Bøger af Barbara G Tucker

Second in a series of mysteries involving smalltown newspaper editor Scott Wallace who observes and records, and sometimes helps, the local police solve crimes in Pierce's Crossing, Georgia. Marta Gonzalez is about to leave to attend a prestigious university on a full scholarship. Her long-time boyfriend Chad Greenway is staying home, unsure about his life's next step. On a steamy Fourth of July evening, Marta makes a decision that changes their lives forever and rocks the community. Local newspaper editor Scott Wallace juggles his job, special needs son, and ex-wife while helping the local deputy with evidence and managing conflicts with the media.

Virginia Foster finds herself a retired empty nester in her hometown of Abundance, a small city in Upstate South Carolina. She and her husband are affluent members of the community, but she is concerned about its future and spearheads a festival to bring attention and jobs back to Abundance. As she and her team of fellow retirees work to build a successful festival-based around biscuits because the town got its name from Abundance Mills Flour Company--they face opposition from a local preacher, the art community, and the town's maven of baby beauty pageants. However, Virginia has matters to deal with at home. Her aunt, Zadie, and her aunt's dear companion, Topie Jackson, are the two women who raised Virginia after her own mother disappeared when Virginia was four. Both now live in an assisted living facility in town, but Topie, who grew up as the child of Lula, Zadie Cleeland's family's housekeeper, is losing her memory to dementia. The story tracks the lives of the two older women, one white, one black, and parallels Virginia's discovery of some important family secrets even as she is trying to give the town the shot in the arm it needs-or she believes it does.

Scott Wallace, editor of the Keowah County Bugle and Banner, unexpectedly finds himself covering the wedding of Meredeth Kendrick, the daughter of a successful local businessman, John Ross Kendrick, and his social-climbing wife, Merilee. Scott has enough to worry about and considers this task a two-hour fluff piece to make his publisher happy, until he meets the Kendrick family and becomes entangled in their family secrets. Matters get especially dicey when three uninvited people from Mississippi show up, claiming to be distant relatives visiting for the wedding, and then one of them ends up murdered. Who is this man, who killed him, and how will this affect the wedding of the year?

A study in the Book of Daniel about Daniel's leadership principles lived out in a pagan empire as a model for Christians who lead in secular, public, and business organizations. In 15 short chapters the author, a higher educational professional with 40 years teaching, ministry, and leadership experience, examines the facets of Daniel's and his companions' lives in Babylon after being imprisoned as conquered Jewish young men. The book addresses the demands of leadership, the call to leadership, the daily needs of leaders, and the ethical bases for leaders. Chapters include "A leader learns," "A leader prays," "A leader and enemies," and "Loneliness and rejection as a leader." Grounded in an historical-cultural approach to hermeneutics, this is not a character study but a characteristics study. Appendices include a look at daily life in Babylon and prophecy, but in general the prophetic elements of Daniel are not the focus of this book. Barbara G. Tucker is Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at a public college in Georgia, past president of the Georgia Communication Association, founding director of her college's Teaching and Learning Center, editor of The Journal for Academic Excellence, author of five novels and three public speaking textbooks, and blogger at partsofspeaking.blogspot.com.

Kevin Elcott likes to think he's on the right track to success: influential position, attractive and uber-competent female friend Felicity, and career prospects. When his mother asks him to put family responsibilities above his own desires and plans, he steps, fully resistant, into a new life. Will he find a way out of his promise to his mother? What will it mean to him and the others in his life?