HEADLINE: New York Reviewer Visits Arkansas Author, Radine Trees Nehring

Rustic barn and the summer Milky Way along Hwy 43, Boxley Valley Historic District near Ponca

In February, 2005, New York book reviewer "Eden" Embler finished yet another positive review of one of my mystery novels set in Arkansas with these words: "The author makes the area so intriguing I want to see it for myself."  Not long after (and to my astonishment), I learned the Emblers were coming to Arkansas that spring.


My husband and I met them in Eureka Springs, (setting for A Wedding to Die For),  and took them on a tour of several locations I'd chosen for novels and short stories. Then, on their own, they toured much of the rest of the state before returning to New York, where Embler continued to review my novels until her death in 2010.

My husband and I fell in love with the Arkansas Ozarks in 1978 during a camping trip. Before long the Nehrings owned 23 acres of forested Ozarks hills and hollows with ponds, a creek and a spring. We built a weekend cabin, and traveled there from Tulsa, Oklahoma most weekends. In 1986, I began writing about our adventures for magazines and newspapers around the United States. In 1988 we moved to Arkansas full time and, in 1995, a hard cover collection of my Ozarks articles and essays: DEAR EARTH: A Love Letter from Spring Hollow, came out in New York. (This environmentally-based book is still available from http://www.RadinesBooks.com)

What next? I began writing my first Ozarks mystery novel. A Valley to Die For appeared in 2002, followed by Music to Die For, and a series was born. Number 8 in the "To Die For" series appeared last spring--A Portrait to Die For--an art crime adventure featuring Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Which leads me to another Arkansan who has been honoring the state for many years. 

Tim Ernst's photographic art has been featured in National Geographic, Audubon, Outdoor Photographer,  and the New York Times, plus in Sierra Club and Hallmark calendars, and many other places. He's the author of more than a dozen hiking trail guidebooks, and seventeen of his collections of wilderness photographs have been published as coffee table picture books.

A quiet morning reflection with blazing fall color, Big Piney Creek, Ozark National Forest, near Limestone, Arkansas

(He also teaches photography workshops.) To list his many honors and awards would take more space than I have here, so I'll just say I am deeply honored that he allowed me to submit three photographs from his latest book of photographs: ARKANSAS IN MY OWN BACKYARD, for Fifty Authors from Fifty States. 

To enjoy more about Tim and his stunning photographs, visit www.TimErnst.com    
  
To learn more on my work, visit   http://www.RadinesBooks.com    

I'm offering one lucky winner their choice of A Portrait to Die For or Dear Earth.  Leave a comment with your preferred contact info to be entered to win!     

Unnamed waterfall along the Little Mulberry Creek, Ozark National Forest, Arkansas. There are hundreds of waterfalls in the Ozarks--some well-known, but many are unknown like this one and just waiting for personal discovery.