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By Tanya Carter

Shelf Life

Work in Progress

A brutal attack on a local organic grocery store owner in the fictional town of Edison, Pennsylvania, sends shockwaves through the community and tests the bonds that hold the town together. Long-held secrets are exposed, testing the character of many of the town’s residents, including the new Chief of Police, Jake Keenan; Lucas Harmon, a veteran who has moved back home to find some elusive peace; Jackson Wagner, a neurodivergent teenager; and Piper Jones, a young woman who is trying to keep her family organic farm alive while shelving her dream of a career in music. Through shifting points of view, the novel presents a town in flux that nevertheless defends its essential humanity against the mayhem that threatens it.

Literary Suspense Novelist

Tanya Carter

Tanya Carter grew up in Cobourg, Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. She now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her family. Her day job is Director of Children & Youth at an urban church on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Tanya earned graduate degrees in Library Science, Business Administration, and Communication before embarking on the MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins. For fun, she enjoys playing the ukulele and singing alto while her daughter sings soprano. Occasionally she knits socks. She is a member of the Sisters in Crime professional association and writes suspense. Shelf Life is her first novel.

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“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”

Annie Proulx

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Coming Soon!

Upcoming Project

Half Life

Suspense

It is fall in Edison, the season when the leaf peepers come to town and the Scout troops are hiking in the woods. Police Chief Jake Keenan is called to a grisly scene–an unidentified vagrant with his chest cavity torn open has been left in a shallow grave. Who is he, and who is leaving mutilated bodies in the Westmoreland Country countryside?

Upcoming Project

Octagon

Suspense

Throw a savvy young CPA at a biker gang, and what do you get?

Janet Kent thinks her life is going pretty well. She has a job at a boutique financial services firm and has bought a house close enough that she can bike to work, saving money and getting a workout at the same time. But one night, her attempt to keep her younger brother out of trouble backfires and lands her in an abandoned house near Edison, PA with Thomas Lane, a member of a notorious biker gang. Janet has to keep her wits about her to stay one step ahead of some truly scary dudes in this modern-day retelling of the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin.

My Writing Blog

Musings

What I’m Reading

Over the past month I have been reading my way through the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves. Last year, I discovered her Shetland series and read those while finishing up my MA in Writing. I am delighted to be reading the Vera series because the books have the same...

Daylight Savings Time, 2023 edition

I struggle with Daylight Savings time changes here in Pennsylvania. I only appreciate it on the very morning it switches in the fall, when I am graced with an extra hour. This morning, I have some extra time to work towards my November word count goal for NaNoWriMo...

Sisters in Crime

Sisters in Crime is a professional association intended to advance the careers of women writing mysteries and crime fiction. I joined SIsters in Crime about a year ago, and I am a big fan. The national association holds write-ins on Zoom every Tuesday and Friday, a...

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author@tanyacarterauthor.com