New Podcast Episode

Soa few days ago I sat down with Shannon Evans, host of Tombigbee Tales, a podcast originating out of the Columbus MS area. We talked about how I got into writing, how I wrote Hurricane Baby, and how I wound up selling it to my publisher. So it was a good conversation in my head.

The tape told a little bit different story. I waited too long to answer questions, I used filler words like “um”, and I didn’t let the host set up the pace of the interview. Good points: I answered every question fully, and I wasn’t boring in telling my stories. So now I know what to continue to work on in future interviews–being quicker on the uptake with questions and speaking with authority.

So we will see how the next one goes! Here’s the link to last week’s podcast if you want to give it a listen:

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-jmfs3-163fdc4

Progress!

If you remember, my current work-in-progress is a set of three novellas that tell a story of a young couple giving up a baby for adoption in the 1970s and the child finding them in the mid-80s. The final novella from the point of view of the adopted child, had been published in a novella collection, and the rights have reverted back to me, and I’ve been developing into a longer work. I started with revising the section that had already been published into something with more weight to it.

After i completed that section, I started on the first section, narrated by the birth father of his moving to Counce, Tennessee and meeting his girlfriend and how their relationship developed. I still had the original novel written in 2006 that I chopped down into the novella in 2017. I pulled flashback scenes from the novel to set up this first section and wrote more material about his life and . . .

Last night I finished the first draft of that section!

So tomorrow I will start on the middle section from the birth mom’s point of view about the years after giving up her daughter. And I have only a handful of half-bakes ideas for this part–I’ll be drafting almost from scratch. So that’s going to be. . . interesting. Definitely stretching my storytelling chops. I hope to finish it before Hurricane Baby publishes in late August this year.

So that’s my new goal. Wish me well!

New Opportunity

So we have our first festival invitation! The Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has invited me to be on a panel and will have my books available for the sale tent at the event in November 2024. So that was a nice surprise when I got the message.

I am still holding out hope for the Mississippi Book Festival in September 2024. It’s only a few weeks after my book launch, which is now about two months away. But it’s not unusual for them to finalize their author list at the last minute, so I still have time to wait.

My work-in-progress is getting more manageable! I have two half-chapters and a set of scenes that aren’t connected together yet. I will figure them out. Maybe I will finish this section before the end of the month. Then I have the whole middle to write (from scratch!) That’s too terrifying to think about right now, though.

I did a very rewarding this yesterday–I talked via Zoom to students from my former MFA program about my journey to publication, along with two other alumni who are publishing books–Karol Lagodski and Lauren Rhoades. We just talked about pushing through and persevering and not giving up, sprinkled in with some practical advice along the way. It was so good to see everyone that runs the program and to meet the new faces as well. I hope I can do more of those kind of talks in the future.

I guess that’s all my news for today! Wishing everyone well!

Publicity Matters

So now I am starting to be in the thick of publicity/marketing/selling Hurricane Baby. I’ve identified several bookstores I want to do small events with. Bookstore events are tricky, because the bookstore orders a lot of product, and if you can’t muster up that many people to show up at the event, they can return those books and get their money back from your publisher. I am trying to do bookstore events in conjunction with other events around the state so the events will be joined in time. People could possibly go to my events then swing by the bookstore and buy the book. So that’s one angle.

Another angle is getting news outlets to cover my book. I made a couple of big asks such as sending info on my book to big names like NYT, WaPo, and Kirkus. But I am really working a lot of my personal contacts for interviews, book reviews, and other publicity opportunities–people I worked with when I was a freelancer, colleges I attended and worked for to participate in readings on those campuses, people I attended my MFA program with (who have been absolute rockstars in promoting my book) and word-of-mouth among the people I know.

Another marketing avenue is book festivals. I have about ten, all in the southeast, that I hope to be invited to where I can make some noise about my book. The Festival for the Book, Southern Literary Festival, etc. etc. Most of that is legwork I’ve done myself; others already have a connection to the publisher.

And working all these connections is outside of what my publisher is doing, such as shipping my book to reviewers, nominating me for book awards, and playing up posts about my book on social media. My motto for this whole endeavor has been to do everything I could to position my book for the best outcome possible–and that’s what I’m trying to do.

In the Writing Trenches

I have been letting my work-in-progress, Looking for Home, absolutely kick my fanny the past two months. I started off with a good bit of material that I had pulled out of the older manuscript, and I had one chapter where I could see it absolutely play out like a movie with some filling in.

Then I decided to write the opening chapter and I froze up solid for the better part of a month and a half. I couldn’t figure out how to start it and get in the backstory needed and get into the action, too. I wrote five pages that I knew shouldn’t be the beginning, but I couldn’t think of how else to do it. It had Carlton with his family making the road trip moving from Pass Christian, Mississippi to Counce, Tennesse. After I finished the trip, I cut those first pages and started with the ending scene and wrote 13 new pages to get to an existing three-page scene I already had.

I think those were the hardest 16 pages of my life to date. I was working in the consciousness of a sixteen-year-old boy who’d lost his mama a few months before, and that was foreign territory, to say the least. Trying to get him settled into the world he’d been thrown into and him not doing such a very good job with it. I’m doing one thing a little differently; I’ll have scenes that come in my head, and I know they need to be in the story. But I have no idea where they’ll go. That’s the fun part of it all I suppose.

So that’s why you haven’t been hearing much about the work-in-progress–It’s been absoluely refusing to cooperate. Until now. Maybe I can get the next chapter wrestled to the ground. Until next time . . .

Events and More

I am starting to have a few events start to shape up around my book launch! I have an interview for a podcast coming up–I’m so far supposed to do the interview this weekend, then it will be edited and released whenever the host has a spot to insert it. Hopefully I can post the audio link to the Tombigbee Tales podcast here on my site.

Right around launch I have a signing at my local independent bookstore, Lemuria Books in Jackson. I had filled out a form and left a review copy at the store a few weeks ago, and they contacted me back for Saturday, August 24, at noon. It’s only a few days after launch but before football season really gets in gear. So that was a wonderful feeling to have getting this one set up.

The next week I am going to try to give back to my community back home in Ackerman with a reading and signing event at Ackerman Library, a place that was a home-away-from home for me. If mom needed to run errands or grocery shop or go to the bank, she’d drop me off there–and I was in heaven. No one ever bothered me, and I never bothered anyone else with so many books around me to read! I feel like that will be a real full-circle event for me. It is currently set for September 5 at 6 p.m. (again working round the football games!)

The final event that’s fallen into place recently is being part of a forum on Hurricane Katrina literature in observance of the twentieth anniversary of the storm. So that will be all the way off into next year with an event in conjunction with Prince George County’s Office of Human Rights in Virginia.

Of course, I am aiming to schedule more–the goal is to have at least one event/speaking opportunity a month for the first year the book is out. So this feels like a really good start! Three-and-a-half months before it’s out in stores. I wonder when the reality kicks in. I still feel like this is all some kind of dream. But it’s a good one. If it’s a dream, it’s one of the best.

Fun Photo!

When I first revealed my cover design for Hurricane Baby back in January, a lady I knew vaguely from writers’ groups contacted me over Instagram and asked to be able to feature my book cover on her Instagram account, Books + Scarves. Apparently for quite some time. she’s been selecting books and matches their cover designs to scarves from her extensive vintage and modern collection. She’s got a good many followers across Instagram and Twitter (now X) and they’re a pretty dedicated following

So I said that sounded like a great idea. When my ARC’s came in, I set one aside for her and mailed it to the address she gave me and waited. I thought it might be close to my release dates before she did it, but she posted it yesterday! With pre-order links embedded in the story so people could go ahead and order the book! The shawl she used is named Faubourg Tropical, designed by Octave Marsal and Théo de Gueltz.

Isn’t it great?

Thanks so much to people who commented and shared this image over social media over the past couple of days and to Book + Scarves for selecting me to feature on your account!

Unforced Error

Well, I went to the library event yesterday. Everything went well until I got up to do my reading–I had picked what I thought was one of the shorter stories in my collection to read aloud. I introduced myself by name and said I was going to read a bit of my work and got started. I was NOT finished with the piece when the organizer asked me to stop so we could move on to the next artist. I had lost track of time or misunderstood my time limit or something. I was so embarrassed, and I just wanted to sink into the ground.

But I kept my composure and got through the rest of the event. And afterwards people were so nice–several people told me they enjoyed my reading, and many people picked up my bookmarks, so I hope that adds up to some pre-orders as well. We had a lot of interesting people there–a Chrisitan romance author, two poets, an author that had published her family stories, a devotional writer, another author that gives her books away to create awareness of domestic violence–a big assortment. But I think everyone enjoyed the presentations and talking to us, the authors.

Note to self–start timing your readings so you know exactly which story you can read at each event. Last time the piece I picked was too long and I had to read too fast. This time, some signals just got crossed, I think. I hope I get better with this with practice. . .

I did come home and do some writing after that so that made the day better. So that was good. I seem to have gotten my groove back in terms of writing every day. I just don’t feel like I’m accomplishing very much. But so far I have around 40,000 total words, so that’s almost halfway! We will see how things go next week!

Happy reading, everyone!

EVENTS

The Writing Room at 100 Men Hall, on January 10, 2026 at 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Bay St. Louis, MS

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Dixon Books on December 13, 2025 at 3 p.m. Natchez, MS

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Barnes & Noble on December 6, 2025 at noon-3 p.m. Flowood, MS

Appearance with Walt Grayson on WJTV on August 27, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Barnes & Noble on August 23, 2025 at noon- 3 p.m. Flowood, MS

Appearance with Studio 3 on WLBT on August 18, 2025 at 3 p.m.

Panel Appearance/Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Possumtown Book Festival on August 16, 2025. Panel at noon; Signing at 12:45 p.m. in Columbus, MS

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Book Mart and Cafe, August 15, 2025 at 2 p.m. in Starkville, MS

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories at Impression Books, August 9, 2025 at noon in Flowood, MS

CANCELLED: Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories, Coffee Prose in Highland Village, June 21, 2025 at 1 p.m. Jackson, MS

Book Talk at Mississippi Writers’ Guild–Coastal Chapter, Gulfport Arts Center, June 18, 2025 at 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. Gulfport, MS

Book Signing for Hurricane Baby: Stories, Dog Ear Books, May 31, 2025 at 2 p.m., Brookhaven, MS

Book Talk/Signing/Q&A for Hurricane Baby: Stories, joined by Emme Rocher, Chelsea Library, May 17, 2025, at 1 p.m.-3 p.m., Chelsea, AL

Mississippi Writers’ Guild-Central Mississippi Chapter meeting, Book Talk/Q&A, at Ridgeland City Library, May 10, 2025, at 2 p.m.-3 p.m., Ridgeland, MS.

Hurricane Baby: Stories Book Talk/Q&A, Pontotoc County Library, January 9, 2025, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Pontotoc, MS

CANCELLED: Hurricane Baby: Stories Book Signing, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, December 14, 2024 from 12 noon-3 p.m., Flowood, MS

Hurricane Baby: Stories Reading/Signing, Author Shoppe, November 23, 2024 from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Hattiesburg, MS

Holiday Open House, Book Mart and Cafe, November 10 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Starkville, MS

Louisiana Book Festival, Panel on November 2, 2024 at 11:15 a.m. in the Capitol Building in Baton Rouge, LA

Mississippi Book Festival, “Mad for Madville” on September 14 at 9 a.m. at the Capitol Building in Jackson, MS

CANCELLED: Hurricane Baby Signing at The Book Mart and Cafe, September 6 at 2 p.m. at Starkville, MS

Hurricane Baby Reading/Q&A at Ackerman Library on September 5 at 6 p,m, in Ackerman, MS

Hurricane Baby Book Signing and Conversation with Steven Yates at noon at Lemuria Bookstore, in Banner Hall, Jackson, MS, on August 24, 2024.

Television appearance of Julie Liddell Whitehead on Studio 3 on WLBT on August 23, 2024, at 3 p.m.

Radio appearance by Julie Liddell Whitehead on Mississippi Arts Hour, hosted by Kristen Brandt, broadcast on August 18, 2024 on 91.3 FM or your local public radio station.

Reading from Hurricane Baby: Stories. Brandon City Library, April 20, 2024 from 10 a.m.-noon featuring a total of ten authors and other artists, Brandon, MS.