Meet the Author: Shawnteyana Johnson

This week in our ongoing "Meet the Author" series, we spoke with local children's author Shawnteyana Johnson.

Shawnteyana Johnson is a 26-year-old native of Middletown, NY. She is the proud product of what present and loving grandparents can do, and attributes much of her success to their sacrifice. Shawnte is an educator with over 7 years of experience in early childhood development. Inspired by her work and some of her own experiences, How Helena Got Her Name was born. The debut book of an early readers series centered around inclusion, How Helena Got Her Name is Shawnte's personal story of acceptance, told through the eyes of the person she feels knew her best: her Nana.

Describe your book in 25 words or less.
How Helena Got Her Name is a story of self discovery. It’s about the moment I developed pride in my name, my story, and excitement about my future.

What inspired you to write this book?
The book is inspired by and dedicated to Helena Ruth Prawl (Nana), in loving memory of her brilliant mind, kind heart, and constant sacrifice. I published this work as a love story to every child who’s ever felt like they don’t belong, so they know I’m rooting for them, and that not only do they belong, they are necessary!

What do you do for fun when you're not writing?
Travel! It’s my goal to see as much of the world as I can and to learn something new every step of the way.

What's the next project you're working on?
I’m working on the next book of the series! Readers will get to join Helena and some of her classmates on their next journey! It’s a holiday adventure that I think readers of the first book will truly enjoy.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
YOU are what YOU have to bring to the table. Fiction or non-fiction, show up in your stories as yourself. There’s nothing more fulfilling!

Tell us about one of your favorite books or a book that changed your life.
Finding Me, a memoir by Viola Davis, changed my life from the very first page. It reaffirmed my belief that showing up in the world exactly as we are is our superpower.

Do you have a favorite quote from a book?
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” — Viola Davis, Finding Me

Who are some of your favorite authors?
Toni Morrison, Monica Coleman, Viola Davis, and Amanda Gorman

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If you enjoyed this interview and would like to learn more about Shawnteyana Johnson and her work, you can follow her on Instagram and Tiktok.

How Helena Got Her Name is available in store and online.

Holiday Ordering Deadlines (2022)

As we approach the holidays, please keep these ordering deadlines in mind to ensure you receive your gifts on time!

• Special orders for in-store pickup must be placed by Saturday, December 10th to guarantee that they arrive before Christmas. To place an order through the store, visit us in person, call us at (845) 281-0114, or email us at hello@wellwornbooks.com.

• Bookshop.org orders must be placed before Sunday, December 11th to ensure delivery before Christmas. When shopping online this holiday season, we encourage you to select expedited shipping, since orders shipped through USPS Media Mail may be subject to unforeseen delays.

• Well Worn Books merch must be ordered before Monday, December 12th to ensure delivery before Christmas. The only exceptions to this are our black coffee mugs, which are produced by a different supplier, and must be ordered by Wednesday, December 7th.

Thank you for shopping local this holiday season!

Meet the Author: D.M. Barr

Local author D.M. Barr with her dogs

This week in our ongoing "Meet the Author" series, we spoke with local author Dawn Barclay (also known as D.M. Barr).

The award-winning author of Expired Listings, Saving Grace, Murder Worth the Weight, The Queen of Second Chances, and Simple Tryst of Fate, D.M. Barr is a VP of Sisters in Crime New York/Tri-State, Mystery Writers of America, and is the president of Hudson Valley Scribes. She lives happily in New York's Hudson Valley, where she concocts tales of sex, suspense and satire. Her husband and two adult children are very afraid.

Describe one of your most recent books in 25 words or less.
Saving Grace is about a supposedly paranoid heiress who believes her husband will murder her once she inherits her father's billions and must save herself.

What inspired you to write this book?
My husband asked me once too often about what I might expect as an inheritance once my father passes away.

Tell us a little about the book writing process.
Once I got started, the book went through two different iterations and took about a year to complete and another year to revise and sell to a publisher. I normally get into a rhythm of writing about 1000 words a day. The research involved rewatching the movies Gaslight and Suspicion and reading about paranoias and poisons.

What do you do for fun when you're not writing?
I love travel, spoiling my rescue dog, water aerobics, walking, competitive trivia, word games, reading, and consignment shopping (I love collecting clothes!).

What's the next project you're working on?
I just released a nonfiction book called Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse, and I am working on a book proposal for the follow-up book, as well as my next thriller.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author?
Sit down and write, even if you think what you are writing is terrible. Get into a daily writing routine. Remember that the magic comes from revision and you can't revise an empty page.

What are you currently reading?
The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters

Tell us about one of your favorite books or a book that changed your life.
I think a book that changed my life was Harriet the Spy when I was a kid. I became a reporter later in life.

Do you have a favorite quote from a book?
“I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Who are some of your favorite authors?
So many... John Steinbeck, Jane Austen, Larry McMurtry, Marshall Karp, Brad Parks, and the list goes on.

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If you enjoyed this interview and would like to learn more about Dawn Barclay and her work, visit dmbarr.com or dawnbarclayink.com, or follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Select titles are available in store and online.

Award-Winning Titles (November 2022)

Announcing this month's literary award winners! Follow the links below to order online.

Katherine Rundell won the coveted Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her book, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. The Baillie Gifford Prize rewards excellence in non-fiction writing, including current affairs, history, politics, science, sports, travel, biography, autobiography, and the arts.

The National Book Awards celebrate the best writing in America. The 2022 winners are:

• South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, by Imani Perry (Nonfiction)

• The Rabbit Hutch, by Tess Gunty (Fiction)

• Punks: New and Selected Poems, by John Keene (Poetry)

• All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir (Young Adult)

• Seven Empty Houses, by Samanta Schweblin (Translated Literature)

Dawnie Walton was awarded this year's Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award for her novel, The Final Revival of Opal and Nev. The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award honors an exemplary work of fiction from the previous calendar year that speaks with an “American Voice” about American experiences.

The New York Times Book Review and the New York Public Library announced their picks for the top 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books in 2022:

• Farmhouse, by Sophie Blackall

• Yellow Dog Blues, by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Chris Raschka

• Night Lunch, by Eric Fan, illustrated by Dena Seiferling

• Telling Stories Wrong, by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna, translated by Antony Shugaar

• Bedtime for Bo, by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, illustrated by Mari Kanstad Johnsen, translated by Kari Dickson

• The Upside Down Hat, by Stephen Barr, illustrated by Gracey Zhang

• The New Rooster, by Rilla Alexander

• The Writer, by Davide Cali, illustrated by Monica Barengo

• Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, by Zahra Marwan

• Still This Love Goes On, by Buffy Sainte-Marie, illustrated by Julie Flett

Heid E. Erdrich won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for her poetry collection Little Big Bully, while former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove won for lifetime achievement. The Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry is awarded to an American poet for the most distinguished book of poetry published during the preceding two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry.

Our partners at Libro.fm recently announced their Top 10 Bestselling Audiobooks of 2022:

• I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy

• Book Lovers, by Emily Henry

• The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley

• Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

• Thank You For Listening, by Julia Whelan

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

• Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

• The Maid, by Nita Prose

• How to Be Perfect, by Michael Schur

• How High We Go in the Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu

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You can find these titles and more on our Bookshop page.

Black Friday & Small Business Saturday at Well Worn Books

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you had a very happy holiday and got to enjoy some downtime with a good book!

This year, we're especially grateful for all of the amazing customers who have supported us through our first year in business! We literally could not have done it without you!

As our way of saying thanks, we're offering some great sales and promotions this weekend for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday!

Visit us this Friday (11/25, 11 am-7 pm) and Saturday (11/26, 10 am-6 pm) to enjoy these in-store discounts!

• 10% off everything in the store!

• For every $25 you spend on gift cards, receive a coupon for $5 off a future purchase!

• Swag giveaways with every purchase!

• Enter our raffle for the chance to win a Well Worn Books prize pack!

If you prefer to shop online, we have some great deals for you, too!

• Enjoy FREE Media Mail shipping all weekend long (Friday, 11/25 - Monday, 11/28) when you shop through our Bookshop.org page.

• Get 10% off all audiobook credit bundles and enjoy discounted pricing on some of this year’s bestselling audiobooks during the Libro.fm Shop Small Sale, November 23-28.

• Don’t forget your Well Worn Books merch! Use code SHOPLOCAL at checkout to receive 10% off all Well Worn Books t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and totes! Online only, November 25-28.

Thank you for shopping local and supporting small business this holiday season!