By Ronan Noone

Secrets of Playwriting is a comprehensive resource for teaching playwriting to high school students and undergraduates. It offers 36 comprehensive lessons and exercises tailored for classroom instruction and includes 8 short plays. This resource distills twenty years of teaching, writing, and production experience into a practical guide that engages teachers and young writers in mastering the art of playwriting. The book covers a wide range of topics and includes how to craft monologues, one-minute plays, ten-minute plays, and full-length plays. It emphasizes the importance of plot, character development, and dialogue, and provides teachers and students with tools to transform their ideas into engaging theatrical performances. By integrating diverse examples and exercises, the book inspires teachers to help students explore their creative voice while supporting effective classroom management and fostering a collaborative environment.

By Anne Mackay-Smith

Casualties of war – or murder? Virginia, 1861: Adair Stanford just wants to keep her children safe as the Civil War breaks out and her husband leaves to fight for the south. But when two dead men are found in the woods on her farm, she’s forced to act: she’s found hidden signs that they didn’t die in a shootout between enemies, but from murder. Isolated by her Abolitionist beliefs, Adair is alone in her search for the truth until a stranger, his identity cloaked in deception, invades her world. Is he an added danger, or an ally? And do the threats and violence menacing her family stem from the ugly killings, or a shameful secret from the past? Set at the crossroads of north and south, this mystery explores the fraught relations between men and women, the enslaved and the free, and the horror of murder – even in the midst of war.