matt, John, Sandra, and KD are only a part of this story. It will spend time with Stuart family foe Vaughn Michaelson, his friend and former high school teammate, Landry Peters, and others connected to Stannum Academy, including John’s stepfather, Winston Hathaway. Autumn 1958 is a period of turmoil, chaos, murder, and mayhem.
That’s all I’ll tell you for now. I’ll update here soon to let you know when to expect to see Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters at Amazon and other online bookstores. In the meantime, if you haven’t read my other Chestnut Cove books, hurry up and do so before this one gets released!
I know how many of you are waiting not so patiently for my next novel. Well, your wait is over because the paperpack is available at Amazon! The Kindle version will be out on October 27. Click on the graphic below to link to the Amazon site. And now for some details…
After a brief trip back to 1955 to learn about John and Sandra Stuart’s history in Chestnut Cove: Love and Lessons, we return to 1979 in Chestnut Cove: Belles and Balls, which picks up shortly after the end of Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits. When we last left KD Stuart, she had confirmed information proving the hit and run which claimed the life of Elizabeth Kohler in 1958 had been deliberate murder. Now, with no legal evidence against the perpetrators, KD and Matt Hunter–KD’s godfather and Elizabeth’s fiancé–must find another way to bring the killers to justice.
Other returning fan-favorite characters include John and Sandra Stuart and their other children, Doug, Maggie and Chris, as well as the Jones family and new Chestnut Cove Inns clerk Laura and her grandmother. Then there are the foils, including John’s mother and stepfather, Jeanette and Winston, as well as nemisis Vaughn Michaelson and his cronnies. There will be a few corporate and political twists and turns and some downright dirty dealings. I hope you enjoy the ride right up to the end!
Now it’s time for me to get back to writing and editing. Enjoy this one because it will be about a year before my next book is ready. In it, we’ll retreat to the past again to meet one of the most important characters in the Chestnut Cove world: Elizabeth Kohler. Set in 1958, Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters will introduce you to the young woman who stole Matt’s heart at college and take you through the tragic events which shook the lives of Matt, John, Sandra, and, of course, little KD and her namesake greatgrandmother, the elder Kathryn Stuart.
While Devils and Daughters is suffering through the editing process, I’ll continue forging onward toward 1980 to write the followup to Belles and Balls. So be on the lookout for Chestnut Cove: Devils and Daughters about this time next year. Until then, I hope you enjoy reading my first three Chestnut Cove books!
In my zeal to eliminate a backlog of things I’ve been working on over the last couple of years before venturing out to actually publish something, my next novel should be out by late October. For those who have read one or both of the previous Chestnut Cove books, THANK YOU! Now, get ready for another!
Chestnut Cove: Belles and Balls picks up the Stuart family’s story eleven days after the conclusion of Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits. While much of KD Stuart’s identity as well as her goal remained obscured for most of the first book, prepare to follow her exploits, as well as godfather Matt Hunter’s, from beginning to end. Well, nothing they do is ever completely out in the open. Be prepared for a twist or two.
For those of you who haven’t read, my first two novels about the Stuart family, you have a few weeks to get a copy of one or both before they return for new adventures in a few weeks!
As promised a couple of weeks ago, the next installment of my Chestnut Cove saga is near. As of yesterday, you can preorder the Kindle version. It’s scheduled to be released on March 3. The paperback should be ready in about a week assuming no problems with final details. Amazon has yet to link Chestnut Cove: Love and Lessons to my author page, but hopefully that will be sorted out in the next couple of days.
Now to the important stuff. As I mentioned in my previous post, this installment takes place in 1955 and provides some background about the Stuarts and their friends and wider family. Specifically, it follows John Stuart, Sandra Duncan, and Matt Hunter and introduces John’s grandmother, the formidible Kathryn McDougal Stuart. We’ll also see some of John’s mother and stepfather again and Jonah Jones and his future wife, Mary, and meet Sandra’s family and Matt’s father.
