“Publication” Class Notes

Christa Avampato (Darden ’07) has written a young adult urban fantasy novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, which will be published by Possibilities Publishing Co. on November 1, 2017. It tells the story of a teenage girl who visits a rare bookstore that causes her to embark on a journey to discover the answers about her mother’s mysterious death at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Deep below the streets of New York City, she finds herself on a dangerous adventure into a magical world of books. The book can be found in several formats here.

J. Michael McNealy (Col ’92 L/M) recently published his first book, Skeleton Horse, available on Amazon paperback and Kindle. The novel is book 1 of a series he conceptualized during his second combat tour of Iraq. The series follows the lives of several characters as they fight the global war on terrorism both overseas and at home, capturing their struggles and triumphs as they endure for one moment more. It’s part biography, part therapy, and part imagination at work for someone who tries to find the humor in the darkest of times and knows the joy that life has to offer.

Judithe Linse Little (Col ’87, Law ’90) has written a historical novel, Wickwythe Hall, which was released in Sept. 2017 by Black Opal Books. One of the novel’s main characters was inspired by a Virginian who grew up in Greenwood just outside of Charlottesville. Set against the backdrop of World War II, Wickwythe Hall takes place in a country house in England in 1940 where Prime Minister Winston Churchill is a guest. Foreword Reviews calls the novel “a riveting and enlightening mix of history and fiction that puts a human face on the costs of war.”

To learn more about Wickwythe Hall, visit judithelittle.com.

Baylor “Giles” Cromwell (Col ’63 L/M) has written a new book, The Cromwell Collection: Virginia Weapons and Other Materiel of the American Revolution. After years of research and collecting, the author records important 18th century Virginia-related weapons, documents, accoutrements and other related military artifacts. Each photograph is accompanied by a detailed description that defines its place in the state’s history during the war. This hard cover, full color book will serve as a reference for both identification and future research and will be recognized as the first concerted effort to focus on many scarce examples associated with the revolution. Orders can be made by mail: Shenandoah Muse, P. O. Box 2097, Staunton, VA, 24401.

Kerry McNabb Reed (Col ’04) has released her debut novel, a young adult fantasy called Dreamscape. She currently resides outside Philadelphia with her husband Daniel Reed (Col ’04 L/M) and three sons. She can be reached at www.kerry-reed.com or www.facebook.com/kerryreedwrites. 

Robin Ward (Educ ’97) recently published Count on University of Virginia: Fun Facts from 1 to 12, a book that entices young readers to enjoy the beauty and history of UVA’s campus, while counting from 1 to 12. The rhyming narrative and colorful illustrations capture the twelve months and four seasons, and help the reader discern even and odd numbers. Two coloring pages included. Available at Amazon and at MascotBooks.com

Peter Newman (Col ’74) recently published his new book, Unveiling the Bride: The New Covenant Church. Mr. Newman is the author of The Meaning of the Cross (2013).

Robert Schwab (Col ’79, Med ’83) will have his second novel, Back Side of a Hurricane, published on June 28, 2017. In the book, a man travels to South Carolina, racing the approach of Hurricane Hugo, searching for a memory of his father.  The man he most needs help from turns out to the one man who wants his search to fail. The book explores the relationship between fathers and their children, and the wisdom of sitting still when chaos swirls around you. The author is a physician executive in the DFW metroplex. He travels and speaks about the role of the humanities in the professional development of physicians, and also teaches premedical students at the University of Texas at Dallas.

John B. Boles (Grad ’69) has published a comprehensive biography entitled Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty (Basic Books, 2017).

Steven Q. Fletcher (Grad ’96) has published a new book, Notes from Underground 2.0, a modern reworking of the major themes of social alienation and individual freedom found in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s groundbreaking novella. The plot only loosely corresponds to that of the original Notes from Underground, although Dostoevsky’s structure and other formal and thematic elements are echoed. Mr. Fletcher is also the author of the novel,The Disciple of Beauty: A Philosopher’s Tale of Love, Tragedy, and Transcendence, which Literary Fiction Book Review proclaimed “a whirlwind immersion in all the great works of literature that devote themselves to the fundamental questions; it is a philosophical rumination on love and life and surviving them both; it is a witty and ofttimes humorous exploration of the human condition.”

