Bøger udgivet af Merlin-Janus Studio, Inc.

These unforgettable stories featuring fourteen strong women are expertly told in Hampton's distinctive voice. Most hail from fictional "Dixon"-black, white, rich, poor. They all struggle to overcome the suffocation of "a woman's place" as second class citizens in the mid Twentieth Century south. From African American maids, a Ghanaian transplant, a misplaced goat keeper, a crazy woman who sees ghosts to those who break barriers into the male-dominated worlds of architecture, medicine, publishing, business ownership, and even the theater world of NYC-these women rub elbows with straight and gay and sometimes achieve Cinderella romance of their own. Whether surviving rape or chasing chicken thieves, these characters will long linger in the reader's mind.These stories are about strong women who were not recognized or appreciated for their strengths. Some were strong because they had to be. Others were born with minds and skills that refused to be oppressed and none of them should be forgotten.

The stories in FAMILY SECRETS are stories about the complexities in the lives of everyday people. They are stories about the fragility of life and the intricate web of experiences woven into them. They are tales of buried secrets when unearthed reveal portraits of betrayal, seduction, and sensual, passionate romance.

Realtor Diana Rittenhouse is getting her act together after a messy divorce. She has uprooted her real estate business from urban Philadelphia to rural North Carolina and has recently survived A Lethal Listing (see Diana Rittenhouse Mystery 1/5) that almost claimed her life. Diana is excited about getting her Broker-In-Charge license and taking a second chance on love with Matthew Troutman, an easy-going southerner who is her polar opposite. But fate intervenes in the form of two eight year old look-alikes, who are destined to turn her world upside down. Juan is a Mexican orphan, while Johnny is the son of Diana's wealthy new clients. The boys are a modern day Prince and Pauper, but in spite of their differences, they become inseparable friends---until Diana makes a terrible blunder and one of the boys is kidnapped from her Open House.Neither the local police nor the FBI makes progress in the missing persons case, and as the casualties mount, Diana is devastated by guilt. She takes matters into her own hands and joins forces with her new love, Matthew, to find the abducted child.The quest leads them deep into the Carolina mountains, where the backwoods natives seem to hail from a previous century. When bullets start to fly, they fight not only to rescue the child, but also to save their own lives.

MISS ADDIE'S GIFT; Portrait of an American Folk Artist, is a biography/full-color catalogue/tribute to North Carolina self-taught artist, Addie James (1943-2011). Author Kate Merrill, longtime gallery owner and co-owner of Merrill-Jennings Galleries in Davidson, NC, represented Miss Addie from 2000 to Addie's death in 2011, and during that time helped elevate the artist to national prominence. The text not only includes Kate's assessment of how to place Addie in art history--- in that complex maze of what is lumped together as primitive, naïve, folk, or outsider art--- but also conveys Kate's deep friendship with her subject. After hours of taped interviews, the text also weaves Addie's first-person narrative as well as Addie's original poems through the presentation. The result is a colorful art book which evolves as a portrait of as unique human being who inspires hope in a troubled time when peace and joy seem all but lost. As opposed to being an academic critique, Miss Addie's Gift, should appeal to a mainstream audience, especially all women, African Americans, art and folk art lovers---indeed anyone open to an inspirational message. Addie James was an African American mother of five, grandmother of six, who never learned to drive a car, nor did she stray far beyond her hometown of Statesville, North Carolina. She worked in the cotton fields, endured segregation, financial hardship, and personal tragedy. Yet neither her art nor her spirit reflected one trace of bitterness. Addie painted for as long as she could remember, graduating from crayons and pencils to watercolors, acrylics, and all manner of mixed media. She painted on any material available: fabric, cardboard, wood...even the jackets of broken books. As a young woman, Addie was an accomplished fashion designer with a flair for sewing. She filled notebooks with her designs, translated them to clothing, and received an offer to design as a professional. Because she was busy raising a family, Addie ignored the opportunity in favor of making clothes for her children's paper dolls and capturing her fashions in her paintings. Miss Addie wrote poetry and songs. She adorned quilts, chairs, gourds, and handmade fans with her art. If painting had been a lifelong passion, it became a necessity when her husband died in the early nineties: I use drawing as a stress reliever. It brings me fun and joy. Indeed, all Addie's work reflected her natural joy in everyday living. Much of her subject matter can be described as the five "F's" fun, fashion, friends, family, and faith. While living the African-American experience in Statesville could not have been easy for Miss Addie, her art always spoke with a positive voice. If Addie had a dark side, it seldom showed in her art. Over the years, Addie James slowly attracted critical attention. Her art was featured in community shows, The Wallace House at Mitchell Community College, the Iredell Museum of Arts and Heritage and the Statesville Depot. In February 2002 and 2003 Miss Addie had major One-Woman Show at Merrill-Jennings Galleries in Davidson. The gallery represented her exclusively. Addie James saw herself, quite correctly, as a serious, dedicated painter. Her unselfconscious balance of ego and humility were key to her success and a joy to behold. When Addie James died unexpectedly in August, 2011, her friends, family, collectors and the art world at large lost an authentic American treasure. While she will be terribly missed, her gift will live forever in her art.

The dozen short stories in Betsey Barber Hampton's collection FULL CIRCLE offer a fresh new voice in southern fiction. Hampton, who has just begun to write in her eighties, brings her charming perspective to coming of age in North Carolina in the mid 1900's. She also explores the last days of slavery and the complex racial tensions then and now, all with an innocence and humor unique to her personal experience. Hampton draws unforgettable, often feisty characters from memory and family history, with an emphasis on the importance of generational continuity. Sarah Sherwell struggles with a family murder kept secret through the years. Old ladies Neat and Ness allow a Jewel Tea salesman into their isolated lives. Young John Smith aids and abets Thomas Henry, a runaway slave, while shy school teacher Helen is jilted at the railway station. A star-struck teenager moons over Billy the Kid, while George and Lucy find romance in a retirement home after discovering the secret of George's Uncle Sam and his relationship with Thomas Wolf. Hampton time travels back to old Europe, where aristocratic Diana finds solace from her abusive husband by having an affair with Sully, a neighbor's gardener. In her seventies, Myra finds worth in her dismal life through the revelations in her grandmother's diary, while in Full Circle, Berta Lee, an elderly white woman, reconnects with her dearest childhood friend, a black man, James E., who gives her a reason to live. All in all, Hampton's stories leave the reader satiated with her feast of riches, yet hungry for more.