Archives

All items by date; lists by subject are below

2021

• Carolina Alumni Review publishes note about ‘Tall’
  The May-June 2021 edition of the Carolina Alumni Review – the one with Roy Williams on the cover – included this item on “Tall” in its Books section.
• Landis Wade podcast about ‘Tall’
  May 7, 2021 The conversation below with Charlotte podcaster Landis Wade at charlottereaderspodcast.com was recorded in February and released today. I read from “Tall” and we talked about the book.   Landis describes ...
• 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 at the nursing home by 1:15 p.m. In Jaye’s room, an attendant tells us gently: She ...
• Happy (Bookers) Hour
  Feb. 20, 2021 Nancy talked about “Tall” during a Zoom meeting of the Happy Bookers book club. The Feb. 18 meeting included a lengthy Q&A session.
• Why I wrote a memoir before another novel
  Feb. 7, 2021 I’ve written two novels about Annie Price, investigative reporter, and intend to write a third – someday. Readers ask me: Why take the time and energy to write ...
• Building a legacy
  Jan. 28, 2021 I walked into the Charlotte Observer building for the first time in the spring of 1993. An editor had asked me to apply for an investigative reporting job ...
• ‘I really wanted to leave a legacy’
  Jan. 5, 2021 Suffolk (Va.) News-Herald writer Rachel Wartian wrote about “Tall” and the stories Nancy Stancill tells about her parents, who were longtime residents of Suffolk. The online article is ...
• Daily Tar Heel reports on memoir by one of the newspaper’s alumnae
  Jan. 3, 2021 Lily Chubb at the Daily Tar Heel at UNC Chapel Hill published an article about DTH alumna Nancy Stancill’s memoir, Tall. Read the news article online here. A PDF ...

2020

• Comments from readers of ‘Tall’
  Dec. 29, 2020 Here are excerpts from some of the recent signed reviews from “Tall” readers, as posted on Amazon. “Whether you’re a six-footer or you top off at five feet, the ...
• Take a moment to review ‘Tall’
  Dec. 13, 2020 I really appreciate those of you who have bought and read “Tall: Love and Journalism in a Six-foot World.” I have been so pleased and humbled by the ...
• Blogger tracks memoirists’ work
  Nov. 3, 2020 Happy Election Day! Storied Charlotte is a blog run by Mark West, professor of Engish and former chair of the UNCC Department of English. Here’s what he wrote ...
• How to pre-order ‘Tall’
  Aug. 21, 2020 Hi friends. For those who asked about pre-ordering “Tall”, it’s now available from my publisher at a discount. Details below. Shameless plug: It’s not only about the angst of ...
• Coming Nov. 25: ‘Tall’
  Aug. 5, 2020 Here’s the cover to Nancy Stancill’s upcoming reflections on her life as a tall woman, and on the lives of other women who, though tall, were nevertheless shaped ...

2019

• With The Opiners, about Saving Texas
  April 10, 2019 Nancy talked about her first novel, Saving Texas, with Opining Women, a long-standing book club in Charlotte. The club encourages all of its members to express opinions about ...

2017

• The world’s best job
  Oct. 7, 2017 I never chose my job. Journalism found me. My father was successively the editor and publisher of two small Virginia newspapers owned by a chain. The first was located ...
• Beyond ‘It was a dark and stormy night….’
  Sept. 27, 2017 I really enjoyed talking about Saving Texas and Winning Texas to gracious and literate members of the Carolina Women’s Club at TPC Piper Glen. I found it interesting that ...
• Visiting Suffolk, Va. book club
  April 18, 2017 Nancy Stancill was back at the Tuesday Afternoon Book Club in Suffolk, Va. to discuss books, and writing, and new projects.

