Tag: Lemuria Bookstore

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!

OK. Wow. Here We Come!

So time starts speeding up for me very soon. This past Friday, I was interviewed in a statewide radio show on public radio that airs on August 18 at 5 p.m. on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and logged onto the website, http://msartshour.mpbonline.org/episodes later on for those who are not in Mississippi.

On August 14, I’m supposed to have an article published on the “First Person Singular” vertical on Substack, edited by Sari Botton. You’ll read about a sudden illness that felled me two weeks after getting the publication news about Hurricane Baby and how I coped with that.

Then on August 23, I have a live TV interview with Studio 3 at WLBT News at 3 p.m.to talk about Hurricane Baby with their host.

Then comes the big day of my signing at Lemuria Bookstore at noon on August 24, with signing at 12 and then moving to Lemuria’s event space at 12:30 p.m. for my conversation with Steve Yates, a longtime writer colleague, about Hurricane Baby. I did the same interview style talk with him when his book The Lakes of Southern Hollow was published, so here’s returning the favor at my signing.

And to wind up the month is another radio interview with Rebecca Turner on her show Good Things on the actual 19th anniversary of Katrina’s landfall in Mississippi. That show will be at two p.m. and will be later released on her website (https://www.supertalk.fm/shows/goodthings/) for those of you who might get the interview on the air.

That’s all for August except for the occasional stab at my work-in-progress/ There’s a new article I’ll put up on press and I’ll updated the schedule page to get all things Hurricane Baby in one place.

This Week’s News

So this Thursday I get a chance to debut myself a bit before my book signing at Lemuria by getting together with Steve Yates, author of The Lakes of Southern Hollow, at his signing at 5 p.m. at Lemuria Books Store in Jackson, MS on July 25. We worked out a deal where I would do a bit of Q&A with him about his book, then he’s going to do a bit of Q&A with me at my Lemuria signing, which is coming up faster at noon on August 24 than I can even think.

I also got another invite to an event that I can’t disclose yet because I am waiting on final confirmation of my materials needed to be registered. So that was nice, especially since a symposium I thought I would be able to be a part of did not work out in my favor, I found out this weekend. No skin off my nose–I’ll probably still go to the event and enjoy myself anyway.

I finally got the first “chapter” done on my second section of my work-in-progress last week. It’s definitely going to need more work, but that’s just the way it works–I have to get SOMEthing down on the page so there’s something to edit later on, right? So now I need to figure out where my next entry point into this part of the manuscript is. I think it may be Merrilyn’s first date with her future husband. We will see.

So things are shaping up very quickly in my writer world. I may have to white-knuckle my way through all the events, but maybe not. Maybe I can be calm. I’d like to be, but a little adrenaline never hurt anybody either.