A Southern Missive

I hope you’ll pardon the brief, personal, and therefore, uninteresting post today.

Last night, in addition to meeting with contacts and a small informal signing, I went to House of Shock in New Orleans. What an experience! You can see and read all about the House of Shock here: It has to be the largest, the best, and the most frightening haunted house attraction I’ve ever been to. It is so frightening that one customer actually died from fright. I kid you not. The staff is numerous and well-costumed, the lines are long, and after attending this, no haunted house could hope to compare.

During my return drive today, I met with several teachers, librarians, and a principal in Brookhaven and in McComb. The good news on that as a result of these visits is that I’m going to present a program at the Mississippi School of the Arts in the future, as well as the McComb, MS Public Library. There are a few other programs in the works as a result of my queries, but I’ll let you know about those as they are confirmed.

I was so impressed with the students at the School of the Arts. THOSE are my kind of people. And after viewing a dance class, talking to some creative writers, and seeing visual artists hard at work (the artists are taught by my good friend, Tito) I’d have to say that the brightest and most creative kids in Mississippi are likely to be at this school. I was most impressed! And three of my books are now in the school’s library! I wish Louisiana would have been bold and loved the arts as much as Mississippi did when it created this school. You can see and read all about the school here:

I just arrived home from my two-day trip, and I did not make plans for tonight. I’m overloaded with work anyway. Perhaps I’ll watch a movie or two, but whatever I do, I know my thoughts will be on Halloween–one of my favorite nights of the year.

After an exhausting Friday in New Orleans, an exhausting but exhilarating weekend at NELA Celtic Fest, I am delighted to share this news: Pelican Publishing in Gretna, Louisiana, has agreed to publish two more of my children’s books. These are working titles, as I know the publisher has the right to tweak things. The first is another alphabet picture book with a working title of The Little Confederate’s ABC Book.  I intend for this to be sort of Civil War primer for the children of the South.  Our Southern culture and history is slipping from public and family consciousness and we need to hold on to it. Each letter of the alphabet has text in poem form that teaches the young Southern scholars about the words, history, people, and culture of the South during the Civil War.

The second book has a working title of Sunday School with Professor Jackson, and it tells the story of a black Sunday Presbyterian Sunday school that the great Stonewall Jackson taught at just before the War Between the States.  Several notable and influential black educators and ministers came from that Sunday school. They were also grateful for Jackson’s work, even raising money for a stained-glass window in their church that honored Stonewall. You can see that window today in the church in Roanoke, VA.

The next stage involves the publisher finding a good artist for the work. I suspect the book will be available sometime next year.  I’ll publish sample poems with some illustrations as the artwork comes in.

Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking at the state convention of the Louisiana Reading Association. My topic is, “Why Authors Should Fall to their Knees and Worship Librarians.” I’ll try to make a post about that event tomorrow night.

Yesterday afternoon, I was at Tisket-a-Tasket on Decateur Street in New Orleans. The signing went well, and Ms. Lisa, the owner, as usual was a delight to work with. I met people from all parts of the U.S. including a couple of people from Scotland (They bought the Scottish ABC book) From there, I drove to the Barnes and Noble in Metairie. There, I worked on my online classes for a couple of hours, then presented story time. What a delightful group of parents and children I met!  I told stories of the Civil War and of Scotland and also played my guitar. Here is a photo of me and Gina Liuzza, the Community Relations Manager of that store. She loves her work and it shows in the quality of the program she’s been able to build. She said she was quite pleased with my program.  It looks like this is a store I’ll be back to. I did one signing years ago for my novel, Red River Fever.

I returned home to Monroe late–about 1:00 a.m. Rose early to go to the Celtic Fest here. I worked till about 7:30 p.m. and then left.  It was a great day.  I ‘ll be back tomorrow and certainly will have more to report. I ran into several old friends. Here is a photo of my friend Amy, a very creative and sharp lady whom I haven’t seen in a long time.