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IVALEENA
388 pages, Paperback
Published March 16, 2026
About the author
Brenda K. Thompson
5 books38 followersI’m Brenda K. Thompson, Grand Prize-winning author of Alice Anyway and the Appalachian novels Ivaleena, A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie, and Child H. I write emotionally resonant fiction about resilience, identity, belonging, and the quiet courage it takes to claim one’s own life. My stories are meant to be lived in.
My debut novel, Alice Anyway, was named the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards First Place Grand Prize Winner for Fiction. It also won First Novel (70,000–90,000 words) and was named a finalist in Female Empowerment. The novel became a #1 Amazon Bestseller in Women’s Historical Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction, and Women’s Literary Fiction.
Ivaleena unfolds beneath the canvas of a traveling carnival, where illusion and identity become difficult to separate. A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie follows a stolen child who survives to build a life of her own. My newest novel, Child H, begins in 1898 Appalachia with six-year-old Hannah Campbell and a house gone strange.
Before writing fiction, I spent years on Wall Street and later founded Special “Finds…” Unique Property Marketing. Both taught me how deeply story and place shape the way we see the world.
My husband, Jim, nearly always finds his way into one of my characters. Sometimes the two of us appear together, though we may be the only ones who recognize us.
I’m grateful for every reader who enters these stories, spends time with the people inside them, and carries something of them away.
My debut novel, Alice Anyway, was named the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards First Place Grand Prize Winner for Fiction. It also won First Novel (70,000–90,000 words) and was named a finalist in Female Empowerment. The novel became a #1 Amazon Bestseller in Women’s Historical Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction, and Women’s Literary Fiction.
Ivaleena unfolds beneath the canvas of a traveling carnival, where illusion and identity become difficult to separate. A Feed Sack Dress for Sadie follows a stolen child who survives to build a life of her own. My newest novel, Child H, begins in 1898 Appalachia with six-year-old Hannah Campbell and a house gone strange.
Before writing fiction, I spent years on Wall Street and later founded Special “Finds…” Unique Property Marketing. Both taught me how deeply story and place shape the way we see the world.
My husband, Jim, nearly always finds his way into one of my characters. Sometimes the two of us appear together, though we may be the only ones who recognize us.
I’m grateful for every reader who enters these stories, spends time with the people inside them, and carries something of them away.
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