Nancy Stancill

    Nancy Stancill spent 38 years as a newspaper reporter and editor before she began writing fiction full-time. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, she earned an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Tampa in 2015.

   Her works include Saving Texas (2013), Winning Texas (2016), Tall (nonfiction, 2020), and Deadly Secrets ( 2024).

  More on Nancy is here.

  • ‘Scandalous and intriguing’

    Nov. 26, 2025

    I’m thrilled and humbled at the honor from QCNerve, Charlotte’s estimable alternative newspaper, in their Best in the Nest year-end edition. Here’s what they wrote:

    BEST FICTION WRITER: Nancy Stancill

    In Nancy Stancill’s more than 30-year career as an investigative reporter, she’s exposed wealthy men delaying divorces to punish their ex-wives, unveiled credit card companies luring consumers into crippling debt, and profiled a strip club owner who later bribed former Charlotte mayor Patrick Cannon.

    The fiction the retired journalist and former Charlotte Observer staffer writes in her second career as a crime novelist is just as scandalous and intriguing.

    In Deadly Secrets, reporter/sleuth Annie Price solves a string of murders involving a charismatic pastor who has established a right-wing Christian state in western North Carolina.

    “I wanted a heroine who was 6 feet tall like me,” Stancill told Queen City Nerve in January, following the book’s December 2024 release, “but who was cuter, had better clothes, and a more exciting love life.”

    Deadly Secrets draws from Stancill’s knowledge of newsrooms as well as her love of western NC’s mountains.

    In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene on the region, Stancill devoted half her proceeds from Deadly Secrets to Asheville-based charity Hearts with Hands.

  • An update on ‘Deadly Secrets’

    Nov. 19, 2026

    Updating an earlier post, I’m pleased to note that Deadly Secrets has had 10,733 free downloads from Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. My publisher, Black Rose Writing, uses these figures to assess how the book is doing. I also am paid royalties from this category.

    Of course, Amazon and other online customers also have bought non-unlimited Kindle books, audio and print copies. I’ve personally sold many copies locally and regionally, thanks to generous friends and readers.

  • More eyes are the prize

    Oct. 8, 2025

    My publisher kindly entered “Deadly Secrets,” my third Annie Price mystery, in a Goodreads giveaway.

    The September results are in: 1,135 entrants for 100 Kindle downloads and 1,081 Goodreads readers shelved it as a “want to read.”

    This is by no means a Goodreads record, but I’m really happy to have that many sets of eyes on it.

 

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Excerpts from recent posts on ‘Deadly Secrets’

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Excerpts from recent posts on ‘Tall’

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Excerpts from posts on ‘Saving Texas’

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Excerpts from my blog posts

To read the entire article, click on the headline above the excerpt.

  • More eyes are the prize

    Oct. 8, 2025 My publisher kindly entered “Deadly Secrets,” my third Annie Price mystery, in a Goodreads giveaway. The September results are ...

  • What’s next for Annie

    Sept.8, 2024 #bookandcat  

  • Book sales at Queens

    Feb. 2, 2024 Nancy sold copies of all three of her books Friday at the Senior Scholars at Queens Expo. Susan ...

  • Reflecting on the memoir form

    July 6, 2023 First published July 5 at Cully Perlman’s NovelMasterClass.com’s blog under the headline “GUEST POST: Writing Memoir: Nancy Stancill’s ...

  • The Last Day

    March 19, 2021 I wrote this poem about my mother-in-law Jaye, who died two weeks ago. The Last Day Hungry. Stop for a chicken sandwich. Arrive ...

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