Former Winston-Salem Chronicle writer to be featured author at Greensboro Bound festival
Author Cheris Hodges with some of her books.
Award-winning romance author Cheris Hodges can credit getting her writing start in the Triad area as a former journalist with the Winston-Salem Chronicle. She cut her teeth covering police and courts in High Point. Now, she’s coming back as a featured author at the Greensboro Literary Festival this May.
Hodges will be a panelist on the Afternoon Delight panel at 2 p.m. on May 21.
Since her time at The Chronicle, Hodges has written 35 romance novels and novellas. Her latest book, “Open Your Heart,” is the third in her popular Richardson Sisters series, which Entertainment Weekly calls a “sexy romp.”
Hodges’s work has been featured in the New York Times and she has received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly for her novel “Rumor Has It.”
Hodges’s novels are mostly set in the South, particularly North and South Carolina. According to Hodges, “I write about the South because too many people don’t see the reality and romance of the area. So many people focus on the stereotype of the South, I feel like I have to fix that.”
About “Open Your Heart”
Their family’s historic bed-and-breakfast in Charleston, South Carolina, is a legacy the four very different Richardson sisters are determined to protect at all costs. But sudden passion is a seductive – and dangerous – complication. For fashion boutique owner Yolanda Richardson, coming home is a matter of life and death. Witness to a brutal crime, she’s terrified to put her family’s B&B in the crosshairs after she starts receiving death threats. Her only refuge is the protection of her reserved hired bodyguard, Charles Morris. But Charles is anything but safe. His icy cool-under-fire – and hidden intensity – is too explosive for Yolanda to resist.
Love always equals loss, Charles knows that hard equation all too well. Controlling his emotions keeps his clients from harm – and his heart safe. Yolanda’s beauty and headstrong spirit have him wanting her in all kinds of ways. But for her own protection, he has to do his best to keep her at arm’s length. Until unexpected danger and lethal misunderstandings put their survival – and any chance at a future together – on the knife-edge.
About the author:
Award-winning author Cheris Hodges was bitten by the writing bug at an early age and always knew she wanted to be a writer. She wrote her first romance novel, “Revelations,” after having a vivid dream about the characters. She hopped out of bed at 2 a.m. and started writing. A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University and a winner of the North Carolina Press Association’s community journalism award, Cheris currently serves as the editor of the Laurinburg Exchange in Laurinburg, North Carolina. She loves hearing from her readers. Follow Cheris on Twitter @cherishodges, friend her on Facebook at Cheris Hodges, or email her at cheris87@bellsouth.net.
About Greensboro Bound Literary Festival:
Each year in May thousands of book lovers, readers, writers, publishers, academics, scholars, adults, and children converge on downtown Greensboro for the annual Greensboro Bound Literary Festival. Greensboro Bound brought more than 175 authors to Greensboro in its first two years, with another 50+ that were slated to appear in May 2020 before the festival had to be canceled due to COVID-19. The Greensboro Bound Literary Festival was created in 2017 as a project of the 501(c)3 non-profit Greensboro Literary Organization. GB began as the creative brainchild of Steve Colyer and Scuppernong Books owners’ Brian Lampkin, Steve Mitchell, and Deb and Dave White. For more information on Greensboro Bound, visit https://greensborobound.com/.
