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March 15, 2025 26 mins

Today on the Online for Authors podcast, guest-host Carole O’Neill is chatting with Carla Conti, author of the book Chained Birds.

 

Carla Conti is a former journalist and author of the award-winning true crime memoir CHAINED BIRDS, a prison abuse exposé about justice and survival in federal prison. It took her ten years to write as she balanced the safety of the story participants (including herself) in this tell-all thriller of prison gang hit orders and corrupt officials.

 

Carla lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, who tolerates her true crime habit. She supports prison and criminal justice reform and blogs about these interests and other passions at CarlaJeanConti.com.

 

In her book review, Carole stated reading Chained Birds was like reading two books in one. A documentary about the horrible conditions and deplorable happenings at maximum-security and experimental prisons in Pennsylvania, and a memoir about a former journalist who was asked to join a legal team of former friends. Carla Conti’s insurmountable task was to document what was happening to a convict as he tried to weave his way through a difficult system of penal abuse in the hopes of a much shorter sentence after an orchestrated stabbing.

 

Two different federal prison gangs made no secret of their desire to rid themselves of the man on trial, continuously threading their way through a ten-year struggle to avoid justice. Fear was spread at every level, and it became obvious that not only was the prisoner, Kevin at risk of being killed, but everyone working on his behalf, including Carla when they heard she was planning to write a tell-all book.

 

She came very close to walking away from the entire project. But, in the end, with the security of a pen name to protect her real identity, the story is on these pages for all of us to see.

 

Time well spent on a shocking tell all.

 

 

Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1

 

Join the Novels N Latte Book Club community to discuss this and other books with like-minded readers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3576519880426290

 

You can follow Author Carla Conti

Website: https://carlajeanconti.com

IG: @carlajeanconti

X: @carlajeanconti

Threads: @carlajeanconti 

FB: @carlajeanconti

Pinterest: @carlajeanconti

 

Purchase Chained Birds on Amazon:

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3D8jvmI

Ebook: https://amzn.to/3D8jvmI

 

Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com

FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor

IG: @terimbrown_author

X: @terimbrown1

 

Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors

 

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