And now the official blurb…
Sandra Duncan and John Stuart have known one another since they were ten. Now seventeen, the couple is set to begin their senior year at Elkford High School. However, one mistake will change their lives, and they will be forced to fight for their future together. The path forward won’t be an easy one for the young lovers, and it may set the course for the Stuarts for generations to come.
And now I’ll try to get back to writing. The next book, Chestnut Cove: Belles and Balls, will return to 1979 and follow up on the events in Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits. After that, I plan to back up in Stuart family history again, next to 1958, which was another pivotal year for the family. For now, I hope you enjoy the newest release!
The next installment of the Chestnut Cove saga takes us back 24 years prior to Poseurs and Portraits. Chestnut Cove: Love and Lessons is set in 1955 and explores the events surrounding the engagement of John Stuart and Sandra Duncan. We also meet a much younger Matt Hunter, John’s cousin and best friend, and the family matriarch, Kathryn McDougal Stuart.
More information will be available soon, but for all of you chomping at the bit for more from the small town of Elkford and its Stuart family, the wait shouldn’t be much longer. The manuscript is frozen, the cover artwork is being prepared, and all the other tedious details required for publication are being worked through.
Thank you to Annie for another stellar job of editing. All remaining errors are the result of my post editing tweaks and occasional refusal to bow to the dictates of the English language and style manuals.
Thank you to Kristen who is finalizing the cover. I’ll post that here soon along with the Amazon link and the official release date. I’m anticipating the first week in March assuming no last-minute issues. I’ll post another update by then.
One other note of possible interest. I now have an official author page at Amazon to help locate all of my novels. OK, for now that remains at one, but soon Love and Lessons will be added to the list. Click here to see the BA Howell Amazon author page.
It’s here! The paperback version is out on Amazon. The Kindle version will be out tomorrow, December 3. I’ll embed the Amazon link for it in the cover graphic at the bottom of the page if you’re interested in buying a copy.
Now, about Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits. The story takes place in Elkford, a typical town in the foothills of the southern Appalachians, in 1979. As the story picks up, it has been something of a tumultous last couple of years for the Stuart family and their business, Chestnut Cove Inns.
Their eldest child, Kathryn, has graduated college but remains away from Elkford, feuding with her father. Their son, Doug, is finishing his first year of college. Third child Maggie, completing her sophomore year of high school, is becoming more and more like her step-cousin, Giselle, not something the Stuarts want.
On the business front, John Stuart and his cousin, Matt Hunter, have finally come to an agreement on a couple of things which caused a small amount of tension between them, with the effervescent and brilliant Matt pushing for more daring approaches to problems while the more conservative and staid John wants to hold to the more tried and true.
Still, the Stuarts and their extended family and friends and business associates remain the backbone of Elkford. The family maintains a long reputation of generosity and fairness, making them beloved by most of the people of Elkford. However, a twenty-year-old tragedy haunts the family. In Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits, one young woman will seek to expose the truth, long hidden by deception and lies, but to do so may require her to become the greatest poseur of all.
Also, coming in 2020, Chestnut Cove: Love and Lessons. More on that soon!
Chestnut Cove is a series of novels I am writing and self-publishing. The first, Chestnut Cove: Poseurs and Portraits, is set to be released in early December. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post more about that novel, but for now I’ll just give you a brief overview of the series.
The stories are set in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in the latter half of the twentieth century and follow the Stuart family, owners of a small, upscale hotel chain. The family is composed of John and Sandra Stuart and their four children: Kathryn, Doug, Maggie, and Chris. John’s cousin, Matt Hunter, is also a major part of their lives, as are Jonah and Mary Jones and their children, Vicky and Joseph.
The family named their hotel chain Chestnut Cove Inns after the mountain cove where John’s grandparents established their home. John grew up there, as did Sandra from the time she was about ten.
The stories will be set as early as the mid 1950s into the 1980s. They will be independent to a large extent, though there will be an obvious connection as they follow the family across the years. Some will have more interconnection than others. I’ll give you more about that over time.
Oh, one more thing. I’m not a big fan of social media, so don’t look for me on any of those sites. If I have something to say, you’ll hear from me on my own little blog.
