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Louella Bryant

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Louella Bryant

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Born
in Bethesda, MD, The United States
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July 2013

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Louella Bryant’s novel WILLIE, RUM RUNNING QUEEN launched in early 2025 with Black Rose Writing. Her 2023 novel SHELTERING ANGEL, BASED ON A TRUE STORY OF THE TITANIC, has been a #1 bestseller on Amazon Kindle. Hot Springs and Moonshine Liquor, a family memoir follows the historic trail of bootleg liquor since the Revolutionary War. Louella's WWII novel Cowboy Code is based on the true story of a Virginia mountain town. Other books include While In Darkness There Is Light, nonfiction about the Vietnam era, a story collection, and two Civil War novels for young adult readers. Her award-winning writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies. A graduate of George Washington University and Vermont College of Fine Arts, Louella works as an in ...more

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Louella Bryant First, thanks for reading four of my books, Sally. And, yes, they're all somewhat different. What "clicks" for me is a story that won't leave me alone…moreFirst, thanks for reading four of my books, Sally. And, yes, they're all somewhat different. What "clicks" for me is a story that won't leave me alone. For example, my first book, The Black Bonnet, was inspired by a visit to the cellar of an Underground Railroad site in Burlington VT. I started hearing a young voice saying, "Write my story." I put her off for months until she was whispering to me every day. I was teaching then and waited until summer to sit down with pen and paper. Then the words flew out of me. I spent the following year revising and sending queries, and Bonnet became a best-seller for New England Press. A story must insist on being told before I commit to it. I frequently put a manuscript on the shelf to "rest," but if it calls to me, I always come back to it. Cowboy Code took 20 years to get to print. I've been working on my current project, Sheltering Angel, A Titanic Story, for five years. I don't usually start a project unless I feel compelled to see it through. Writing requires commitment, endurance, patience, and faith. I wish those qualities for you in your own writing.(less)
Louella Bryant Being a writer for most of us isn't about making millions of dollars or getting heaps of praise. It's not about being followed by the paparazzi or get…moreBeing a writer for most of us isn't about making millions of dollars or getting heaps of praise. It's not about being followed by the paparazzi or getting three-book deals. It's about a passion for words. It's about talking to writers and readers about craft. And it's about making the next book, the next chapter, the next paragraph, the next sentence better than the one before it. It's about le mot juste, the precise word, even if you have to invent it, as Shakespeare did!(less)
Average rating: 4.49 · 2,340 ratings · 201 reviews · 12 distinct worksSimilar authors
Sheltering Angel: A Novel B...

4.52 avg rating — 2,118 ratings4 editions
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Beside the Long River: A No...

4.31 avg rating — 81 ratings2 editions
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Willie – Rum Running Queen:...

4.22 avg rating — 45 ratings2 editions
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While in Darkness There is ...

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4.50 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 2008 — 12 editions
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The Black Bonnet

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1995 — 2 editions
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Hot Springs and Moonshine L...

3.95 avg rating — 19 ratings2 editions
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Cowboy Code

3.63 avg rating — 8 ratings2 editions
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Father by Blood

4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1999
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Full Bloom

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Two Tracks in the Snow

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0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions
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More books by Louella Bryant…

How I came to write While In Darkness There Is Light

In early spring of 2004, when Howard Dean was running for President, my husband Harry sat on the front porch of our Vermont house with a glass of beer and talked about Howard’s younger brother Charlie. Harry had met Charlie in 1968 when they were students at St. George’s School in Newport, Rhode Island. There were only two hundred students in the boarding school—all boys—and they knew each other w Read more of this blog post »
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Published on February 20, 2021 03:56 Tags: australia, cambodia, commune, howard-dean, james-baldwin, kenya, laos, rosebud, sailboat, vietnam
Ciao, Amore, Ciao
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Louella Bryant is now friends with Carolyn D
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Ciao, Amore, Ciao by Sandro  Martini
Ciao, Amore, Ciao
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Trust by Hernan Diaz
Trust
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Unspoken by Jann Alexander
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Jann Alexander brings Ruby Lee Becker’s Dust Bowl story to life in her novel Unspoken. This is historical fiction at its best. With a depth of research and flawless writing, Alexander writes of Ruby Lee’s separation from her family with a style almos ...more
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While In Darkness There Is Light by Louella Bryant
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A wonderful read about youthful idealism, its beauty and its tragedy. A cautionary tale for young adults and adults alike.
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Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
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I picked up Yagisawa's book at Dublin's Winding Stair Bookshop which I imagine much like the Takako's uncle's shop somewhere in Japan, a cramped space with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books. If you are obsessed about reading, you'll enjoy the neighbo ...more
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Dubliners by James Joyce
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In prepping for a two-week trip to Ireland, I picked up Dubliners. Joyce does not disappoint. These stories reminded me of Faulkner's New Orleans stories about quirky characters he encountered there, but Joyce's stories have more depth and more patho ...more
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Henderson House by Caren Simpson McVicker
Henderson House
by Caren Simpson McVicker (Goodreads Author)
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This debut novel surprised and delighted me. There's a Jane Austin pleasantness to the story about a family with Cherokee roots living in an Oklahoma boarding house. Although McVicker plays down the Cherokee theme and it took a while for tension to a ...more
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'Twas the Night after Christmas by Sabrina Jeffries
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The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe
The Second Mrs. Astor
by Shana Abe (Goodreads Author)
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After publishing my own novel about the Titanic, I was eager to read The Second Mrs. Astor by Shana Abe. I was not disappointed—who doesn’t love a story of flowery romance? But I missed the depth of drama and conflict. Except for the disapproval of A ...more
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Quotes by Louella Bryant  (?)
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“May God grant you always a sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you. –Celtic blessing”
Louella Bryant, Sheltering Angel: A Novel Based on a True Story of the Titanic

“Sport,” he said, “is an art.” “Some might disagree with you,” I said. “Sport is akin to war. There are winners and losers. In art, no one loses except those who ignore it.”
Louella Bryant, Sheltering Angel: A Novel Based on a True Story of the Titanic

“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
Mary Oliver

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Franz Kafka

198095 Comedy Book Universe — 15 members — last activity Jan 02, 2018 12:22PM
As it stands, the humor book genre is ill-defined. Go into the humor section of a book store (or browse Amazon) and you are likely to find joke books ...more
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