My story in The Hungur Chronicles isn’t quite as scary as the cover, but it’s scary enough.
https://www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/hungur-chronicles-samhain-2025-1
“Heaven’s Retreat”
“Kai Lee,” Short story in the May issue of The Write Launch
https://thewritelaunch.com/2025/05/kai-lee/
Kai Lee is sixteen. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she arrives at nine o’clock for her job at the Read On Paper Bookstore. The morning mall walkers pass her, usually on their last loop or two. Sometimes they’ve finished and are heading into the food court. Wherever they are, they say, “Good morning, Kai,” in cheerful unison.
Another story, “Soldier’s Home” in The Fictional Cafe
A reminder of other times that were fraught with unrest.
NOW AVAILABLE
Connie Lewis traveled from her home in Freedom, Massachusetts, to Florida with her aging mother and then to Ashland, Oregon, where she found success as a writer and a place to call home. Now, in the sequel Finding Freedom, Connie is eighty years old and has exchanged the Volkswagen she called The Yellow Sub for a Honda Fit she’s nicknamed Last Chance. She’s ready for a last adventure and will use a drive across the United States to write a travel narrative she’ll call Travels with Connie. From gospel singers in the little town of Fossil, Oregon, to a famous painter in Glacier National Park, to turtle races in Perhem, Minnesota, to a twelve-year-old grandniece who teaches her about the lives of modern tweens, she finds more material for her book than she expected. Both going and coming back, she solved mysteries that help her to understand how the world changes even as it remains the same. Will she complete her journey in Massachusetts where she was born, the Oregon she has learned to call home, or somewhere she hasn’t expected?
Praise for Leaving Freedom and Finding Freedom
Leaving Freedom
. . . a painfully honest depiction of family relationships, particularly between sisters and also between aging parents and their adult children. Many readers will recognize parts of themselves in this thoughtful novel’s characters and, in doing so, may well find that they have discovered their own unexpected freedom.
Judith Stanford, editor Responding to Literature
Connie Lewis is a novelist, and as she journeys to Florida and Oregon fleshing out her literary work, she pulls the reader along and engages us in an engrossing and always interesting panorama of character and setting. As is true of all her novels, author Dean excels at creating rich plots with echoes of the past that intrude upon the present.
Clive Rosengren, author of the Eddie Collins PI series
Leaving Freedom “not only throws a spotlight on America in rapidly changing times, but also onthe eternal quest to understand family, self and “home.” Intimations of the style of Joyce Carol
Oates.”
Carol Beers, author of the Pepper Kane mystery series
While her sister Sarah travels to Europe using the insurance settlement of her dead husband, Connie moves with her mother from Freedom, MA to Florida. . . . When an old family mystery pops up, Connie decides to find out what happened. In the process, she learns a lot about herself and finds her inner freedom far away from Freedom in Oregon. Connie’s journey makes for a compelling read, which is only augmented by the wonderful complement of supporting characters.
Michael Niemann, author of the Valentine Vermeulen thrillers
Sharon Dean’s fourth novel is really about family. Links between parent and (grown) child, siblings, even ghosts and their descendants, mixed with bittersweet memories of Connie’s New England childhood, infuse every line of the book. Though all our clans are different, readers will immediately recognize the dynamics in Leaving Freedom.
Alan Thompson, author of The Peninsula
Finding Freedom
Sharon Dean veers off from her mystery novels to give a wonderful odyssey of a woman returning to events and places in her past. As is the case with her mystery novels, she gives the reader distinctive pictures of the characters she encounters on her journey. A fascinating read. Not to be missed.
Clive Rosengren, Shamus Award nominee for the Eddie Collins mysteries
An established writer [Connie Lewis] is drawn to one last road trip. As on her journey west [in Leaving Freedom,] she meets a delightful array of engaging characters. The mystery surrounding one of them follows Connie for much of the trip. The story pulls the reader along with fine writing and nicely detailed scenes of those encounters. An engaging book. Don’t miss it.
Michael Niemann, Killer Nashville Silver Falchion award winner
Sharon Dean books lay open landscapes and hearts with the skill and economy of a surgeon. In this sweeping road trip-book about an aged modern writer’s reverse Oregon Trail-journey to her New England home, we meet the quirky settings and sketchy characters–never what they appear–that represent America’s heritage and the heroine’s dwindling future. . . . Dean’s writing is dense with detail but conveyed briskly. . . . It informs and ultimately entertains, revealing how one faces life’s coda with grace.
Carole T. Beers, Will Rogers Medallion Award winner
“Finding Freedom,” Sharon Dean’s latest literary gift to us all, offers elegiac notes that somehow spark joy on every page. The title should be borne clearly in mind as the reader follows Connie through her various journeys, physical, emotional and spiritual. Connie is a marvelous protagonist who lives fully in the present, yet does not ignore the importance of the past and, especially, the roots that nurture us along our own travels. She is a bold hero, especially so for having been born in mid-20th century: a woman who deeply values family, relates to people from all backgrounds and of all ages, treasures memories of her two long-time lovers, and yet has decided (and does not regret) not to marry or to give birth to children. She fully embraces the literary career she has built and enjoys the worlds it has opened for her – as well as the worlds she has opened for others. A thoughtful and meaningful read for all.
Judith Stanford, editor Responding to Literature
sharonldean.com 