From food, to art, to jewelry and other crafts - the annual Autumn Street Fair in downtown McMinnville always gives attendees an opportunity to find a bevy of locally-made creations. A new addition to this year’s street fair will give book lovers a chance to interact with and purchase books from several authors from around the Middle Tennessee area.
McMinnville’s own R.D. (Duane) Sherrill has secured a local author booth in space B40, on East Court Square, right next to the City Hall/Regions Bank building. Presently, four authors will join Sherrill on Court Square for book signings but there could be some new arrivals the day of the event.
While bylining thousands of real-life crime stories over his quarter century at the Southern Standard newspaper, Sherrill initially took the plunge as a fiction writer in 2013 with his debut novel Red Dog Saloon, which continues to be a local favorite. His most recent novel Murder U tells the story of Mild-mannered professor Clark Miller, the prime suspect in the murders of his estranged wife and her lover. With police - and nearly everyone else - convinced of his guilt, Clark has no choice but to try and prove his own innocence. Someone else seems determined to keep that from happening, no matter who has to die. As the body count rises, Clark is in a race against time to avoid becoming the next victim.
Also participating:
Colonel Thomas B. Vaughn is a well-known contributor to the Southern Standard and will be signing copies of The Boys of Benning. Vaughn co-edited the chronicles of the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of his fellows in officer’s training school at Ft. Benning. The compilation came as part of a reunion of the group in 2012. Vaughn also contributed his own 17-page story to the book. Vaughn was career Army, retiring in 1988. He is now a noted teacher, lecturer, columnist, author and radio personality.
Reba Stanley says writing is the art form she has found to be the most rewarding. Reba and her husband of more than thirty years reside in beautiful Brentwood, Tennessee, with their four children. Her book, A Promise Kept, is a captivating story about a young man who is content with his bachelor's life in Atlanta, Georgia. Richard's life is simple until a chain of unseen events has him pulled in different directions. Convinced everything will soon return to normal, he finds himself chasing after a woman he cannot catch; and finding her where he did not look.
Dr. Rajaratnam Veera S. (VeerajaR) is a well published Scientist, Author, Artist and a prolific poet. VeerajaR commends the strong Christian educational environment, rich culture and joyous nature of the people she enjoyed growing up in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the luxuriant natural beauty of Tennessee, for stirring up her creative spirit. She has co-authored devotionals and poetry anthologies. Her inspirational, spiritual poetry book titled ‘JOY of BEING – Poetry for The Heart, Mind and Soul’ was published in 2013.
Tom Wood is an author, actor and journalist whose debut novel is Vendetta Stone, a fictional true-crime thriller set in Nashville. The MTSU graduate was a sports writer and copy editor for 36 years at The Tennessean. Since his short stories appear in Weird Western Yarns Vol. 1, Western Tales! Vol. 3 and Filtered Through Time. Tom has worked on the ABC series Nashville as an extra and his Vendetta Stone screenplay was a semifinalist in the 2015 Nashville Film Festival's screenwriting competition.