2016

• Secession was just a plot line, until…
  Aug. 13, 2016 This article was published Aug. 12 as an op-ed in the News & Observer under the headline “Texit? In US today, a surprising amount of secessionist sentiment.” It ...
• A second novel that’s ‘wide open for a sequel’
  July 31, 2016 Deirdre Parker Smith, reviewing “Winning Texas” in the Salisbury Post, writes about subplots, multiple love interests, and the ghastly threads of a tale that get short shrift, “probably ...
• Reviewer issues N.C. challenge for Book 3
  July 31, 2016 Linda Carter Brinson, reviewing “Winning Texas” in the Greensboro News & Record, praises new “maturity” in the writer’s work, with dialogue that is “more believable.”  Read the review ...
• Stancill writes about her focus on Houston in Winning Texas
  June 21, 2016 Nancy Stancill writes in the Houston Chronicle about the advice that helped her focus in Winning Texas on a city that “is still an exotic mystery to many ...
• Kirkus reviews Winning Texas
  June 15, 2016 Kirkus Reviews finds a “fascinating storyline” in Winning Texas – the blow-by-blow at “a slowly dying newspaper,” Read the review here. Cached here.
• Virginian-Pilot reviews Winning Texas
  June 13, 2016 James Thomas reviewed Winning Texas for the Virginian-Pilot, remarking that the book has enough “murder, suspense and enough bizarre politics that in light of today’s political climate might ...
• N&O reviews Winning Texas, a ‘fast-paced thriller’
  June 4, 2016 Mary Cornatzer reviewed Winning Texas for the News & Observer. Read the review here (cached here.)
• Old KGB agent knows what’s best for Texas?
  June 1, 2016 I had no idea that Vladimir Putin had an opinion on Texas secession until I saw this editorial comment in Sunday’s London Times. Could I somehow get a ...
• Reading and Q&A at Park Road Books Charlotte
  May 25, 2016 Nancy Stancill’s friends packed the back of Park Road Books tonight to hear the author read from her new suspense thriller, Winning Texas. There was a gray hair or ...
• Virginia novelist Matthew Paust reviews Winning Texas
  May 25, 2016 Matthew Paust, the Hampton Roads, Va., novelist and “intranational man of irony,” reviewed Winning Texas in his “Crime Time” blog. His blog is here, cached here.
• Dannye Romine Powell writes about Winning Texas
  May 20, 2016 The Charlotte Observer’s Dannye Romine Powell wrote about Winning Texas today in her “Reading Matters” column. The piece is here (cached here).
• Winning Texas available at Kindle store
  May 10, 2016 The Kindle version of Winning Texas is available for pre-order at Amazon, with delivery May 19. Soon, it will be on Smashwords and Nook and over the next ...
• Winning Texas is published
  May 5, 2016 “Sex traffickers and guns-for-hire meet in a nefarious plot to see Texas secede and America shaken to its core. Witty, gritty and filled with brilliantly realized characters, this ...
• You write alone, but it’s grand not to feel alone
  May 5, 2016 Writing my first book was a lonely struggle, but I got lucky the second time around. I started writing Winning Texas, my second suspense novel, as I entered the University ...
• Good news, readers!
  May 4, 2016