Deborah Sheetenhelm Hammond (Arch ’82 L/M) announces the release of her thirteenth novel, Monocacy Crossing; a contemporary novel with settings in Frederick, Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia. Captain Daniel Wexford, a Confederate soldier crosses over at a re-enactment of the Battle of the Monocacy to complete his journey to return home to his lifelong love, Rebecca Bradford. A contemporary member of his family, Dr. Nicholas Wexford, is a witness to the crossing along with Frederick native Dr. Nora Easterley. Two UVA graduates, they use this other worldly event to turn their own lives upside down. Monocacy Crossing is available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.com.

Julian Hayter (Grad ’05, ’10) published his first book, The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia.

Kelly Lenox (Col ’83 L/M) has published her debut poetry collection, “The Brightest Rock.” Released by Word Tech Editions, the book may be ordered through any bookstore. Signed copies are available from www.kellylenox.com. Kelly is the Editor in Chief of the Environmental Factor, from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, NC.

William H. Venema (Law ’81 L/M) has written a novel that is loosely based on a murder case he prosecuted in Panama shortly after graduating from law school.

Death in Panama tells the story of Captain Robert E. Clark who arrives in Panama on his first tour of duty as a lawyer. He struggles to reconcile his Southern upbringing and West Point training with a strange new environment. Panama is a muddled mix of conflict and corruption, where, among other things, marriage vows don’t mean what they did at the First United Methodist Church of Pemberton, Georgia. When Clark is assigned to prosecute a murder case involving the death of a thirteen-month old little girl, his ambition causes him to neglect his wife and daughter more than usual and—even worse—bend the rules in ways that call into question what kind of man he is and what he truly values.

Death in Panama has been described as an intriguing, thought-provoking tale of unrestrained ambition and its consequences. Death comes in many forms, each lethal in its own way.

Bill Venema is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He also earned an MBA from Georgia State University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. His legal career spans over thirty years and includes time in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, in law firms, and as in-house counsel in major corporations.  He has written extensively on legal topics and published a book entitled The Strategic Guide to Selling Your Software Company.  Prior to entering private practice, Bill served in the U.S. Army in Germany, Panama, and several stateside assignments. He is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools, as well as the Command and General Staff College. His author website is at: www.williamhvenema.com.

David Black (Educ ’64 L/M) just published a short limited-edition collection of clerihews, Shortcomings: Around the Grounds & Corner (Persimmon Tree Press, Amazon, signed & numbered) based on the charter group of Echols Scholars and University life of the early 1960s.

Robert Frederick Jackson, Jr. (Educ ’70 L/M), published two historically set, interrelated fiction series, Magandang Pilipinas (set in the Philippines at the time of America’s conquest of those islands) and Sunny of the Old Southwest (about the relationship between a young female refugee from the Long Walk of the Navajo and a young white man from Virginia). Serious fiction, with positive messages, was always Mr. Jackson’s ultimate life goal and follows a teaching career in Virginia, Texas, and the Philippines and work as a portrait painter and muralist. These two series share the last two volumes, in which some characters from both interact.

Robert is married to the former Rosario Maria Taboada from the Visayan Islands of the Philippines, a region where some of his novels are set. The couple lived there for several years in the 1970s following their meeting at Virginia. She was a foreign exchange nurse at the University of Virginia Hospital. In those days, her parents owned a fifty bed hospital in the Philippines, built out of the devastation of World War II. Robert and Maria’s residency in the islands coincided with the martial law period of the Marcos presidency.

A dominant theme within the novels is the companionship, equality and determination that several mixed-race couples apply in their attempt to function normally in an era in which their relationships are abnormal. Mr. Jackson publishes through Amazon in trade paperback and Kindle editions.

Debbie Levy’s (Col ’78 L/M) latest book for children is Soldier Song: A True Story of the Civil War (Disney-Hyperion 2017). It’s the story of an impromptu concert that took place after the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, when the armies of North and South went into winter camp on opposite sides of the Rappahannock River. The terrible battle left soldiers on both sides bitter and angry, yet a song about missing home—that old tune, “Home, Sweet Home”—drew Federals and Confederates together for one night. Interwoven with soldiers’ letters and journal entries, this true story shows the power of music, and the possibility of seeing the humanity in those with whom we are locked in conflict. In other news, Debbie’s New York Times-bestselling 2016 picture book, I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark has been awarded the National Jewish Book Award and the Sydney Taylor Book Award.