jdlwhitehead

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!

Technical Difficulties

I’ll be back next week!

Literary Criticism

I was thinking a couple of days ago about my various experiences of writing, and my mind uncorked a long-buried memory from the back of my mind. I may not have all the details straight, but this is the gist of it:

I was in school (not sure what grade), and my class was given a homework assignment (or maybe extra credit)–to write a play about Paul Revere’s ride at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. This particular class was where I had fallen in love with history to the same degree that I was in love with writing, and now I had a chance to combine the two! I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

I remember coming to the assignment with the utmost seriousness. I wanted it to be as accurate and honest as I could make it from the version of the story presented to me in my class history book–I populated the play with farmers, churchmen, soldiers, and Quakers. I had Paul Revere complaining to his horse about the weather and about being tired and about how he hoped he didn’t get saddle sore. I went all out.

So the due date came, and I turned in my play. I seem to remember only one other girl did a play as well. My teacher decided to have the class read both the plays and hold a vote for who the class thought had the best one. So she called on people to read mine aloud first, then the other girl’s.

The other girl had not taken the pains to be historically correct. The characters were all named after her friends in the class. The narrative didn’t have much to do with the American Revolution at all.

But the girl was popular. And she had name-checked most of the other people in the class. I had a sinking feeling as I heard the class talking among themselves how much they liked hers more then mine. I just sat in my desk and started at the floor. The teacher had us vote with a show of hands. I held up my hand for mine and didn’t even look up to see if anyone else did. The silly play won.

I was left with this takeaway: my play had lost because I was the one who wrote it.

Silly, yes. Naive, a bit. But anyone who has spent time in writing spaces has seen this happen before, even among grownups. Literary merit doesn’t always bring success to the creator.

However.

My mistake was to turn this incident into a flat statement about my abilities: That my work could never be “good enough” because I would never be “good enough” because I was too smart, too show-offish, too unattractive, too too too–whatever.

My work is as good as it needs to be. And the more I work, the better it will get with practice. And the more persistent I am, the more opportunity I can create for myself and my work. That’s the bottom line.

Candy-Store Problem

A candy-store problem is when you have a lot of choices, and all of them are good–or at least not bad.

I have four ideas for books–a paranormal novel, a double murder mystery with a twist, a father-son relationship novel, and a mother-daughters novel. I have been trying to work on the paranormal novel as it’s an old manuscript that would need to be rewritten, as is the double murder mystery. The other two are fully outlined from beginning to end.

The murder mystery feels the most like a conventional genre book and the most commercial. The paranormal one feels like another small press book with the twists and turns it takes. The other two feel more conventional as well.

When I set back out doing this, I decided I would rewrite the four older manuscripts first, querying indie and small presses for the first three (Hurricane Baby, Looking for Home, and the paranormal book) and query agents for the murder mystery to see if I could get a Big 5 deal. Then I’d write the other two from scratch and maybe be of age to retire if I wanted to or try to think up new ideas if I didn’t.

Now I am wondering whether that’s the proper path to take.

But at least my choices are all good because they all involve writing!

So please think about me in the next few weeks as I chew over my choices. Happy writing to you all!

Getting it Right

I’ve talked before about my mantra for writing, no matter what kind it is: get it right and tell the truth. Those can be slippery concepts for fiction. Nonfiction can be easier–depending on what it is you’re trying to tell the truth about, such as in memoir, where truth can often be an elusive concept.

I’ve not always been good at telling the truth in my life. But eventually I learned that lying burdens the brain because you’re always having to think harder to keep your story straight.

The other prong of it I got to thinking about recently as I did some neurological testing to see what might be causing my memory issues or if it was just normal aging. It turned out that I am functioning fine for someone my age. But the doctor did note some interesting findings–one of which was that during the testing, I emphasized doing a task correctly rather than doing it quickly.

Ah, here was a question with a clear answer from my life! I told him that was an easy one to solve; in school, I used to be the first one in class to finish tests, but I didn’t always make a perfect score. So my mom impressed on me that I only got credit for getting the right answers, not for turning the paper in quickly. So all my life, I’ve been oriented to getting right answers and doing something correctly rather than quickly.

