Books
Debut Novel “Midland Fair” Follows One Family Through a Century of American Upheaval
Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk
Edward Williams has published his debut novel, "Midland Fair," a work of historical fiction that opens in the fictional Reisenthal Valley, a hidden refuge where the Manrovii people have lived in isolation for a thousand years. The book follows what happens after a young man from that community leaves, a departure that sets off a chain of events reaching across generations.
The novel then shifts to the story of the Murphys, a family whose lives intersect with real moments in American history: the building of the Erie Canal, the settling of the Illinois frontier, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and the labor unrest at Pullman. According to the publisher, the book is built around the tension between the lives people inherit and the lives they choose to build for themselves.
Williams was born in New Jersey and studied at the University of Oklahoma, where, according to the announcement, his interest in literature and history developed. The publisher’s description notes that he drew on travels through the United States and Europe earlier in his life, and that he began writing the novel after retiring.
"This book represents my attempt to capture how individual choices ripple across generations and reshape entire families," Williams said in the announcement. "I wanted to explore the intersection of personal ambition and historical inevitability through characters whose struggles and triumphs feel entirely human."
"Midland Fair" is published through Fulton Books and is available at bookstores and through Apple iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Barnes and Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching whether a debut spanning this many eras and this large a cast of historical touchpoints holds together as a single narrative, or reads as several novels stitched into one.
Read more People’s Choice stories on Studio CarryOnHarry. Reporting via Live News Vault.
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Richard Blum has published "I Do Not Like Escargot," a rhyming picture book that began as a sixth-grade English assignment and, decades later, made it into print through Page Publishing.
The original assignment, according to Blum, asked students to write a book in the style of Dr. Seuss’s "Green Eggs and Ham" about something they didn’t like. Blum chose escargot, despite never having tried it, on the strength of a sixth grader’s confidence that he wouldn’t. The book, released in September 2025, keeps that premise intact and runs with it in verse and illustration.
Blum brought his artistic background to every page, having trained in art while maintaining employment elsewhere. He has roots in Arizona and Missouri, both of which he says shaped the voice in his writing. The finished book, aimed at young readers, follows a child’s insistence on disliking a food he’s never tasted — a setup borrowed directly from the Seuss book it imitates, where a character’s refusal to try green eggs and ham eventually gives way.
This one doesn’t flip the formula. Blum has said that when he finally tried escargot as an adult, he didn’t need to walk anything back. He’s described the experience in blunt terms, comparing the taste to eating rubber soaked in dirt, and says the title stands as written.
The book is listed for sale through major retail outlets including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play, as well as through Page Publishing directly.
Studio CarryOnHarry’s take: there’s something genuinely funny about an author spending twenty-some years validating a sixth grader’s snap judgment about snails, and that’s the hook here, not the publishing deal behind it.
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Meiyen Kennedy has released a new dystopian novel, "The Ledger," published through Hawes & Jenkins. The book centers on Bridgett Kingsley, a woman living under the rule of an omniscient algorithm called The Ledger, which monitors behavior, regulates emotion and predetermines choice across an entire surveillance state. A routine review of her record exposes a truth that sets the story’s conflict in motion.
The publisher notes that Bridgett’s solitary moment of resistance expands into a wider movement that reaches multiple regions as others begin pausing before obeying directives and choosing prayer over compliance. The publisher describes the novel as building toward a central question: whether a system built for total control can withstand the force of individual conscience, and whether real freedom is found in total allegiance to a higher authority rather than in autonomy itself.
Kennedy’s background is in property management and education, fields that put her in regular contact with institutional systems and the people who move through them. The announcement credits that experience with shaping the novel’s depiction of bureaucracy and constraint, grounding a speculative premise in something closer to observed behavior than invention.
"I wanted to write a story that honors the sovereignty of Christ while confronting the very real tensions between faith and the systems that surround us," Kennedy said in the announcement. "The Ledger is about discovering that true freedom begins where our loyalty to Jesus becomes unshakeable, regardless of what the world demands."
The novel joins a steady stream of faith-driven speculative fiction aimed at readers looking for genre storytelling built around explicitly Christian themes, a corner of publishing that has kept finding an audience even as mainstream dystopian fiction trends toward secular surveillance-state anxieties. "The Ledger" is available in bookstores and through Apple iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Barnes & Noble.
Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching whether Kennedy’s dual background as educator and property manager gives this entry in the genre a sharper eye for institutional detail than most faith-based dystopias manage.
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