Cathy Holton, Southern Fiction Writer,

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"Part gothic mystery, part romance...sit back with a cold drink on a shady porch, and enjoy."

The Roanoke TImes

"Brimming with unforgettable characters, smart conversations, and an engaging mystery that makes spending a summer in the South a tantalizing proposition." - Kirkus

"Sure to appeal to fans of Kristin Hannah, Nancy Thayer, and Fannie Flagg... solidly engages the reader through its layered plot...underscored by sinister yet dreamy noir elements." - Booklist

"The perfect blend of Southern charm, intrigue, sophistication, and ronmance. " - RT Book Reviews

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO ORDER YOUR COPY CLICK HERE!

SUMMER IN THE SOUTH by Cathy Holton (Random House Hardcover, ISBN-10: 0345506014)

A Chicago writer fleeing her troubled past stumbles upon a sixty-year-old murder mystery in a small Southern town. As a guest of the prominent Woodburn clan, keepers of a violent past, Ava Dabrowski soon finds herself entangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family whose secrets mirror her own.

About

About

The daughter of a college professor and an artist,
Cathy Holton grew up in college towns in the American South and Midwest. As a child, she entertained her classmates with tales of a scaled creature that lived in her carport shed and a magical phone that hung in her family’'s bathroom that could be used to summon an English butler (this was in North Carolina in the 1960’'s and her family lived in married student housing). Once, in a moment of epiphany, she overheard two neighbors discussing her.“"That child is quite the story-teller,”" one woman said.“"That child is the biggest liar on God’'s green earth,”" the other woman replied. “"She wouldn’'t know the truth if it fell out of the sky and clumped her on the head.”"Cathy knew then that she would be a writer. She studied Creative Writing at Michigan State University under Professor Albert Drake. She has worked as a dude ranch hand, a university seminar coordinator, a paralegal, and an assistant in a fire investigation firm. The mother of three grown children, she lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband and a rescue dog named Yoshi. She is the author of Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes, Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes, Beach Trip, and Summer in the South, all published through Random House/Ballantine Books. She is currently at work on her fifth novel, The Sisters Montague, about a nineteen-year old runaway who takes a job as a caregiver for a ninety-four year old Southern grande dame, a woman haunted by her own past. Think Girl, Interrupted meets Driving Miss Daisy. With a twist.

Books

BOOKS

Summer in the South

Summer in the South

Excerpt Ballantine Hardcover ISBN -9780345506016, 352 pp.For Chicago writer Ava Dabrowski, fleeing her own troubled past, the chance to spend the summer writing a novel in quiet Woodburn, Tennessee seems a welcome reprieve. A guest of Will Fraser and his great-aunts, Fanny and Josephine Woodburn, members of an aristocratic, old-moneyed family, Ava soon finds herself surrounded by an eccentric cast of characters.But the Woodburns are not who they seem to be. Gradually hearing rumors about the mysterious death of great-aunt Fanny’'s first husband, Ava stumbles upon a decades old family secret. Putting aside her planned novel, she begins instead to write the tragic history of the Woodburns, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone can possibly imagine. As she writes the history of the Woodburns, Ava begins to put together the pieces of her own fractured past, learning that a good story is always more dazzling, and ultimately less painful, than the truth.

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Beach Trip

Beach Trip
Ballantine, 978-0345506009 , 432pp“"A brilliant, bubbly, bracing novel . . . packed with hilarity and heartache.”"—Wichita Falls Times Record News "“Break out the tissues, sunblock, and margarita mix as four friends reunite after twenty-three years for a beach party in [this] feast of Southern friendship. . . . [Cathy] Holton refreshes the action with winning humor.”"—Publishers Weekly “"The novel’'s wistful tone and serious revelations will set it apart from summer’s lighter fare, while the characters’ witty barbs and beachy setting keep it entertaining.”"—Booklist “"A poignant tale of heartbreak and happiness that celebrates the resiliency of women.”"—Chattanooga Times Free A twenty-three year reunion becomes a pivotal event in the lives of four college friends in this darkly-comic tale of lost love and friendship. Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola have not seen each other since their years together at a small Southern liberal arts college. Now in their forties, an idyllic trip to the coast of North Carolina will force the four friends to confront their past; a failed love affair, a betrayal, and a secret that threatens to change their bond, and their lives, forever.

AMAZON

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Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes

Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes
Ballantine Books, Paperback, 9780345479280, 288pp.)Three 40-something women married to partners in a small-town Southern law firm wreak havoc in the lives of their cheating husbands in this light, likable debut. Booklist Magazine says, "“Not since the Ya-Ya Sisterhood has there been a group of good ol’' gals to rival Holton’'s trio of scorned Southern women. …Irresistibly entertaining, Holton'’s debut is hilarious, a cunning, rollicking addition to the popular Southern ‘steel magnolia’ genre.”"“"Holton has a lively, fluid style that shifts easily among the viewpoints’ of several characters and goes down as easily as sweet tea.” "-The Boston Globe“"Three 40-something women married to partners at an Ithaca, Ga., law firm form a First Wives' Club south of the Mason-Dixon line in Holton’'s slapstick revenge tale with serious undertones.”"- Publishers Weekly

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Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes

Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes
Ballantine Books, Paperback, 9780345479297, 320pp.Cotillion: A formal gathering of bright young women on the verge of entering adulthood, the society pages, and prospective high-tax-bracket marriages. Think a Civil War reenactment with crips, clean white dresses.Catfight: An impromptu gathering of not-so-young women on the verge of losing their cool. Think a cotillion with hair-pulling.It’'s been more than a year since the Kudzu Debutantes exacted sweet, merciless revenge on their cheating husbands, but the repercussions are still palpable throughout Ithaca, Georgia.They’'ve made a formidable enemy in Virginia Broadwell, first lady of Ithaca and Nita's ex-mother-in-law. Whereas, Nita, Eadie, and Lavonne had found going up against their cheating husbands as easy as "driving a nail into a snow bank”," Virginia Kelly Broadwell is a much more cunning and formidable adversary. As they will soon discover."“Holton’'s headstrong heroines deliver homespun wisdom and hearty laughs in this uproarious sequel.”"-Booklist"“Sharp, witty, and warm.”"-Entertainment Weekly

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Summer in the South

Beach Trip

Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes

Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes

Book Clubs

Book Clubs
Almost twenty years ago, I went with my good friend Randal to visit her great-aunt Fanny in the sleepy little town of Franklin, Tennessee. Or at least it was sleepy then, before the country stars of Nashville discovered it. Randal, it seemed, was from a very old, prominent Southern family and Great-Aunt Fanny'’s home was a suitably impressive mansion standing on a street of equally impressive old homes a few blocks from the town square.Fanny was a lovely woman, intelligent, lively, and much younger-looking than her seventy-some-years would indicate. There were photographs of her everywhere, dressed in riding clothes for a fox hunt, standing beside a camel in the Egyptian desert, drinking cocktails on the Riviera. Standing at her side in all the photos was her large, florid-faced husband who had died some years back. The sprawling house was filled with antique silver and furniture, oil paintings of long-dead ancestors, and priceless historical artifacts, including a framed letter from Thomas Jefferson written to one of Fanny’'s ancestors. As a lover of history, I was fascinated by the house and the family. I was also fascinated by Fanny’'s circle of friends, an equally lively group of women who had been educated at Vanderbilt in the twenties and who still clung to the time-honored tradition of cocktail hour. These women spoke in a deep, cultured accent so often attempted, and yet so rarely achieved, by movie actors trying to portray the Old South. They were gracious and welcoming and within five minutes, by use of a few deft questions, knew everything there was to know about my background and the kind of “"people”" I came from. I felt like I had stepped into a Faulkner novel. (One of Fanny’'s cousins had known Faulkner in Paris. She had not been impressed.) This feeling increased when, the next day, Randal and I accompanied Fanny to the cemetery to put flowers on the graves of the dead. Noting Fanny’'s reverent attention to a grave set apart from the others, I asked, “"Who'’s buried there?”"Randal hesitated. "“Fanny’'s husband.”"“"The one in all the photos?”""“No. That was her second husband. The one buried over there is her first husband. Charlie.”"“"What happened to him?”"“"We don'’t speak of him,”" Randal said.True to her Southern upbringing, I couldn'’t get a word out of her. There were no photos of him in the house. It was as if he had never existed. That evening as I lay in a four- poster bed in a moonlit room waiting for Charlie'’s ghost to appear, I remembered Fanny’'s tender expression as she bent to tend the grave of a man dead for over sixty years. And I wondered what could have happened to him, what could have happened between him and Fanny, that would keep her family from ever mentioning his name. Twenty years later, I wrote Summer in the South. Was the love affair between Charlie and Fanny truly as I envisioned it? Did the things that happened to me there in that old house in Franklin really happen, or did I just dream them? The answers to both questions, I suppose, lie clearly in the realm of fiction.Cathy

Having concluded their discussion of Jane Eyre, the Happy Dale Book Club settled down to an evening of Jell-O shots and porn.

To schedule an author SKYPE or CHAT with your book club, contact Cathy here and put "Book Club" in the subject line.

Press Articles

Press

For downloadable book covers and author photo, please click links below.

Note: If you wish, you can convert PDF to JPEG by viewing PDF file in acrobat and going to File--> Export --> Image--> JPEG

Summer in the South Press Release Final.pdf

SummerintheSouthFINALCover.pdf

Beach_Trip_Trade_Cover.pdf

AUTHOR Q and A.doc

CATHY_Holton_Prof._Photo_II_High_Res.pdf

Please give photo credit to Shannon Fontaine.

Secret_Lives_Cover_Art_high_res.pdf

Revenge_of_the_Kudzu_Debs_Cover_high_res.pdf

Surly Wench Journal Blog

Surly Wench Journal Blog

For those of you who like to start the week with something light, check out my blog,

You can even sign up to receive weekly email postings!

The Surly Wench Journal.

Contact

Contact Cathy

Cathy is represented by:

Kristin Lindstrom

703-522-4730

Kristin at lindstromliterary dot com

Alison Masciovecchio

Publicist/ │ Ballantine Bantam Dell

The Random House Publishing Group

212/782-9047

amasciovecchio at randomhouse dot com

MeetUp Group

Beach Bag Bonanza Book Giveaway!

For MeetUp Bookclub Members Only

Enter for a chance to win a stylish beach bag filled with signed copies of Cathy Holton’'s four novels, Summer in the South, Beach Trip, Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes , and Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes (Random House/Ballantine Books.)

To enter, simply fill out the contact form below, putting the name of your Meetup Group in the subject line.

For an ADDITIONAL chance to win, go to the official Summer in the South Facebook Fan Page and become a Fan (click the "Like" button).

The winner will be picked July 15th and will be notified via email.

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 _ 2011 Cathy Holton, All Rights Reserved
Excerpt