Announcing the winners of the 2020 ARIZONA LITERARY AWARDS in the Published Novels category

FIRST PRIZE - ANSWER CREEK:

A novel - by Ashley E. Sweeney

FIND IT ON AMAZON HERE

From the award-winning author of Eliza Waite comes a gripping tale of adventure and survival based on the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party on their 2,200-mile trek on the Oregon–California Trail from 1846 to ’47.

Nineteen-year-old Ada Weeks confronts danger and calamity along the hazard-filled journey to California. After a fateful decision that delays the overlanders more than a month, she―along with eighty-one other members of the Donner Party―finds herself stranded at Truckee Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, stuck there for the entirety of a despairing, blizzard-filled winter. Forced to eat shoe leather and blankets to survive, will Ada be able to battle the elements―and her own demons―as she envisions a new life in California?

Researched with impeccable detail and filled with imagery as wide as the western prairie, Answer Creek blends history and hearsay in an unforgettable story of challenging the limits of human endurance and experiencing the triumphant power of love.

Reviews:

"Ada is every pioneer woman who accomplished more than she ever thought possible." - Booklist

"Ada is an impressive heroine who thinks for herself and exhibits moral courage in dire straits . . . [the novel] succeeds at capturing the endurance of the human spirit." - Publishers Weekly

"The author is a master of vivid descriptions, dragging readers along every wretched mile of the trail, sharing every dashed hope and every dramatic confrontation, with Ada as their guide. Ada is a marvelous creation, twice orphaned and both hopeful and fearful about a new life in California, the promised land... A vivid westward migration tale with an arresting mixture of history and fiction." - Kirkus Reviews

About the author:

Ashley is a seasoned journalist, teacher, and community activist. She served as a VISTA volunteer in the late 1970s and continues community service today as a member of Soroptimist International, one of the largest women’s advocacy organizations in the world.

Early in her career, Ashley found an outlet as a humor columnist and features editor for The Lynden Tribune in Lynden, Washington, where she garnered numerous awards for her writing. She has taught English, Journalism, English as Second Language, and GED prep at both the high school and community college levels.

A native New Yorker, Ashley is a graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., the Stanford Publishing Course, and City University in Seattle, Wash., where she earned a Masters of Education degree.

Ashley spends her time between La Conner, Washington and Tucson, Arizona with her husband D. Michael Barclay.

Find out more on her author website HERE

SECOND PRIZE IN THE PUBLISHED NOVEL CATEGORY:

Orange Crush: A novel with zest

by Jan Tenery

FIND IT HERE ON AMAZON

Back east they called her Win, because she always did. Now, a twist of fate has brought stylish urbanite Martha Winfield to Arizona’s low desert, where she takes the unlikely job of managing Paul Harriman’s citrus orchard. Harriman is under scrutiny by a pair of private investigators who suspect he is involved with the Mexican drug cartel. When the new orchard manager arrives wearing high heels, senior PI agent Sonny Butterfield questions Harriman’s reasons for hiring her. Martha becomes a person of interest in the investigation, especially to Sonny’s young associate, Colton Frye, whose eye has been caught by the classy, curvaceous blonde. Suddenly, everyone’s motives and loyalties come into question. Whether victim or accomplice in Harriman’s scheme, Martha is certainly a complication in this humorous, fast-paced story about love, money, and other intoxicants.

About the author:

Jan Tenery began writing stories as a child while on the road with her military family. This wanderlust continued into adulthood, inspiring trips to such places as Africa and Australia. Some of her writing appeared in the college literary magazine at the University of Maine, where she studied mathematics. After a career in healthcare, she retired to Arizona to live on a seven-acre citrus farm, and there she wrote the first drafts of what would become her first two published novels, "Brass Roots" and "Orange Crush." Jan now lives in Oracle, Arizona. Primarily a novelist, she writes contemporary stories with a humorous lilt. Her current project is "Reading the Water," a novel about canoeing and fatherhood in the north Maine woods.