Janna McMahan Columbia resident Wilmot B. Irwin, self– described lawyer by day and novelist by night, has just released a new novel published by Red Letter

Press entitled Merriman’s

Second Chance. This is Irwin’s first about lawyers, judges, and the art of lawyering. His protagonist, John Merrima, is a crusty old trial lawyer who makes a career of skating across the ethical boundaries drawn by his profession.

His nemesis, the self righteous county solicitor Malcolm T. Prescott, makes life difficult for Merriman until the tables are turned, and Prescott finds himself in the seat of the accused.

Merriman’s plain speaking wife, May, and their omniscient terrior, Leland, tough cop Detective Lieutenant Michael O’Shea Barrow, and unexpected health problems all play a role in Merriman’s redemption, but the serendipitous second chance to become a good and honest lawyer is the key to the transformation that takes place in Merriman’s life.

Irwin will sign copies of Merriman’s Second Chance Tuesday, November 10 at The Happy Café, 4525 Forest Drive, from 5–7 pm.
“Decorations”
(novella in
Snow Angels)
Contributed by Janna McMahan

Janna McMahan will celebrate the national release of her third work of fiction at a reading and signing at Ed’s Editions in West Columbia November 21. This will be McMahan’s only event for her novella, “Decorations,” part of the

holiday collection Snow

Angels from Kensington Books. McMahan will read at 1:30 and sign afterward.

McMahan’s novels, Calling

Home and her 2009 South

Carolina novel, The Ocean

Inside, will also be available for sale. Readers are encouraged to bring all their books to be signed.

For more information visit www.JannaMcMahan. com.

My Father's World: Parables from the Red Star Grocery

Marah Wanda Rutland will be talking about

My Father’s World: Parables

from the Red Star Grocery at the Book Dispensary at Boozer Shopping Center Nov. 21, 5 pm. She recounts growing up in one of the poorest interracial neighborhoods in Columbia, where her father and mother ran a small community store, before and during the Civil Rights years. This event will be followed by a book–signing with Rutland and her father December 5, 2009, from 11 am–3 pm.