Ashley Elston is the author of the con artist thriller, First Lies Wins (Pamela Dorman Books).

This week the novel – A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick – sits at #11 on the New York Times Bestseller list, its 13th week on the list.

Partial (no spoilers) plot: Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden and a fancy group of friends.

The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

“… a cat & mouse game that kept me guessing the whole way through.”—Reese Witherspoon

The con in First Lie Wins takes in politics, oil tycoons and corruption in SEC football (Say it ain’t so!) with scenes set in Oxford.

Elston has written six young adult novels; First Lie Wins is her first for adults. She lives in Louisiana.

Talibah Safiya is a soulful singer-songwriter from Memphis TN. Her latest release, Black Magic, is out now!

The seven song EP presents soulful updates of blues classics from the likes of Jessie Mae Hemphill and Junior Kimbrough from Highwater Records.

The title cut is Talibah’s funky take on an R.L. Burnside song: Black Magic.

Talibah is currently an artist in residence at the University of Memphis’s School of Music Business.

She is also a curator and wellness activist through her social enterprise venture, Mama’s Sundry with her husband Bertram Williams Jr.

Clay Parker and Jodi James are a roots/Americana/acoustic duo originally from the Baton Rouge, LA area.

Their latest album is, Your Very Own Dream. Their previous releases include, The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound (2018) and their self-titled debut EP (2016).

From their website: “The concoction is equal parts plaintive folk existentialism, blue-note bluster, prairie-fire idealism, and fever-dream ballad.”

Rolling Stone Country (July 2018): “unassuming but mesmerizing back-porch music.”

“I love everything about them…songs, music, harmony…everything.” –  Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna)