HOMEGROWN 2026

I had the pleasure of going back down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast again this weekend and meeting Madville Publishing’s Kim Davis in the flesh for the first time, as well as meeting Micheal Amos Cody and reconnecting with Susan Cushman on our Madville Publishing panel on Saturday. We all talked about our books and read and did a little Q&A after the readings. We had people go in and out of our event–other events were going on at the same time at staggered times, so there was a lot of fluidity in the schedule. But it went well, and I think I sold right at half the books my publisher brought with her so that was good.

I did some chatting as well–I reconnected with Johnnie Bernhard; we had met at the last HOMEGROWN event I attended in 2024 and we talked on and off a good bit throughout the day. I talked with the owner of Pass Christian Books, Scott Naugle; he said nice things about how my book had sold well at his shop, so that was nice to hear! And I got to talk with other authors I had not met before like Micheal Farris Smith.

I also met with Monica Walton, who was talking with authors as a representative of Dogwood Press here in Brandon. I’ve sent occasional manuscripts to the publisher there, Joe Lee, but this project we discussed was something I don’t believe I’ve ever sent to him. So we will see how it goes once she gives him the information about this book. Fingers crossed!

Next on the agenda should be getting my royalty statements soon for 2025 and see how sales stack up, then in March is the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, MS, and then in April, I visit Mississippi State University for the Caldwell Reading Series.

So lots of things still cooking over here. Hopefully the South can continue to thaw out, and we can have seasonable temperatures throughout February! Looking forward to that! Happy writing!

The Land of Ice

So we are just a little too far south in Mississippi for the ice storm as of right now. No telling what’s going to happen in the next twenty-four hours, though.

I was envisioning myself shut up in the house with nothing to do.

Then I remembered the last time I was without power for an extended period–August 2005 after Hurricane Katrina blew through.

An idea for a story hit me a day or so after the impact.

I got out a pen and a spiral-bound notebook. I wrote a story of heartbreak, pain, and decisions with far-reaching consequences, created in longhand on real paper with real ink in moments between caring for my family and watching society crumble into exchanges of gunfire over the last bag of ice at the gas stations.

Those scribbles eventually became the opening story of my 2024 book, Hurricane Baby.

I still have pens, pencils, the ability to write in longhand, and over twenty empty paper journals people have given me over the past twenty years.

I’m going to be fine.

Regrouping

So what’s ahead for me?

I didn’t schedule much for the first quarter of 2026 since I thought I’d be working on publicity for Looking for Home.

So I do have a few events upcoming for Hurricane Baby but not nearly as many as I did for the end of this past year.

Next event is HOMEGROWN: A Storied Exchange on the Gulf Park campus of University of Southern Mississippi the last weekend of January. My part of the now four-day event is on Saturday, January 31, when I am on a panel of three Madville authors and our publisher talking about Madville, small press publishing, and our particular work ad publishing journeys. I will be in and out of events all day and hope to see a lot of friends and colleagues as I’m there.

February is open so far; I hope to ramp back up doing any new writing and querying during that time. I still have my chapbook on submission and will be looking at other possibilities for submitting Looking for Home some new places I haven’t tried yet.

March brings a good event around–the Mississippi Philogical Association is meeting in Hattiesburg at William Carey University. I read Hurricane Baby in public for the first time at the 2024 MPA meeting; I still plan to read from Looking for Home even though I’m not launching it that month like I originally hoped. Lots of familiar faces will be there as well.

Then in April is an event I have been hoping to have ever since I got word that Hurricane Baby was going to be published–the Price Caldwell Reading Series is bringing me to Mississippi State University to talk to students about the book in a graduate workshop that morning then do a public reading from the book that night. Dr Caldwell was my favorite professor at MSU when I was a student there, and reading in his memory is going to be quite the honor.

So I am moving along. Playing the long game. And though I’m probably in the fourth quarter of my writing life, the clock just started, and I have a fresh set of downs to work with! Looking ahead to what’s in store for me. Happy writing for you all!

The 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

I went and spoke at this venue this past Saturday–they have a writer-in-residence, Ellen Morris Prewitt, and a writers’ group that meets once a month there for three hours. So I talked about my publishing journey to Hurricane Baby, then we wrote for a while. After we did some reading of our writing, then I talked about setting a vision for writing, setting goals, making plans to meet those goals, and about how those words all mean slightly different processes that give us a roadmap for accomplishing what we want. Then we wrote more about that and wound up the session with sharing what we felt comfortable with about all of that.

I felt very good after the event. I had wondered if I would feel rusty after spending less time doing events after this past August. But I did my regular talks and read from the book for the first time in a while without any trouble. So that was a confidence-booster. And the organizers and writers were so kind and attentive and responsive. I appreciated that.

My next event is back on the Coast–I’m on a panel for Homegrown, the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s literary festival. I will be reading from Hurricane Baby and doing Q&A as far as I know right now. That’s on January 31 at the University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Park campus. I’m looking forward to the energy of seeing so many folks I know for that event. I’m hanging in there. Hope you are, too. Happy writing!

News

I have an update after the holidays–my book deal for Looking for Home has fallen through. The press is shutting down, and the publisher wrote me a message saying that it certainly wasn’t anything about my book that caused it–she is just having to close up shop for personal reasons.

I don’t quite know how to feel. I’m disappointed, of course, but she has returned all the rights to me, so I am free to shop it around again. But I’m not sure when I will plan to do that. I’m not licking my wounds over it; I feel strangely optimistic that if it’s meant to sell, it will again. But I’m not in some big rush to make it so.

So we will see what happens. It doesn’t feel like a setback; it feels more like a chance to breathe. Does that make sense? I hope so.

Got Some Good News

Back in June of this year, I entered a chapbook contest. A chapbook is a very short work of prose or poetry, about 20-40 pages worth. I had put this chapbook together a while back, but when I saw this new contest, I revised my little five-story manuscript, retitled it, and sent it in.

Finally heard back last week–I’m not one of the finalists that was sent to the final judge, but I was in the group they selected the finalists from. That was encouraging!

So I think for the next little while I am going to make revising and submitting this chapbook around my next creative endeavor. I have a list of 12 outlets to send to, spaced out from now until September 2026. I can have something to work on while I try to sort out what I want to do next with my third book–do I want to continue to revise what I have, rewrite the whole thing from scratch, move on to another manuscript, or what. Give my overstimulated brain a little time to relax from creation.

Done with events this year, but I start right back up again in January 2026 with three speaking engagements. That’s good. Soon I’ll be getting cover designs for Looking for Home, and all of that excitement will be in motion. I feel good about this plan to submit while the planning for Looking for Home is going on.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support of my work and my stories!

Yesterday

You never know what’s going to happen at a signing.

Right as I got set up to sell and sign, a gentleman came up to me with that look on his face–the “do I know you from somewhere?” look. I said, “I recognize you from somewhere, too, but I’m not sure where.”

No matter–he picked up a book and said “I’ll buy it!”–no questions about it, no me giving a sales pitch, nothing. Then as I was inscribing it for a gift, he picked up another one as well for another gift. And I inscribed it and signed as well.

Then another lady bought two at a time as well–and just like I that I’d sold four within the first forty minutes. I was on a roll– that continued on throughout the afternoon.

The girl who told me she was in sixth grade during Hurricane Katrina and had been obsessed with the event ever since. She walked away with a copy.

The older man who became emotional when telling me about working on the Gulf Coast among hurricane victims. I did not begrudge him walking away without buying–he had been through enough.

The chubby little girl and boy who kept coming up to ask if they could have more complimentary candy out of my bowl. I smiled as I said yes.

The last one I sold was to a lady who’s mother was buying it for her for a Christmas present–that made ten sales on the day. I only had one left out of the books I had brought. I had sold all the books the store had bought so that felt good as well!

I thanked everyone for a good event and left out, ready to prepare for the next signing at Dixon Books in Natchez, MS on Saturday, December 13 with fellow Madville novelist RJ Lee. Hope to see you there!

Busy, Busy

Last night I answered questions from the design team for Looking for Home about my book, key scenes, setting, suggested cover images, and characters to inform the design of the book. That was fun! Hopefully some designs come in later in the week and I can pick from them.

The designer said she liked to try to pull the theme out of the book and into the cover to attract the reader. I have no idea how that might work–I know what I’ve always envisioned for the cover, but I don’t have a graphics design degree, so I truly have no idea what may be coming. But I look forward to finding out!

In other news, I have another two events this coming month for Hurricane Baby: Stories! I go back to Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Flowood, MS on Saturday, December 6 from noon to three p.m., signing and selling books for Christmas. Then the next weekend on Saturday, December 13, from three to five p.m. I sign and sell books alongside Natchez native RJ Lee at Dixon Books in Natchez, MS for their Christmas sales. So we will see how those events go.

Things seem to be moving fast this holiday season–before you know it, it’ll be Christmas, then New Year’s. If you want to buy a book by an indie author, debut author, and Mississippi author all in one, click on “Hurricane Baby: Stories” in the left-hand menu, then look for the order buttons to the right on the book page. I think you’ll be glad you did!

Three Little Wins

I had a series of small votes of confidence the past two weeks, and I want to share them to show that sometimes it only takes a bit of encouragement to keep going.

I have been invited to speak at Mississippi State University on April 7, 2026, the school I got my BA and MA from. This invite was very exciting, but so was the information that came with it–I’m also going to meet with a creative writing class for a Q&A with graduate students. And they’re going to have read Hurricane Baby as part of the curriculum for the class.

My book will be a textbook for a writing class. I’ll be REQUIRED READING, y’all!

Second–my publisher put out a photo advertising the press’ books. It was labeled “Best of the Best” and captioned “Best Sellers”. And Hurricane Baby was in the shot! (I have no way of knowing if I’m really a best seller–but it looks good in my Facebook feed!)

Number three–I got an email congratulating me on my new book, and the writer said he looked forward to getting a copy and reading it so he could nominate it for the Mississippi Arts and Letters Fiction Award. I was stunned. I barely know this person–and he has this kind of belief in my work? AMAZING.

Like I said, small encouragements. And maybe I’m reading too much into them. But they helped me break through my imposter syndrome and actually write on my new work-in-progress. And that’s a big something for me.

Happy writing, y’all!