South Carolina Author Jamie Langston Turner Publishes Ninth Novel

South Carolina author Jamie Langston Turner has published her ninth novel, Every Ocean Has A Shore, part of an extended series that begins in the fictional town of Derby, South Carolina and continues in small towns surrounding Derby. Opening in a downtown Chicago deli, an initial traumatic event brings together three strangers — 73-year-old Alice who has just discovered she has a grandson, Gary, the owner of the deli and a middle-aged widower, and Fawna, a young employee at the deli — and then explores the stories and bonds that develop through one chance encounter.

Turner’s first novel, Suncatchers, was published in 1995 by Thomas Nelson. Six more of Turner’s novels followed, all published by Bethany, and an eighth novel, To See The Moon Again, was published in 2014 by Penguin/Berkley. The nine-year period between the eighth and ninth novel is the longest gap between novels since Turner’s first. The series, sometimes called the Derby Series by readers, features Turner’s extraordinary grasp and development of character over time, the rich, varied details of people and life in South Carolina, and both characters and region intersected with the complex themes of faith, regret, repentance, forgiveness, and transformation.

“It feels as if I’ve traversed a brief history of publishing over the past twenty-eight years through my own books,” said Jamie Turner. “I’ve been fortunate to have three different publishers, each very different, and this time around chose the self-publishing route through Amazon. I’ve been surprised and grateful at the reception.”

“The themes I explore in each novel tend to mirror what I am noticing and learning as I write, and Every Ocean was no different for me. People can change — transformation can occur — but it’s a long and slow process. Sometimes we can give up on people because we’re not willing to wait long enough, and that’s understandable — patience takes more than a lifetime to build.”

Every Ocean may be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1J6PXRM.

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A Mississippi native, Jamie Langston Turner has lived and worked in South Carolina for five decades. She is a retired professor in creative writing at Bob Jones University and has published nine novels, beginning with Suncatchers in 1995. Winner of two Christy Awards for Excellence and a Christianity Today Book Award of Merit, Jamie is currently working on a tenth novel. To keep up with her work or sign up for her newsletter, find her website at https://www.jamielangstonturner.net.