Back in my day, some teachers would go over the answers to a test by calling on people who got the question incorrect to give their answer so the teacher could explain why their answer was wrong. The first time that happened to me, I wanted to sink down through the floor in shame. That experience stuck with me my whole life–so I try as much as possible to get the details right in whatever I’m writing.

All of this, of course, can stop creativity in its tracks. The trick I use is to write about what I know I can get right first–then fill in the blanks with research and expert opinion. At least that’s the goal.

How do you approach truth in writing? Let us know in the comments!

Upcoming Schedule

Well, it seems for a bit that I’m back on the travel circuit–I made a stop at a storied bookstore this weekend, go to a celebration of another tomorrow, and then travel for a friend’s book launch the first of November.

Yesterday Bob and I went to Oxford, Mississippi–former home of American novelist William Faulkner and of the University of Mississippi, home of the state-supported residential MFA program. Writing is in the very air there–literally everyone in Oxford is working on a book, if the gossip is to be believed.

To that end, Oxford also features a set of independent bookstores–Square Books, featuring adult contemporary works; Square Books, Jr., housing children’s books; Off Square Books, purveyor of extra and remaindered books, and Rare Square Books, repository of difficult-to-find editions. We visited Square Books because I had talked with them about doing an event earlier this year. We never had settled out how to make that happen, but I did know they stocked some of my books on the shelf.

We went in and were greeted by owner Richard Howorth–we told him it was our first time to be there, so he pointed out the different sections of the store. I introduced myself and mentioned that I’d like to sign the copies of Hurricane Baby they had, so we hunted them up in the Mississippi authors section, and I borrowed a pen from the front counter and signed then, with my hand shaking a bit as it’s prone to do. They seemed very appreciative of that, and we spent sometimes wandering around looking at everything. So that was fun to meet everyone.

Tomorrow I go to Jackson’s independent bookstore, Lemuria Books, for their 50th birthday celebration. I’m just going to go and visit for a bit and tell them how much I appreciate their support over my author journey. Probably will also mention that I have a new book under contract and get that news out and circulating.

Then on November 1, my friend Shannon Evans is releasing a pair of new books, both on antebellum homes in Columbus, Mississippi. Wisteria Place: A House of History and Haunting and Riverview: A Monument to Greek Revival Architecture are pocket histories of these homes that came to define to cityscape of the town of Columbus. And she invited Bob and I to her event, actually being held at Wisteria Place. So we look forward to that.

Anyway. Next week I can update you all on the progress on my second book and where its development stands as of that point. Happy reading and writing, everyone!

THE GOOD NEWS!

Last month, on September 23, the day after I had a very good birthday celebration, our home phone rang during dinner. We constantly get phone solicitor calls at our house, and I assumed this would be one of those. My husband Bob picked it up and said hello.

After a second, he said, “May I ask who’s calling?”

Another few seconds, and he handed the phone to me. “Amy Wilson from something press.”

I wondered what this was about. I took the phone. “Hello?”

The woman introduced herself to me as well and then said, “You know, some information I just think ought not be in an email—the phone can be more personal. I read your book, Looking for Home, and I love it! Would you like to publish it with me?”

I sat back in my chair, absolutely floored. It had taken a solid year to sell Hurricane Baby: Stories. I’d been querying Looking for Home for not quite two months—and here was an offer! Was she serious?!

So I started thinking aloud—I asked what the terms were, how was the contract set up, etc. She gave me some information about that. I asked if I could have the rest of the week to check with other publishers who still had the book to see if they wanted to counteroffer, and she agreed to that. She said she would get a hard-copy contract drawn up, sent to me, I could look over it, and then if it was satisfactory, I could sign it and send it back.

During the whole time we were talking, my mind was yammering away in the background, “You sold your second book. You sold your second book. YOU SOLD YOUR SECOND BOOK!”

After we finished talking, I looked over at Bob, who was looking at me with an expectant look on his face. I said, “Well, I just sold Looking for Home.”

I told him what she had said about the contract. So we waited.

She emailed me on Thursday, October 2, that she’d mailed the contract in a priority envelope. I received it the next Monday, looked it over, and then sent it back with my signature.

So we’ve been exchanging emails with questions and answers and details ever since.

Looking for Home is now under contract with Red Dirt Press of Oklahoma with a tentative release date of October 2026!

Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive of my work as I embark on this new author journey! Come on along for the ride!