Jimmy Buffett (1946-2023)
Along with many of you, I'm mourning the death of Jimmy Buffett. As a card-carrying Parrot Head, I've been playing his music constantly...
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Blog & News for Award Winning Author John Warley
Aug 8, 2023
Legal Thriller Best Sellers: The Ingredients
Most books fall into a particular literary genre, and Jury of One is no exception. It was an easy call to designate it as a “legal...
May 10, 2023
What do readers think?
Seeking your Thoughts on Jury of One and Discussion
Apr 6, 2023
"Jury of One" Publication Day
Publication Days never get old because, unlike Christmas, they don’t show up once a year, at least for me. More like Leap Years. But I’m...
Feb 6, 2023
Authentic Setting
The move from Virginia to Beaufort, discussed in my last blog, brought many changes. Almost all were positive. One change I never...
Feb 6, 2023
Beaufort People
In my previous blog, I discussed a relocation from Virginia to South Carolina in 2005. The reasons for the move seemed fully justified by...
Feb 6, 2023
The beginning of "Jury of One"
An essential element of the plot of Jury of One is Judge Dan Borders’s innovative and controversial proposal to allow convicted felons,...
Mar 3, 2019
Publication Day
Publication Day!! A rare event in any writer’s life, as all of us--no matter how prolific-- have only a finite number of books in us. The...
Feb 16, 2019
”Free at last, free at last . . .”
On Three Pines, the cotton plantation adjoining the hunting lodge which becomes Carter’s and Missma’s retreat, a family of slaves must...
Feb 9, 2019
A Child of War
Carter Barnwell, the protagonist in The Home Guard, is twelve years old when his world is turned on its head on November 7, 1861. As the...
Feb 3, 2019
It's All About the Blurb
I’m so pleased with the blurbs that will accompany the publication of The Home Guard on March 4, 2019. Here is one from the incomparable...
Jan 23, 2019
A Hobson’s Choice, or not.
As discussed in the previous blog, The Home Guard opens when Carter Barnwell and his grandmother “Missma” escape to the family hunting...
Jan 17, 2019
A Nod to the Elderly
A central character in The Home Guard is Martha “Missma” Gibbes Barnwell, Carter Barnwell’s eighty year old grandmother. It is, after...
Jan 8, 2019
Channeling Faulkner
William Faulkner famously said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We in the South may have a greater appreciation for that...
Jan 3, 2019
Plotting the Plot
In my prior blog, I wrote about inspiration. Today, the subject is plot. The Home Guard, a Novel of the Civil War, is a coming-of-age...
Dec 27, 2018
The Journey Begins
First, a writer must be inspired. Publication of The Home Guard, a Novel of the Civil War, marks the end of a nine year effort to...
Feb 24, 2018
My College Wasn't Like Your College
Unless you attended The Citadel, VMI, or one of the service academies, your college experience was radically different. To learn what...
Jul 14, 2017
The Pulpwood Queens
Every writer has milestones by which they measure success. Certainly, that first “yes” from an agent or publisher is one. Holding your...
May 10, 2017
The Citadel's Class of 1967
On Friday, October 27, 2017, The Citadel's Class of 1967, my class, will gather in Charleston for our fiftieth reunion. As our legacy...
Feb 21, 2017
Parting the Seas
The photo was taken by my daughter, MaryBeth Warley Lockwood, at Point Loma in San Diego on a recent visit. My hands are raised. Is that...
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