Celebrate Our Members Achievements!

Veda Boyd Jones’s The Alley South of Main is the 4^th book in the Lost Creek Novels series now a Kindle book.

Since 2026 is the centennial of US 66 Highway, and since Susan Croce Kelly has written two histories of the highway, she’s been busy telling people where Route 66 came from — and why. Talks booked include a national Zoom presentation sponsored by a National Parks Service-backed Research Route 66 (available to download at https://speakers.researchroute66.org/session-overview/cy-avery-and-the-invention-of-route-66). She is a member of the Missouri Humanities Speakers Bureau, https://shsmo.org/missouri-speakers-bureau, which she recommends to other authors dealing with local/regional subjects. She’ll be speaking soon in Sedalia, Kansas City, Springfield, Bolivar, and Fulton. She’s already given talks on her book Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks in West Plains and Aurora.

Jen Kenning has three short stories in Beyond Mystery: Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Cozy…and More, the newest anthology by Sleuth’s Ink.

Billie Holladay Skelley has been selected by the Western Writers of America (WWA) to receive a 2026 Spur Finalist Award in the Best Western Short Nonfiction Category for her article “Angel of the Wild West” published in Saddlebag Dispatches.

Margarite Stever has two short stories and a poem published in the new mystery anthology, Beyond Mystery: Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Cozy…and more. She will be doing a joint presentation with author Bonnie Tesh on helpful things to consider when entering short story contests at the 2026 OWL Spring Conference on May 2, 2026.

Mary Cambron-Collard’s action fantasy novel, Another Bigfoot Tale: Swamp World, was published in January.

John Crawford has been on the contest circuit. Fall Poetry Contest honors: Mississippi Poetry Society, 2nd and 3rd places; Missouri State Poetry Society,2nd place; Pennsylvania Poetry Society, 3rd place; Arizona State Poetry Society, 1st place; Ohio Poetry Society, 4 honorable mentions. In Monthly Member awards: Mississippi Poetry Society, 2nd and 3rd places: Arizona State Poetry Society, 1st place in traditional, 1st place in rhyme, and 1st place in theme of beauty. His work “It Had to Be,” was published in California Quarterly, winter 2025; “Ode to Spam” was published in Peninsula Poets, fall 2025; and the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record published his lyrical poems bi-weekly in fall 2025.

Michael Don Fess served as senior editor of An Arkansas Anthology, which contains articles by 20 Arkansas authors, including Michael. All proceeds from the book go to the Arkansas School for the Deaf and the Blind. Book signings will be held at the Arkansas State Capitol and at other locations across the state.

Veda Boyd Jones’s mainstream Lost Creek Novel series is now three books strong with the release of One Block Down Main. Book one, The West End of Main, and book two, 309 Main Street, are all available on Amazon as e-books.

Cassandra Jordan has two stories, “To Have and To Hold” and “The Flip Side,” in the Raven’s Inn Press anthology, The Vault of Terror, Tales to Tell. Both stories had previously won in the White Rivers Writers Contest. “The Flip Side” was last year’s First Place winner and also appeared in Del Garrett’s online magazine.

Lauri Mays’ middle grade novel, The Dragon’s Foot, launched in January. This is her first work of fiction, but she also has two devotionals in print.

Albert Morrow’s short story, “The Priest with No Name,” was just published in Under the Cold Prairie Moon, an anthology published by Saddlebag Dispatches magazine. Albert recently was interviewed on the Authors Edge radio show of KXOK 102.9 in St. Louis.

Kelly Reddin has good news. She’ll be the featured author in the April Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) newsletter for the KS/MO region. Additionally, her books will be recorded for the Wolfner Library for the reading impaired in Jefferson City. She will be reading them as the author.

Ron Smith finished first in the annual Joplin Writer’s Guild Valentine/Romance Short Story Contest, and took third place in the Always Buying Books Historical Fiction Article Contest.

Lonnie Whitaker’s memoir, The Way We Were: Personal Reflections on Life in the Ozarks, Scrivener Oak Press, a collection of 50 essays, was reviewed and recommended by the editors of Missouri Life magazine newsletter. They wrote, “The easy-to-read remembrances will delight not only other Ozarkers but also others interested in Missouri in the 1950s and ’60s.” Lonnie’s three-part newspaper article, “An Ozark Skeptic Journeys to a UFO Conference,” won first place in the MO Writers Guild annual contest. This is the third consecutive year that he has won this award.

Larry Wood’s latest nonfiction book, Gangster Queen Bonnie Parker and Other Murderous Women of Missouri, was released by The History Press in early February.