MANSFIELD, Texas - s4story -- MANSFIELD, Texas — Indie author Chandra Martin announces the release of Wisteria Grove – Book One: Those Summer Days, a haunting Southern Gothic coming-of-age novel following nine-year-old Renate Vale through one summer that changes the shape of her childhood forever.

Set against the heavy heat, red clay, pine trees, and uneasy quiet of rural Georgia, Those Summer Days explores childhood trauma, generational silence, memory, and the strange places where the natural and supernatural begin to overlap.

Renate arrives at her grandparents' home expecting a summer of cousins, chores, church, and long Southern days. Instead, she finds herself increasingly isolated and unsafe, surrounded by people who refuse to see what is happening to her. As the adults look away, something else begins to notice.

The land remembers.

The house watches.

And Renate begins to sense a presence that seems to see her, hear her, and understand what the people around her cannot—or will not.

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Wisteria Grove is a story about what happens when a child is forced to survive in a place where history has never truly gone away. The novel deliberately leaves room for interpretation, allowing readers to decide whether the forces surrounding Renate are supernatural, psychological, ancestral—or some combination of all three.

Martin's writing is influenced by visionary storytellers including Octavia Butler, Asumiko Nakamura, and MXTX, while remaining rooted in her own Southern Gothic voice and fascination with atmosphere, memory, emotional truth, and the unseen.

"I wrote Wisteria Grove because Renate Vale's story has been living inside me for decades. At some point in our lives, every one of us has been Renate — unseen, unheard, misunderstood, left to fend for ourselves like something feral scrambling to survive. I wanted to explore that experience honestly and take a deep dive into generational trauma — how it begins, how it spreads, how it ends. Wisteria Grove is my attempt to answer those questions with honesty, compassion, and the kind of truth that settles into the bone."

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— Chandra Martin, author of Wisteria Grove

BOOK DETAILS

Title Wisteria Grove – Book One: Those Summer Days
Author Chandra Martin
Publisher Nitram Press
Publication Date July 22, 2026
Genre Literary Fiction / Southern Gothic
Format Hardcover, Trade Paperback, eBook
Pages 114
ISBN (Hardcover) 979-8188481667
ISBN (Paperback) 979-8235402607
Price Hardcover $19.99 | Paperback $9.99 | eBook $5.99
Available At Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Indie Bound, and other online book retailers

MEDIA CONTACT

Name: Chandra Martin
Location: Mansfield, Texas
Phone: (469) 290-4215
Email: nitrampress@authorchandramartin.me
Website: https://authorchandramartin.me