Pen Name:
None
Genres:
Historical Fiction: Adventure, Multiple Timeline
Contemporary YA Fiction: Multicultural, Mystery, Adventure
Website:
Social Media:
About.me/JodiLeaStewart
JodiLeaStewart.com/blog
Facebook: AuthorJodiLeaStewart
Facebook: Jodi.Lea.Stewart
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
Other Contact Information:
FriedOkra77@yahoo.com
Bio
Jodi Lea Stewart is a fiction author who loves to write books about triumph of the human spirit over adversity. Jodi’s writing reflects her life beginning in Texas, her relocation as a youngster to an Arizona cattle ranch next door to the Navajo and Apache Nations, and resuming as a young adult in her native Texas. On the ranch, she climbed petroglyph-etched boulders, bounced two feet in the air in the backend of pickups wrestling through washed-out terracotta roads, and rode horseback on the winds of her imagination through the arroyos and hills of the Arizona high country. Later, she left her University of Arizona studies to move to San Francisco where she learned about peace, love, and exactly what she didn’t want to do with her life. Jodi graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Business Management, raised three+ children, worked as an electro-mechanical drafter, penned humor columns for a college periodical, wrote regional Western articles, and served as managing editor of a Fortune 500 corporate newsletter. Her lifetime friendship with an eclectic mix of all races, grizzled cow punchers, country folks and intellectuals, as well as the southern gentry, inspires Jodi to write historical and contemporary novels set in the South, the Southwest, and beyond. She currently resides in Arizona with her husband, two Standard poodles, one rescue cat, and numerous large and bossy houseplants.
More from Jodi
My background is in journalism and communication. I have loved helping numerous people with writing projects, mostly anonymously, but one I’m especially proud of is Tommie Mabry’s A Dark Journey to a Light Future. I am listed as an editor in the second printing. Tommie has gone on to great success in his career of helping at-risk youth.
WHAT I’M WORKING ON: In 2023, my seventh novel, The Gold Rose, debuts. Secrets, tragedy, and survival frame the journeys of three strong protagonists. Originating in Texas, The Gold Rose—a secret agency—catapults the reader into Mexico, Argentina, China, Italy, and into the epicenter of intriguing human drama set against the backdrop of WWII, the Japanese invasion of China, and China’s terrifying civil war.
WHY I WRITE IN A PARTICULAR GENRE: Though my YA trilogy is contemporary and was delightfully fun to write, I have fallen in love with writing historical fiction set mostly in the 1930s–1950s. I have now penned four historical novels back-to-back with another in the works hopefully for 2024. In my opinion, historical fiction is both a tunnel by which to travel to and partake of as a tourist to a bygone era, as well as a mirror reflecting and educating us about simpler—albeit, more challenging—times that are, quite frankly, gone forever. Historical fiction holds a special place not only in literature, but also in the social-study annals of humanity itself. Is it any wonder I love writing it?
Books
Title: THE GOLD ROSE
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (February 21, 2023)
Genre: Historical Fiction
A secret agency, tragedy, and survival frame the journeys of three strong protagonists in The Gold Rose. Beginning in Texas, this story catapults the reader into Mexico, Argentina, China, Italy, and into the epicenter of an intriguing human drama set against the backdrop of WWII, the Japanese invasion of China, and China’s terrifying civil war.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Title: TRIUMPH, a Novel of the Human Spirit
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (2020)
Genre: Historical Fiction
- First-Place Winner, Historical Fiction, Multicultural – 2021 Firebird Book Awards
- Finalist, Historical Fiction – 2022 Writerwerx Novel Opening Contest
- Finalist, Historical Fiction, Other – 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
- Finalist, Literary Fiction – 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
- Finalist, Fiction Adventure/Drama – 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
TRIUMPH, a novel of the Human Spirit weaves together three vivid storylines featuring two friends of different races defying the odds of 1950s bigotry. A multi-generational saga that resonates throughout America’s history to illuminate some of the central questions of our time, dramatizing who we are, how we got here, and where the better angels of our nature impel us to go. The novel’s epic sweep sends you from the Louisiana Swamps to New Orleans, Texas, and St. Louis. It opens in 1903 as two children are ripped from their homes. One is abducted by a secretive Vodou sect; the other is presented to a former Texas Ranger as part of a life-changing plea for help. Their uncertain fates set in motion events that reverberate and astound decades later.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
Title: The Accidental Road
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (2022)
Genre: Historical Fiction
- First-Place Winner, Fiction Adventure/Drama – 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
- Top-Two Winner, Historical Fiction – 2022 Writerwerx Novel-Opening Contest
- Finalist, Fiction Cozy Mystery – 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
A teen and her mother escaping an abusive home life tumble into the epicenter of crime peddlers invading Arizona and Nevada in the 1950s. Stranded hundreds of miles from their planned destination of Las Vegas, they land in a dusty town full of ghosts and tales, treachery and corruption. Avoiding disaster is tricky, especially as it leads teenager Kat into a fevered quest for things as simple as home and trust. Danger lurks everywhere, leading Kat to wonder if she and her mother took The Accidental Road of life or if it’s the exact right road to all they ever hoped for.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
Title: Blackberry Road
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press (2022)
Genre: Historical Fiction; Multicultural
- First-Place Winner, Dante Rossetti YA Fiction, Multicultural – Chanticleer International Book Awards
- Five-Star Readers’ Favorite
Biddy Woodson, a sharecropper’s daughter, has learned how to sass and vinegar her way through life with eleven siblings in 1934 Oklahoma. Trouble sneaks in one afternoon like an oily twister when a beloved neighbor is murdered and a single piece of evidence sends the sheriff to arrest Mr. Leroy, a Black man Biddy knows is innocent. Though she vows to see Mr. Leroy freed, she’s up against more than she ever bargained for. Hauntingly terrifying sounds seeping from the woods lead her into deeper mysteries and despair and finally into the shocking truths of that fateful summer.
