Tag: Hurricane Baby

Goals

Day after tomorrow, I’m going to speak to the first of three Rotary Clubs that have invited me to present a talk involving my journey with Hurricane Baby: Stories. If you aren’t familiar with Rotary Clubs, they tend to be members of the business community that have come together to do service projects for their town, county, etc. These particular clubs meet once a week. I’m doing one on May 5, another on May 21, and another on June 11.

I’ve decided to give my talk on the process I used to set and achieve my goals for Hurricane Baby. I’m going to open with a question: I’m not asking for a show of hands–but have any of you ever had a dream/vision/goal for your life that was ridiculous? Something where you wanted to do it but talked yourself out of it–because it was ridiculous, frivolous, or impossible?

Then I’m going to go through my goal-setting process.

SET A VISION! Decide what you want to do. You can have several visions over the course of your life. As you achieve one, find another.

STUDY UP! Learn everything you can about what it will take to achieve your vision.

SET MINI-GOALS! Break down the process into parts–and while doing those parts, only focus on those parts.

SET A PLAN! What are you going to do to meet those goals?

PLAN TO SUCCEED! Know what to do as you go.

PLAN TO FAIL! What will you do if you don’t succeed?

EXECUTE! Carry out the plan you’ve set to accomplish the first mini-goal, then the next, then the next.

FOCUS! on your plan and your goal every day. Always be working!

HAVE GRACE! Handle frustrations. If the plan isn’t working, change the plan to one that does work.

WHEN YOU SUCCEED, CELEBRATE! Celebrate each mini-goal as you complete it and then celebrate when the total dream comes true!

Then I’m going to read the first few pages of Hurricane Baby, then do Q&A if there’s any time left. I’ll have my books there to buy and sign if anybody wants one.

Pray for me doing this. I am not quite a bundle of nerves about it, but I can use all the encouragement I can get. Thanks!

Some Surprises!

Earlier this week, I spent a few days in Starkville, Mississippi, home to Mississippi State University.

Home.

I grew up in Fentress, Mississippi, thirty minutes away from Starkville, down Mississippi Highway 12. I graduated with my B. A. and M. A. from there in the early ’90s.

Never did I ever dream that one day, a book I wrote would be required reading in a class offered by that university. Never did I ever think a book of mine would greet visitors to the English Department by being in a display next to the likes of Brad Watson, God rest his soul. (see photo–credit to Daughter #3 for that picture).

I did a lot of dreaming when I was a student there–but I never went that far in my mind.

I read my work to an audience while I was there that was so appreciative and seemed so interested in what I had to say about writing and the writing life. It was all I could do not to pinch myself standing in front of them.

(You can see the video of the event if you go to the Hurricane Baby: Stories page and click on “Press”)

And I sold and signed some books at that event as well. So lovely to be able to do that.

Then this weekend, I went to a small town new to me–Picayune, Mississippi. They had a street fair downtown; one of the booth organizers had reached out on social media for Mississippi authors, and I volunteered to go. Spent this afternoon talking to folks and selling my dark little story collection. I didn’t really know what to expect as far as sales there–I’d never done an outdoor venue like that before.

And I sold half the books I took–about as many books than I’d actually sold at the university event.

Readers are everywhere, y’all. Make hay while the sun shines.

Lots to Celebrate with Lots of Links!

So today represents the first fiction I’ve placed since I published Hurricane Baby–this work is a storyline I first created in 2009 as part of a novel about a week of loss in the small community of Rock Star, Mississippi. Much later on, I took one of those stories told in the book and turned it into a short story of the day Glenn Crawford buried his wife, Gina, who died of breast cancer at 33, leaving him with two young children. That story, “This Side of Heaven“, published today in Salvation South, a magazine committed to telling the multiplicity of stories that feature the mind and sensibility of the modern southeastern United States. Thanks so much to Chuck Reese for taking this story and putting it out to the world.

Also this weekend, my alma mater, Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi, put out a news release about my upcoming appearance there. You can see the whole story here: From the Eye of the Storm: New accounts of Katrina shared at MSU Price Caldwell Lecture | Mississippi State University.

But this is my favorite paragraph: “I admire the way Whitehead brings her characters to life so vividly and makes us care about them. This collection is a literary page turner that my students and I have enjoyed reading and discussing,” said Becky Hagenston, MSU English professor and director of the department’s creative writing emphasis. Hearing this about the student reaction makes me really look forward to the classroom Q&A I’m scheduled for.

I also got word about what sounds like a cool event in Picayune, Mississippi, the Picayune Semi-Annual Spring Street Festival: Events. I am partnering with Tracy Ledford and other authors to man a bookish tent at the event where I can sell and sign books from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 12. Picayune is about as far southwest you can go and still be in Mississippi. I’m really looking forward to visiting and seeing what all they have going on in their creative communities.

Whew. That’s a lot going on. I really never thought I’d still be promoting my book six months after the one-year anniversary of its publication. But it’s a lovely surprise to be doing so.

Nervous!

This weekend, I go to the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and I will be reading the first story from Looking for Home in public for the first time ever.

I remember the weekend at the end of February 2023 when I went to the MPA event in Columbus, MS, to read the first story in Hurricane Baby. I was so scared reading this one out loud for the first time, too. My hands were shaking as I held the pages and read them. I read too fast because of the nerves and the fear that I would take up too much time.

It went live for pre-sales that weekend. too–I got the email that night while I was answering messages after the last event. I remember sitting there in the hotel room, at turns both giddy and terrified that my book was really out in the world after so many years of wishing and striving and writing.

When I submitted this excerpt to MPA, I had hoped that the event would be the launch for Looking for Home to be out in the world, too. But alas. Hopefully it will make an impression on those listening at the session. I have another writer reading their work after me, and I’m looking forward to meeting them. And to seeing so many friendly faces of people I’ve gotten to meet over the past few years while traveling for Hurricane Baby.

And Monday I get to have my conference with Chuck Reese at Salvation South about my short story they are interested in. Onward and upward! Wish me well!

More Encouragement

Late last week I got an email from Chuck Reece at Salvation South–he opened with, “No one should have to wait eleven months to hear from a submission.”

I didn’t even remember sending him anything. After some checking, I realized the submission had been sent in April 2025, probably just after they ran a story from my very good friend Ellen Ann Fentress about Dusti Bonge’s second-act reinvention in mid-century Mississippi.

Even though it took eleven months, I was gratified by the fourth sentence where he wrote they liked my story “This Side of Heaven” and wanted to publish it with some trimming being done.

I’m cool with that.

So the first step in that process is a video conference with Chuck, probably this Thursday. (He had to catch his breath from being at the week-long AWP Conference and Bookfair in Baltimore. I could understand that.)

Otherwise, this month I go to William Carey University in Hattiesburg for the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting on March 20-21 where I’m going to read from Looking For Home at a creative writing panel late Friday afternoon. Then on April 6, I head up to Mississippi State University for the Caldwell Reading Series event that I have been looking forward to ever since I got the word that Hurricane Baby had been accepted for publication.

And that’s the last book event I’m scheduled to appear at for 2026. I plan to go to other events, like Possumtown Book Fest in August and Mississippi Book Festival in September. I have a couple of submissions out for other events but not any real expectations to be accepted.

I am doing some thinking about what comes next. I’m still sending out Looking for Home to small presses; the last one on my list is Four Way Books, which opens for submissions on November 1. I’m still thinking I won’t go back into a book project until I have a contract for Looking for Home. But I may change my mind again, too. That’ll be fine, too. Maybe I’ll write more short stories. Maybe I’ll get back into poetry. I also saw a call-for-papers for creative nonfiction, research, or academic work about revisiting childhood favorite books. I’m slowly drafting an abstract for a paper for that project.

Thinking counts as writing. Don’t forget that. Happy March, y’all.

2025 Numbers

GOOD NEWS!

I got my royalty statement for 2025 from Madville Publishing, and . . .

Hurricane Baby: Stories made some money last year, y’all!

I’m not going to get into exact numbers in this post, but sales were over what they were last year, and while I had returns, the number was lower than I expected. Miscellaneous sums for printing, etc. aside, I earned a chunk of change for the publisher, and my percentage of that was high enough that the publisher can actually cut me a check for it (which was not the case last year).

Do the royalties cover what’s been spent traveling to various events, publicizing said events, etc.? No. So as a total endeavor, I’m still not making any money. But the hole isn’t quite as big at this point.

But I still need to fulfill my pledge to the church to give them my first royalty check, since I didn’t get an advance for this book. I will gladly do that once I get the funds in my bank account.

A good day on the author front all around!

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.

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!

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!