Praise for Slack Tide
“Part My Dog Skip and part Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Slack Tide is a beautifully crafted literary mystery for anyone who has loved and lost and found the healing power of hope along the way.”
Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy
“Ritter’s lyrical writing drew me in immediately. Her atmospheric Lowcountry setting and deeply drawn cast of Southern characters kept me turning the pages.”
Rachel Bukey, author of the Ann Dexter Mysteries.
“Nancy Ritter’s debut novel is anything but slack. It’s a tightly written story that I finished in a single sitting, well before another high tide in our beloved Lowcountry.”
Lynn Seldon, author of Carolina’s Ring
About the Author
Nancy Ritter has been writing her entire life, including long letters to her English professor grandfather and notes passed surreptitiously to her best friend in junior high. In her professional career, she worked as a paralegal, a reporter, and an editor. She has received numerous awards for her writing, culminating in a Service to America Medal for her work at the U.S. Department of Justice on the nation’s missing persons crisis, where she first learned about “ambiguous loss,” an issue she explores in Slack Tide.
Born in New Mexico, Nancy grew up in Minnesota, receiving her B.S. in English Education from the University of Minnesota. When she realized she didn’t possess the temperament to survive classroom teaching or Minnesota winters, she moved to Seattle, where she worked as a paralegal. Other jobs took her across the country to New Jersey, then down to Washington, D.C., before she followed the siren call of the South and landed in Beaufort, South Carolina. A vocal advocate of community service, Nancy has tutored and mentored kids, worked with elderly folks in nursing homes, and, most recently, served on a citizen task force investigating issues of racial equity and civic rights justice. She volunteers with the Pat Conroy Literary Center, a nonprofit organization that nurtures a diverse community of readers and writers. An avid reader and lapsed musician, Nancy spends as much time as possible exploring Hunting Island and other South Carolina treasures with her [fifth] rescue dog, Otis.
About the Artist
Beth Tockey Williams — whose work graces the cover of this novel — is a Beaufort, SC oil painter and pastelist whose work focuses on the diverse sea island landscapes that surround her home studio. Beth achieved her Master Circle Status with the International Association of Pastel Societies in 2021. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Pastel Journal. You can find her work at Charleston Artist Collective, or her studio at Atelier on Bay in downtown Beaufort.
Learn more at Beth’s website:
bethwilliamspastels.squarespace.com
