Nov. 10, 2013, Greg Lacour

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/11/08/4449889/charlotte-journalist-writes-tale.html#.Un-jJJHk_40

By Greg Lacour

Correspondent

Posted: Friday, Nov. 08, 2013

Fiction

Saving Texas

Nancy Stancill

Black Rose Writing, 262 pages

Living in London in 2010, journalist Nancy Stancill decided it was time to devote herself to a project she’d mulled for more than 20 years: a novel about the provincial, slightly psychotic world of Texas politics.

“I thought, ‘You know, I’m just going to not work, have fun, travel, do ladies’ lunches and things like that,’” Stancill said recently in her Charlotte home. “And I did that for about six months … but I had this book on my mind, and I felt it was really something I had to do.”

The result is a thriller, “Saving Texas,” about a reporter for the fictional Houston Times who uncovers – and gets herself snared in – a web of Lone Star State intrigue involving a charismatic Texan separatist; a West Texas community college that’s doing more than granting degrees in HVAC technology; a charming state senator in cowboy boots; and a surprising amount of what one character refers to as “rumpy-pumpy.” (There’s nothing pornographic, just a lot of fades to black.)

Stancill, a former Observer reporter and editor, spent three years off and on writing “Saving Texas,” finishing a draft before she and her husband, retired Bank of America executive Len Norman, moved back to Charlotte in December. Black Rose Writing published the novel in October.

She’ll be reading from “Saving Texas” at 7 p.m. Monday at Park Road Books. “Saving Texas” is available through Black Rose Writing (www.blackrosewriting.com) and Amazon.com. She’s working out distribution agreements.

The novel is her first serious attempt at fiction. “My brain was always fried by journalism,” she said, explaining why she didn’t try sooner. “You hear that old adage, ‘When one door closes, another one opens.’ For sure, it was true for me.”

“Saving Texas” – the first book of a planned trilogy – has received some positive notices, mainly in Texas.

Stancill, 64, the daughter of a Virginia newspaper editor and publisher, framed the story within a subject she knows well: the newspaper industry.

The protagonist, Annie Price, laments the loss of experienced reporters to public relations jobs and has to convince her editors to spend the money to send her across the state on assignment.

Strong, hard-hitting, local investigative reporting is still what Stancill thinks newspapers can and should devote resources to. That’s one reason why she plans to donate the proceeds from the first 1,000 books sold to the Columbia, Mo.-based nonprofit Investigative Reporters and Editors, of which Stancill is a former board member.

“That’s a cause,” she said, “that will always be important to me.”

This article is part of the Charlotte Arts Journalism Alliance.

Nov. 11, 2013, Staff report

Suffolk (Va) News Herald

Stancill pens first book

 

Suffolk News-HeraldStancill pens first book

Published 9:41pm Monday, November 11, 2013

Nancy Stancill, a daughter of former News-Herald editor and publisher Godfrey Stancill, has pledged royalties from her debut novel to a journalism fellowship created in his memory.

Nancy Stancill’s first book, “Saving Texas,” published by Black Rose Writing of Texas, was released in October. Royalties from the first thousand copies sold will go to the Godfrey Wells Stancill Fellowship, a fund administered by Investigative Reporters and Editors.

The author and her family, including her mother, Phyllis Harrill Pruden of Suffolk, set up the fellowship to honor Stancill, a longtime News-Herald publisher who died in 1995.

Nancy Stancill, a writer and journalist who worked for more than 30 years for the Houston Chronicle and Charlotte Observer, lives in Charlotte, N.C. She wrote the novel during 2010-12 while living in London with her husband, who recently retired from Bank of America.

The novel, based in part on her experiences as an investigative reporter in Texas, centers on Annie Price, a reporter who profiles a modern-day secessionist candidate for governor. She grapples with two murders, political intrigue and a love triangle. The journalist pushes to get the truth before her enemies get her or her struggling newspaper takes her off the story.

“I was looking for a way to contribute more to my dad’s fellowship, and I thought about the book I was writing,” Stancill said. “It is an homage to investigative reporting, so contributing to IRE makes perfect sense.”

The Godfrey Wells Stancill Fellowship has paid the expenses for six journalists from small newspapers to go to IRE’s annual conference to learn specialized skills in investigative reporting.

“My dad went off to World War II and never got to finish his degree at the University of North Carolina,” Nancy Stancill said. “Despite that, he taught himself to do everything in the newspaper business, including writing award-winning editorials. He was a great role model.”

Phyllis Pruden, her mother, taught in Suffolk schools for more than two decades before she retired. Nancy Stancill’s stepfather, the late Peter Pruden Jr. of Suffolk, also contributed to the Stancill fellowship.

Nancy Stancill grew up in Radford, where her father was editor and publisher of the Radford News Journal. After her family moved to Suffolk, she worked for the News-Herald for several summers as a college student. Her four siblings live in Virginia and North Carolina.

“Saving Texas” is available in print and electronic versions from Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, blackrosewriting.com and other online sources.