Priscilla

Set in the early 1980s, book #1 of The Priscilla Trilogy portrays a bright, carefree, enterprising young woman firmly bound to her father--a Methodist minister and consummate politician about whom she has conflicted feelings. Shortly after she begins her career as an assistant professor of political science at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, her father asks her to relocate closer to home (Prendergast, New York). She contacts an Ohio state senator for whom she performed an internship during her graduate studies at The Ohio State University and with whom she had an affair. The senator offers her a job as his legislative aide. She accepts. The story is off and running.

Throughout, Priscilla takes a deep look at the forces which made her what she is: her family roots in highly-segregated Mississippi, her upbringing in upstate New York where subtle racism leaves its scars despite her loving father's protection, a campus date rape that leaves her with unhealed wounds and, a scintillating season as a high-powered legislative aide in a life-altering political scandal.

"Trilogy begins. M. J. Simms-Maddox's Priscilla dives into politics." Salisbury Post.

“A classic bildungsroman….” MARIE UMEH, author and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"Priscilla survives an affair with her boss, weathering it like a veteran from New York tabloid wars while writing a letter about her former allies that would have destroyed someone in real life." The AALBC, AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB.

"There are some great stories in whose form we identify an elevated piece of creative writing, fundamentally as the sole conception of a writer's innovative mind, premeditated through meticulous attention to craft and solemn devotion to her muse." African Literature Today, AFRICAN LITERATURE TODAY (Volume 36).

"'When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature,' said Ernest Hemingway. A living person is precisely what M. J. Simms-Maddox created in her book." OSIRIS VALLEJO, 2017 National Book Author, Dominican Republic.

"The author is a true storyteller who keeps you on the edge of your seat." LAURA JOHNSON, Andrew Carnegie Library, Livingstone College.

"I didn't find anything objectionable. I rate M. J. Simms-Maddox's captivating story titled Priscilla five out of five stars." OnlineBookClub Review-PRISCILLA.