Available for Sale
(Available in print, eBook, and Audiobook)
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
Title: Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves — VALLEY OF SHADOWS (Book Three)
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press, 2022
Genre: YA Fiction, YA Multicultural Fiction, YA Adventure/Mystery
- Finalist, Young Adult Fiction, Multicultural, and Cover Design in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Contest
Bummed that yet another summer has passed too quickly, Silki Begay and her best friend Birdie head out for one last hurrah at the Navajo Nation Fair. When the fun is overshadowed by the theft of a famous horse, Silki is plunged into a mystery teeming with international undercurrents. In the meantime, Old Man Concho is coughing up secrets dating back to 1942, but what connection does he have to the Japanese summer tourists on the Rez? In a race against time, Silki must discover the ancient truths about the Valley of Shadows in time to save Lava, the leader of the Ghost Herd, as well as salvage her own broken heart.
Woven with Navajo language, tradition, and lore. Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: VALLEY OF SHADOWS is the final book in a trilogy of one teen’s adventures in the American Southwest.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
Title: Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves — CANYON OF DOOM (Book Two)
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press, 2022)
Genre: YA Fiction, YA Multicultural Fiction, YA Adventure/Mystery
- Finalist, Young Adult Fiction – 2022 Writerwerx Novel Opening Contest
- Top-Three Winner, Young Adult Fiction – 2022 Speak-Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award
Stealing money isn’t the aim of the Mesa Redondo bank robbers. They want the mysterious metal object Silki and her best friend Birdie discovered in the bogs of Canyon Daacha. With Birdie headed up to Kayenta for the rest of the summer, Silki navigates wide-eyed and solo through a whirl of thievery, scary characters, lost artifacts, and a shadowy stranger Silki dubs Amber Eyes. Against a backdrop of monsoon season floods and quicksand, Silki’s plight is complicated by the hateful slurs of a rebellious cousin her family must rescue before it’s too late. Soon, Silki finds herself in the middle of a plot that stretches all the way back to World War II and reaches right into the very soul of her own family.
Woven with Navajo language, tradition, and lore, Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: CANYON OF DOOM is the second book in a series of one teen’s adventures in the American Southwest.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
Title: Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves — SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT (Book One)
Publisher: Progressive Rising Phoenix Press, 2021
Genre: YA Fiction, YA Multicultural Fiction, YA Adventure/Mystery
- First-Place Winner, YA Fiction – 2022 Speak-Up Talk Radio Firebird Book Award
- First-Place Winner YA Fiction – 2022 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards
Silki Begay thought she’d made up Wol-la-chee, the Ancient Ant Man, on one of her horseback rides with her best friend Birdie. When Wol-la-chee shrieks into her life one summer day on Concho Mountain, Silki’s carefree life on the Navajo Rez takes a nose dive. With her family pushing her toward more respect for her heritage and Birdie accusing her of living in her imagination, Silki frets single-handed through ever more bizarre occurrences connected to the illusive Wol-la-chee. Before long, she and Birdie will be tested to their limits as they venture into dangerous secrets waiting for them on Concho Mountain.
Woven with Navajo language, tradition, and lore, Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT is the first book in a series of one teen’s adventures in the American Southwest.
Available for Sale
Website: JodiLeaStewart.com
Amazon
BAM! (Books-A-Million)
Barnes & Noble
