New books coming, a nice award

Hello, friends:

It’s been a busy summer, writing, formatting, reading, and a bit of travel with Ben.

First bit of news: I plan to release two new contemporary novels at the end of this month—What She’d Do to Save You and The Little Iowa Bookshop. They are entirely different from each other: the first is a literary novel about three generations of women in rural Nebraska, and the second is an unconventional romance set in the sub-genre of bookshop books.

They are also different from what I’ve been writing and working on over the past decade. My historical fiction has done well as far as acclaim (more on that in a minute), but as my once-upon-a-time agent once said, “Historical fiction is too hard to sell.” I’m still researching a novel about a social colony outside of Dallas in the mid-1850s, a time of the proliferation of utopian experiments in America. But it will be at least a couple of years before it’s ready to go.

What She’d Do to Save You raises the question: What is it about tiny Wondershore, Nebraska, that ensnares young women and won’t let them go? It tells the story of three women in consecutive generations who find themselves stuck in a dying town when they can’t let go of the young men in their lives.

The Little Iowa Bookshop asks readers to consider the prejudice against older woman/younger man relationships. Why is it okay for a man to woo a woman 20 years younger than he is, but not for a woman to carry on with a younger man? It also allowed me (and soon readers) to live out the fantasy of building a bookstore without actually having to do the work.

I will announce the release dates on Facebook and my website (authormarjcharlier.com), and, with your indulgence, via email. I thank Megan Epperson for the outstanding work she has done on the covers for both books. I have struggled with designing my own for years, and I finally decided it was time to turn to a professional.

Second piece of news: My most recent novel, Once Upon a Marriage, won the 2026 Colorado Authors League Award for historical fiction (pre-1850). The awards ceremony was July 19 at the boathouse in Denver’s Washington Park, the neighborhood that Ben and I lived in during the 1990s. (It seems like decades ago. Well, I guess it was!)

When it was named a finalist in June, I was certain it wouldn’t win the award because it is not a traditional historical novel. It is a time-slip/historical novel, combining the story of a 21^st century historian with the subject of her research, a sixth century Merovingian princess on the way to her arranged marriage with a Visigothic prince. It was a blast to write, and I thank the Vashon Island Arts Residency for the space and time I had to do so.  (See my July 6 blog about how using a time-slip construction can make historical fiction more relevant to modern readers.)

I was surprised to win, to say the least, as my competition was the very talented Terri Lewis and Jodi Bowersox. And I was very happy my husband, Ben Miller, was there to celebrate with me. He was having heart surgery in a hospital in Colorado Springs three years ago when I won the Colorado Independent Publishers Association award (for The Rebel Nun), and it was less fun, not having him there.

Ben and I spent a week driving to and from Walla Walla, Washington, one of my favorite wine-obsessed towns. But other than that, this summer we have been hanging around home, Ben working and running, and me listening to audio books on my morning walks and reading.

My latest favorites are The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez, Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards, Paper Girl by Beth Macy and The Hired Man by Sandra Dallas.

The Great Divide tells the story of the construction of the Panama Canal from the perspective of the people of Panama whose lives were upended by the project. It is enlightening and as relevant as any historical fiction can be, given the recently revived imperialistic notions of this country. Canticle is the second great book I’ve read about the beguines of the 11^th and 12^th centuries, after The Mirror of Simple Souls by Aline Kiner, which came out a couple of years ago. If you’re not familiar with the beguines, these books are a great way to get started exploring.

Paper Girl is an honest and untainted story of Rust Belt decline that was poorly depicted by J.D. Vance a few years ago. It’s depressing but real, and written by a journalist who knows how to keep herself out of the tale while listening to people from all sides of life. And The Hired Man vividly portrays the Dust Bowl of eastern Colorado in the rich prose that few writers can produce. Sandra never disappoints, and this book is one of my favorites.

Watch for the news of the releases, please. I hope you are having a great reading summer, too.