BookPeople Presents: Johnnie Bernhard - Loren Steffy

Details

Format:

• This event is free and open to the public.
• Location: The 2nd floor of BookPeople.
• Run time: 45-60 minute discussion, followed by a signing line.

Signing Guidelines:

• To get a book signed, a copy of the event book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.
• The author will be personalizing copies of the book.
• For high volume events, post-talk signing lines can become very long. Signing line placement is determined on a first-come, first-served basis.

General Info:

• Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis and is not guaranteed.
• If you have any accessibility concerns, please contact [email protected]

• If you have any other questions, please visit our Eventbrite FAQ. If your question isn't covered in the FAQ, feel free to email us at [email protected].
• BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
• There will not be a live stream or recording available.
• All event guidelines are subject to change.

About the book:

Evil rides the borderlands—and it knows your name.

Nocona Ketemoczy, a battle-scarred Comanche-Mexican Marine turned border agent, is barely holding his life together when girls start disappearing from the scrub and river crossings of West Texas. Their bodies—when they’re found—bear the unmistakable signature of ritual killings tied to Palo Mayombe, an African-Cuban religion twisted here into a weapon of terror. Locals whisper about an old woman with cataract eyes and a rotted smile: the Witch of Sonora, a presence that has stalked Nocona’s nightmares since he was a boy and now walks the caliche roads in broad daylight.

Drawn into the case is Hannah, a ranch widow who runs a hard-scrabble safe house for trafficked girls hidden in the hills outside Rocksprings. When a half-starved migrant named Ava arrives with a black cauldron and bones inked down her arm, Hannah recognizes a mark she’s only ever seen in forbidden images on the dark corners of the internet.

As a historic Halloween flood slams the Hill Country, Nocona is forced to confront two enemies at once—the cartel lieutenant building a torture-and-trafficking hub along the Rio Grande, and the generational trauma that has turned his Comanche and Mexican blood into a tinderbox for the Witch’s whispers. His one true ally is Jo McKenney, a razor-sharp former Army Ranger and Del Rio border agent whose own moral injuries from Afghanistan mirror his own.

From haunted canyons and flash-flooded rivers to a shipping container “temple” lined with skulls, The Witch of Sonora is a visceral blend of crime, supernatural suspense, and spiritual warfare, steeped in the stark beauty and violence of the Texas borderlands.

About the author:

Johnnie Bernhard is an award-winning writer whose novels have appeared on notable book lists and awards with Publisher’s Weekly, Deep South Magazine, Kindle Book Awards, the Association of University Presses, Press Women of Texas, and the National Federation of Press Women.

Her novels focus on family, social issues, and the individual’s place in an ever-changing world:
A Good Girl, How We Came to Be, Sisters of the Undertow, Hannah & Ariela.

Johnnie was chosen as a selected speaker in the 2020 TEDx Fearless Women Series based on her essay, “The Human Story: What Connects Us As Humans Regardless of Geography, Race, and Religion.” She lives in South Texas with her husband.

About the moderator:

Loren Steffy's novel The Big Empty was released in paperback in 2023. It combines a sweeping appreciation for history and the struggles of small-town America with an examination of technology and the social and economic changes that come about when the two meet head-to-head. The hardcover edition won a Silver Medal for Best New Fiction Book in the Independent Book Publishers Association's annual Ben Franklin awards.

He is also a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a managing director for the communications firm 30 Point Strategies, where he heads the 30 Point Press publishing imprint.

Steffy holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Texas A&M University. If he's not writing or reading, he's probably working on cars or puttering (yes, he has reached the age of puttering) around his property in Wimberley, where he lives with his wife, Laura, and two rescue dogs.

By purchasing a book from BookPeople, you are not only supporting a local, independent business – you’re showing publishers that they should continue sending authors to BookPeople.

Thank you for supporting Johnnie Bernhard, Loren Steffy, and your local independent bookstore!

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