A Southern Missive

Tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 1, I’ll have a book signing at the Books-A-Million in Houma, Louisiana. My Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House sells well at the BAM stores. (They’ve all been sell-outs so far) I had thought Houma was thrashed severely by the hurricanes a couple of years ago, but word is that the economy has rebounded well and is actually booming.  I’m always amazed at the good economies once I get out of Monroe (though I know there are places where the economy is worse). After lunch today with my daughter and grandson, I plan on hitting the road to visit libraries and school districts along the way. Timing is difficult, as I must go through Baton Rouge, and traffic there can be very difficult in rush hour. Again, I’ll leave my beloved iBook at home. I’ll return late Saturday night, and if I’m not too tired, I’ll make a post then.

I just returned from the university, and things are as I feared. Though school begins in August, I won’t get my first university check until the end of September.  The administrators at both schools are already asking me about classes I can teach in the spring semester.  I have not fully made up my mind yet on that.  It depends on how the fall goes. Hopefully, I’ll be so busy promoting my book and will have enough funds that I won’t have to teach much, if any. My Website is up and has a new look. Check it out if you get a chance. http://rickeypittman.com/ I just had a counter put on it, and though I know for the past year or so that I’ve had 300-400 hits a month in the past couple of years, I’m hoping it will increase. The counter will make it easier for me to know that. There’s still no word on the exact release day of Stories of the Confederate South, though I know it is already being pre-sold on Amazon. I do know it will be in print sometime in October.

Today, I signed the contract with Pelican for my next children’s book: A Scottish ABC Book.  Teachers and librarians have told me that many people collect ABC books. I’m also at work with the one I hope will follow it: The Little Confederate’s ABC Book.

I’ve had great response to the fact that my Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House will be part of the Accelerated Reader Program. I feel this is a major coup.  I’m drowning in work, and feel somewhat overwhelmed, but somehow I’ll get it all done. A big part of yesterday was spent fooling with the rental car we needed to replace the Camry until we hear how my insurance company will settle on it.  A big hunk of today has already been eaten up with other chores.  My grandson, daughter and son-in-law will be with us this weekend, so some preparations MUST be made for that. I guess sometimes there’s no way out of doing some of those, but I know my writing suffers because they really eat into my time.

This Saturday, I have a signing at the Books-A-Million in Houma, Louisiana. I think Friday I’ll hit the road and work some libraries and school districts on my way there.  My excitement at finally being in the writing business is still high, and my determination still just as strong. Fall is the busy season for marketing books. Many people purchase books as presents too.  Well, just got a call from one of the universities I work with. Seems I have some paperwork I must turn in–like today! Time for Sisyphus to get back to work.

William Wordsworth said, “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.” If I could see him now, I’d punch him in the mouth.  Last night we had a brief storm in my part of Monroe and Mother Nature spanked me.  We have an empty lot next to our house. In the empty lot is a dead pecan tree, not far from my driveway. It used to be larger than it is today. Last night, a demon-wind broke part of the tree and it fell on our 2000 Toyota Camry. Flattened the roof. One limb rises from the shattered windshield like it was a stake driven in the Camry’s heart.  Only moments before this catastrophe, I was sitting in my back patio experiencing and watching the approaching storm. (Like King Lear, I tend to find myself in many storms) Then I heard the distinctive sound of wood thudding into something. I looked at the roof first, thinking a branch had fallen on it. Then I glanced at my car, spiked like some victim of Vlad the Impaler.

I am sure my Camry is totalled. I know it cannot be driven. I just watched as it was towed to Parker’s Auto shop for its postmortem.  Our beloved (and paid for) car has seen its last days.  Soon it will be stripped of all usable parts like a recently deceased organ donor, and someone will make more money than I’ll certainly get with the insurance payoff. So today, in addition to teaching two college classes (that I’m very behind in), I must attend to the details related to my car’s demise: stop by the body shop and sign papers, meet with the adjustor and sign more papers, call the insurance company back and get a claim number, and then get a rental car. I have signings I must prepare for. Must move rocks (paper work) for the university. I also must now think of how I am to replace the vehicle. Grrrr.

So, today, I’m a Naturalist (like Stephen Crane, Dreiser, etc.) in my philosophy. They believed that men were victims of their environment, living in an indifferent universe, and victims of forces they could neither understand nor control. And that was when things were going well.