ANNE SHAW HEINRICH
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Violet is Blue Releases June 17, 2025!
Violet Sellers is blue, and for good reason.
She’s holding a shocking secret she won’t tell anyone, especially her comfortably middle-class parents. When she befriends Jules Marks, who lives on the “other side of the tracks” with his five little sisters, she is introduced to a dark world of self-abuse.
As Violet grows closer to Jules, her parents, Gloria and Skip, are horrified and do their best to find out what happened to their daughter while bending over backward to keep the whole town from knowing their business.
Jules has an aunt and uncle in town who know his desperate circumstances, and are just waiting for the chance to free him and his sisters out of a loveless world of poverty. Meanwhile, a spinster named Margaret Burns watches and waits. She knows all about redemption and getting saved, and she’s got a plan up her sleeve.
Margaret and the other quirky characters in this story learn to dance between the worlds of the “haves” and the “have nots” in ways none of them ever anticipate in Anne Shaw Heinrich’s novel, Violet is Blue.
The second in The Women of Paradise County, a three-book series published by Speaking Volumes , Violet is Blue follows Heinrich’s debut novel, God Bless the Child, released in 2024. Book Three, House of Teeth, releases in June 2026. Paradise County is nestled in the heart of America’s Midwest, where the wounded create spaces and places for themselves that simmer just beneath the surface.
About The Author
Yes, Anne is still pinching herself about the novel series, but this isn’t her first writing rodeo. Since she fell in love with writing in high school, she’s been a journalist, columnist, blogger and nonprofit communications professional, thirty-five years and counting.
Her first article appeared in Rockford Magazine in 1987. She’s interviewed and written features on Beverly Sills, Judy Collins, Gene Siskel, and Debbie Reynolds. Anne’s writing has been featured in The New York Times bestseller The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn (Atria 2006) and Chicken Soup for the Soul's The Cancer Book: 101 Stories of Courage, Support and Love (2009). Anne’s articles have appeared in a number of publications, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Midwest Family Magazine, Ms. Magazine, and Writer’s Digest, to name a few.
She and her husband are parents to three grown children. Anne is passionate about her family, mental health advocacy and the power of storytelling. She likes to watch people, to imagine where they’ve been and where they might be going next. Her idea of a good time is being with friends and family, thinking about why we’re here in the first place, and always, always writing.
She starts just about every story idea with a yellow legal pad and a pencil. It’s old school, but she stopped caring what people think about that years ago. Really.
Read more by Anne
Anne writes about life in general, family, her childhood and more in blog found on Medium. Sign up to get new content delivered right to your inbox, or watch for it on Facebook and LinkedIn. Check it out!
When you discover that your grandmother was a lingerie model, of course you’re going to write about it! Anne’s essay, “Grandma’s Big Secret,” appeared in Marlo Thomas’ collection of works published by Atria Books in 2006. Find this book here.
Cancer touches most of us in one way or another. Anne’s essay, “Blessed,” was published along with 100 other stories curated to encourage and inspire. Get your copy today!