Tag: Friendly City Books

Possumtown Book Fest Weekend

So this weekend was full of book fun! I went to Starkville Book Mart and Cafe for a signing on Friday–they brought out a punchbowl for visitors and me and Bob and employees to partake of–after I signed my first book at the event, I went and got a cup of punch, and the pattern was set. Now it was a drinking game; for every book sold, I got a cup of punch. Good thing it wasn’t spiked! We sold half the books we had on hand–she had some and I brought some and let her keep them and sell them herself. So I took away a nice check at the end of the day.

Then Saturday, I went to the 2nd Annual Possumtown Book Fest in Columbus, MS just a few miles down the highway from Starkville. That was a LOT of fun! Met some people, like my online writing buddy Shannon, the organizer and bookstore owner Emily Liner, the novelist Snowden Wright, my panel mates Benjamin and Nadia, and various other authors I knew only by reputation. I saw a lot of folks I already knew–MFA alumni, Bookstagramers, MUW professors, MSU professors, Mississippi Art Commision people, etc.

I had fun on my panel. I talked about why I wrote Hurricane Baby: Stories, how I felt being a Mississippi writer, what being a Mississippian was all about, etc. I carried on a good bit, as we Mississippians tend to do. And I got quoted in the local Columbus paper this morning! So that was a neat extra and hopefully may send people to the bookstore to get a copy of my book on Monday or this weekend. That would be nice.

This week I have a TV appearance and my last scheduled book signing. Things are winding down for Hurricane Baby. After this week, I have another TV appearance and two podcast interviews. Then I have a few events scheduled for 2026 already. In three days, the book will have its first birthday. Quite the milestone and a punctuation mark to a wild year!

Rolling Along

This week is going to be wild!

On Thursday, I’ll have an article coming out on Jane Friedman’s website on networking as a debut author! It was amazing how that opportunity came together; I just cold-emailed her the idea of doing an article on my author journey and threw in everything but the kitchen sink into the pitch. She emailed back that if I picked ONE of those ideas, it would probably make a good article. So I pulled out that strand, and she said to give it a shot! That runs August 14 at https://janefriedman.com/

On Friday I go back to my college town bookstore and do a signing there–I hope it goes well as well. Give us an opportunity to see some old stomping grounds, me and Bob. The owner wants me to talk the local newspaper to do an article on the twenty-year Katrina anniversary this month so Monday I’m going to see what I can do about that.

And I’ve also started receiving all the materials for the Possumtown Book Fest this Saturday in Columbus, Mississippi–schedules, directions, information, contacts, etc. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun! I’ll see a lot of people I’m familiar with from school and some I know only by reputation. Hopefully meet a few people, too. This is only the second year they’ve offered it, and I’m really proud to be involved. I would have attended last year except it happened on the day of my first signing!

Such an amazing week! And there’s more where that came from the NEXT week as well. Hope to see some of you around!