Hurricane Baby – Julie Liddell Whitehead

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!

Winding Down

Well, yesterday was a great day at my local Barnes & Noble branch–I sold over half the books they ordered for me and met some really cool people by saying hi and good afternoon to everyone who walked within talking distance of my table. I also decided to create a list of everything I need to take to a book event from now on because I left half of it at home! But the bookstore seemed pleased; they let me sign what books were left over, and then they invited me back for the Christmas season to do another event! So that made me feel good.

This week I have three interviews–one with an MFA mate in the metro-DC area on Tuesday via Zoom, another with a different local TV station with local TV personality Walt Grayson, who has been in broadcasting longer than I’ve been alive, and a final one on Friday with an MFA mate and author Rod Davis from Texas who is releasing a Katrina novel in September this year.

And then I’m done for a while.

I’m not completely done with book events. Even though I’m not a panelist this year, I plan to attend the Mississippi Book Festival in September. I am going to work with our local library to start up a writers’ group for the last four months of the year and then gauge interest in continuing. And I already have three events in January 2026 scheduled and another set up at Mississippi State University, where I went to school, for April 2026. So the fun isn’t over quite yet.

But what a ride it has been. I’m hopping back on the query merry-go-round with my new completed manuscript and will see what happens from here. I’ve got another story cooking in my head, but I’m not going to actually start drafting until I get the current one sold, if ever. No use in getting ahead of myself.

New Post–BOOK BIRTHDAY EDITION!

Yes! A year ago today, on August 20, 2024, Hurricane Baby: Stories debuted to the world! My first book ever published, and my life has not been the same since that day.

I had been doing some media events beforehand and had a nice little stack of pre-orders. The actual day was a little anti-climactic–I went on with my Tuesday workday routine. I got some emails and some comments on social media congratulating me on the announcement. What really sticks out in my mind is my MFA thesis director, Ellen Ann, sent me a vase of flowers–daisies and other greenery. I think I’ll remember that forever.

But then I had my first-ever book signing at Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, MS. A moment I had been dreaming of for literal years was unfolding right in front of my eyes. I felt like I was floating a foot off the floor all day long.

Then the Mississippi Book Festival 2024. An event I had dreamed of being a part of ever since it first began in 2014–and I made it on to a panel! I mingled with the other authors; I walked around meeting friends old and new. I had a new appreciation of the volunteers and of the visitors, who love books and bookish people enough to keep this event going for over a decade.

And my tour plan kept unfolding–at least one event a month for the entire year. Many social media postings, many, many emails to publications for publicity, many, many, many phone calls to event organizers for other appearances. I traveled mostly throughout Mississippi, with one trip to Louisiana and another trip to Alabama thrown in there.

Two events I’m particularly proud of: in September, I went to the little county library where I had checked out so many books, read so many magazines, and worked at so many Saturdays and read my book aloud to a group of family, friends, and teachers who had known me just about my whole life. And later in March, I went back to my high school alma mater, not to read or sign my book, but to tell the senior and junior classes that I had been just like them–exactly where they were, in this same exact school. And I had decided what I wanted to do with my life and that I didn’t let anything, not disability, not bipolar disorder, not anything, stop me from achieving it.

So many people came together to make this year so special. If I start naming names, I’m going to forget someone. Just thanks to all the booksellers, festival organizers and volunteers, reading series organizers, teachers, professors, journalists, editors, blurbers, librarians who put my book on their shelves, and readers who have made this year so special!

I have a few events still on the schedule in the coming weeks. But I’m querying a new book now, and that will likely take up a great deal of time in the coming months. Soon my time with Hurricane Baby will draw to a close. But this year will be in my memory for quite some time to come. Happy Birthday!

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!

Standing on Principle

I’ve read a lot about boycotts of bad actors in the book world, and most of it kind of slides off my back. My books are available on Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, Books-a-Million, and B&N websites. I didn’t decide that; my publisher and the store-buyers did. I don’t give it much thought in the day-to-day.

But this morning I had to face something down and decide what to do with it.

I was scrolling Facebook and came upon a meme that was so deeply racist it made my jaw drop. I’m not even going to show or transcribe it here; that’s how bad it was. I looked to see who had posted it–and it was an organization I have an event scheduled with next month.

Well.

I looked at the comments–several people had posted, wondering if the site had been hacked.

So I sat down and sent the organization an email, alerting them of the post and saying I hoped it was a hack and not a post by anyone in their organization. I put in a link to the post and sent it off.

And I made a decision, right then and there. If I got a reply of “lighten up” or “it was just a joke” or “I can post what I want”, I was going to cancel my event. I didn’t want anything to do with that kind of organization.

About fifteen minutes after I sent the email, the post had been removed with an apology put in its place, saying they had no idea what happened and were changing all their passwords and securing their computer access protocols. From the dealings I had with them up to this point, this response was perfectly consistent with who these people were.

I’m a very small literary fish in a medium-size literary pond, and my event would not have made a dent in their or my bottom line. But I felt at peace with my decision and with how ready I was to do exactly what was right. Maybe it won’t make any difference in the long run. But it was an important decision for me to make.

I Need Gas in the Tank

My creative imagination for Looking for Home is just about exhausted.

I have line-edits to work through still. And another reader I hope to hear from by the end of July. So I’m waiting on the edits (which I can probably knock out in a day or so) until I hear from her.

I’m already moving my thoughts to the query materials and compiling a list of who to send it to. I’m going to follow a similar procedure to make those decisions that I used with Hurricane Baby–presses that are interested in Southern stories. I don’t think I’m going to send to university presses this time, though. This book, while historical, isn’t about a real historical event like Hurricane Baby was. So i’m not sure what would be the angle for a university press. I may send to those in Tennessee, where the book is set. But I’m going to have to think about that.

Ten days and I head into my very busy month for Hurricane Baby. I’m looking forward to everything, especially my trip upstate to Starkville and Columbus for a signing and for the Possumtown Book Fest, now in its second year. Hopefully I get to meet some people in person that I only know by reputation as well as catch up with friends and colleagues from MUW.

Going to continue thinking ahead and try to organize myself for all of this. Hope some of you can make the events and enjoy yourselves!

Gearing Up

So this August will mark one year since Hurricane Baby: Stories published. It also marks twenty years since Hurricane Katrina struck Mississippi and Louisiana. That has really brought a lot of attention to the book right now.

–The “Writers Drinking Whiskey” podcast drops on July 23. Bill Hincy and I talk the book and my debut journey here.

–“Talk to Me Day” on Mastodon on August 3. The #ScribesAndMakers group hosts me taking questions about writing and my book throughout the day that Sunday.

–Interview with The Southern Review of Books publishes on August 6. My MFA mate Katharine Armbrester put this Q&A together for this online publication

–Book Signing at Impression Books, a locally-owned bookstore here in Flowood. MS at noon on August 9.

–Book signing at Book Mart and Cafe on August 15 in Starkville, MS at 2 p.m., followed by:

–Panel and signing at Possumtown Book Festival in Columbus, MS on August 16 all day. Panel is at noon and the signing is following.

–Book Signing at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Flowood, MS at noon on August 23 at the front of the store

–“Lunch and Learn” podcast with Kyla Hanington, another MFA mate, at 11 a.m. on August 26.

–TV appearance on WJTV with Walt Grayson at 3 p.m. on August 27 on the “Focused on Mississippi program.

–“Tombigbee Tales” podcast with host Shannon Evans and guest Rod Davis to talk Hurricane Katrina memories and literature on August 29, TBA.

I think that’s everything.

And then I’m going to relax by continuing to query Looking for Home!

Seriously, if you can find a way to support some of these events, I really would appreciate it. Trying to do a big push to drive sales here before its book birthday. Thanks to all of you reading for all the support over this magical time these last few months. Happy writing!

MWG Coastal Chapter

So Wednesday me and MJ went down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to let me speak before the Mississippi Writers’ Guild chapter in Gulfport. We had a good trip down and got turned around once or twice trying to find the place the event was at, but we managed and had a lovely time.

I did my storyboarding speech that I gave to the students at the Southern Festival of Books, and it seemed to go over really well. I read it along with Tommy Hebert’s first story again, and everyone seemed to like how that fit in with the lecture.

And then we had a great Q&A session, with questions ranging from how I wrote the story to how I had selected the MFA program I attended. It was an interesting mix of people–some older than me, some about the same, and three that definitely seemed to be the young ones in the crowd. But the room was full, and they even had to bring in extra chairs towards the end.

At the end before I left, I handed out my bookmarks with ordering information and my website on them if they wanted to pick up the book or just check me out some more. Those have been the very best idea I had throughout this process–so cheap and so easy to hand out.

Next Saturday is my last event for June–a book signing at a coffeeshop/bookstore named Coffee Prose in the heart of Jackson. We’re going to do it from 9 am-11 am in the morning, then go to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. I’m looking forward to that.

Just one event in July–I’ll be doing a Zoom meeting for a group of writers in Nevada on July 6, Sunday afternoon. I have no idea what this one is going to be like, so that will be interesting to find out about.

And hopefully next week I’ll get my manuscript back with new edits and see where we can go from there. Happy writing!