2014

• Q&A with Saving Texas author in Daily Tar Heel
  Oct. 7, 2014 Sindhu Chidambaram publishes a Q&A with the author of Saving Texas in The Daily Tar Heel here. Cached here.  
• Josh Whitener reviews Saving Texas for Charlotte Weekly
  Sept. 5, 2014 Josh Whitener reviewed Saving Texas for The Charlotte Weekly here. Cached here.    
• Linda C. Brinson reviews Saving Texas for Greensboro News & Record
  Aug. 19, 2014 Linda C. Brinson writes a review and conducts an interview with the author of Saving Texas for the Greensboro News & Record. Cached here.      
• Deirdre Parker Smith reviews Saving Texas for Salisbury Post
  Aug. 10, 2014 Deirdre Parker Smith reviews Saving Texas for the Salisbury Post here. Cached here.            
• Gie it laldy, D.G.
  June 27, 2014 What a nice review of Saving Texas from D.G. Martin, longtime North Carolinian, book reviewer and guest columnist for the Herald-Sun in Durham. Texas may be nearly nine ...
• D.G. Martin writes about Saving Texas in the Durham Herald-Sun
  June 24, 2014 D.G. Martin writes about Saving Texas in the Herald-Sun here. Cached here.            
• Scribble scribble
  June 2, 2014 Nancy’s blog is on hiatus for the summer.
• Happy Memorial Day!
  May 26, 2014 Nancy’s blog is on break for Memorial Day.
• When ‘Cut back on the detail’ is the wrong advice
  May 19, 2014 In a New York Times piece published last week, writer Pamela Erens gleefully recounted cutting stray words, sentences and even bigger chunks out of her novels. In a ...
• Writing deadlines: Don’t they ever get easier”
  May 12, 2014 I woke up today with a familiar feeling of dread. My last and most difficult deadline of the spring looms in three days. I’ll have to hand over ...
• The call of the novel can’t compete with May
  May 5, 2015 I got up Sunday thinking that I’d work on my novel before our niece’s late afternoon wedding. But we were in a nice hotel in downtown Orlando and ...
• Another perspective on the book club
  April 28, 2014 I read with interest a column in the Huffington Post about a self-confessed book club dropout. She’d helped form or joined at least three book clubs, but either ...
• Don’t come to fiction looking for soulmates
  April 21, 2014 One of the most startling and original novels I’ve read recently is Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs. Its protagonist, Nora Eldridge, a middle-aged, unmarried teacher, is deeply angry ...
• Easter break
  April 14, 2014 Nancy’s blog is on Easter break. It will return April 21.
• The marketing pitch obscures a few details
  April 7, 2014 I went to the San Antonio Book Festival over the weekend to sign books at the booth of my publisher, Black Rose Writing. There were lots of reasons ...
• The ‘big story’ lasts longer than the adrenaline rush
  March 31, 2014 Last week, a big story dropped into the laps of Charlotte journalists when Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested on corruption charges. It was the best kind of big ...
• Love of reading may take a child down a new path
  March 24, 2014 Growing up, I looked forward to having children who would share my love of reading. I pictured myself reading Little Women to three rapt little girls, perhaps wearing ...
• What makes a villain we love to hate?
  March 17, 2014 I just finished a classic mystery novel that got me thinking about villains we love to hate.  The novel, In a Lonely Place, written in 1947 by Dorothy ...
• ‘Guide to Gardening’ is that and much more
  March 10, 2014 Carol Wall, a wonderful childhood friend of mine, has written an extraordinary memoir called Mr. Owita’s Guide to Gardening. When it was released last week by Amy Einhorn ...
• A wonderful but weighty thing named Goldfinch
  March 3, 2014 I’m reading The Goldfinch, the 771-page behemoth by Donna Tartt, and enjoying it immensely. Reading a great novel makes me think about why I read and what it ...
• Got a problem with a little humanity?
  Feb. 24, 2014 Is the female protagonist of my crime novel a slut? Did I err by creating for her a messy personal life? I took these questions to a group ...
• What was that blinding whiteness?
  Feb. 17, 2014 I was thrilled when it snowed last week – until the second day. That’s when I discovered that I really didn’t know what to do with a snow ...
• Gary Presley reviews Saving Texas for Foreward Reviews
  Feb. 11, 2014 Gary Presley reviewed Saving Texas for Foreword Reviews here. Cached here.              
• Looking for the satisfaction of having written
  Feb. 11, 2014 I’ve always considered myself a reluctant writer. As a young reporter, I could always put off writing my story by having a cigarette – or two or three. ...

2013

• Greg Lacour reviews Saving Texas for Charlotte Observer
  Nov. 13, 2013 Veteran Charlotte Observer staff writer Greg Lacour reviewed Saving Texas here. Cached here.
• Park Road Books signing, reading & Q&A
  Nov. 11, 2013 Below are videos of author Nancy Stancill reading from Saving Texas, being introduced by poet and longtime Charlotte Observer book editor Dannye Romine Powell, and then answering questions ...
• Suffolk (Va.) News Herald writes about Saving Texas
  Nov. 11, 2013 The Suffolk (Va.) News Herald wrote about Saving Texas here. Cached here.                      
• Claudia Feldman reviews Saving Texas in Houston Chronicle
  Nov. 10, 2013 Claudia Feldman reviewed Saving Texas in the Houston Chronicle here. Cached here.                
• Initial royalties pledged to reporter training
  Nov. 1, 2013 Author Nancy Stancill shared this note with her Facebook friends this afternoon: “I’m excited to let you know that I’m pledging royalties from Saving Texas to an organization dear ...
• Author signs books at Brazos in Houston
  Oct. 21, 2013 As part of a road tour of Texas this month, Nancy Stancill stopped at Brazos Bookstore in Houston to greet friends and sign copies of “Saving Texas.” Mary Moody, ...
• Saving Texas is published
  Oct. 20, 2013 “Annie Price is a reporter stuck in a dead-end job at a dying Houston newspaper. When she decides to profile an ambitious West Texas politician, it’s as much ...
• Wilton Barnhardt at Bibliofeast 2013
  Oct. 14, 2013 Nancy Stancill sits with Lookaway, Lookaway author Wilton Barnhardt, one of the featured authors at Monday’s 4th Annual Bibliofeast Book & Author Dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy in ...
• Interview on Write On! Radio
  Oct. 13, 2013 Ian Graham Leask, Amy Fladeboe and Steve McEllistrem interview Nancy Stancill about Saving Texas, investigative journalism and on the transition Stancill had to make from writing journalism to ...
• Daniel Wetta reviews Saving Texas
  Oct. 3, 2013 Daniel Wetty reviewed Saving Texas here. Cache here.