Feisty Deeds: We're back, and we have pie!
Dec 11, 2025 4:01 pm
Welcome back, !
The anthology committee has been working hard through all of 2025 to produce our next anthology of short stories about women who confront life's challenges in ways that are bold, uplifting, and risky.
We are pleased to announce.....
Feisty Deeds II: Historical Fictions of Batches & Brews
Release date: December 12th, 2025
Kindle, paperback, Kobo, Nook & Apple Books
As a special treat for being on this newsletter...
- Special behind-the-scenes glimpses of each story
- Bonus historical tidbits and context
- An introduction to each of the 25 authors, including their other work
- Opportunities to win books from your latest favorite historical fiction authors!
We will be sending you several newsletters in December to celebrate our launch and introduce our authors. After that, expect to meet one or two new authors (and get special offers and story bonuses) each month.
This time, many of our contributors are multi-published authors...so when you find your next favorite read, you can dive right into more of their books! Enjoy... and without further ado, here is:
Kimberly Nixon: Promises & Pie Crusts
When I heard about the opportunity to submit a short story for a women’s fiction anthology, I knew immediately what my story would be. My mother’s best friend served as my surrogate grandmother. Though I knew my paternal grandmother, I didn’t see her often. My maternal grandmother was estranged from my mother when she left her children to commit a felony in 1925 Appalachia
My mother’s friend, Lila—widowed and childless—came to our house for special occasions and ordinary days. Whenever she came, she brought a pie or two. We liked the traditional ones—cherry and apple—as well as the ones she seemed to concoct—pineapple, rhubarb and strawberry, vinegar pie, buttermilk and green tomato pie. It was her gift to us.
She and my mother would sit at the kitchen table long after our meal was over. They’d drink coffee, talk, and laugh until my mother deemed it time “to serve the pie.” Lila’s rule was that whoever cut the pie had to take the last piece, so care was given to slice the pieces evenly.
My hometown in Northwest Ohio was the crossroads for much gang activity during Prohibition. A prominent family ran alcohol from Chicago, and a rivaling gang brought in liquor from the Detroit area (obtained from Canada via Lake Erie). When Lila passed, my mother told me that Lila’s husband was the doorman at a speakeasy for one of the gangs and that Lila handled their banking. My short story is a fictional rendering of these three elements: small-town life, a pie shop during the Depression, and the gang activity during Prohibition. My upcoming novel, Cutie Pies by the Slice, examines how a single woman is drawn into this illegal activity while trying to survive the Depression.
To celebrate the launch of Feisty Deeds II: Historical Tales of Batches and Brews on December 12, I would like to give one copy of the ebook Rock Bottom, Tennessee to a new newsletter subscriber chosen from all entries at:
I pick a winner the old-fashioned way: my granddaughter will pull a name out of a hat. Winner will be notified on December 22, 2025.
My debut novel is based on my grandmother’s life:
