Authors 'Round the South

Arts Calendar | STARS | Book Festivals | Gossip | Author 2 Author | The Blogs | Read This! | found in Lady Banks' Commonplace Book | On her ladyship's bookshelf

Her ladyship, twittering, endlessly.

Dearest Readers,

Her ladyship, the editor has been all atwitter of late, as those of you who “follow” her at “ladybanks” must surely have noticed. She has a Facebook account for herself and a MySpace account for her cat; she can instant message, and “Skype,” she has a blog and a “Goodreads” account, she can “Bookmooch” and the books she mooches can be seen at her library upon LibraryThing. She finds it rather ironic, in fact, that she is apparently so instantly accessible to so very many people simply sitting at her kitchen table.

So, somewhat perversely as she works at home and alone, her ladyship has found herself longing for solitary time away from all this—admittedly often delightful—chatter. She finds herself embarking upon projects that require a slow pace and a focused attention; she has, for example, begun a project to see every Shakespeare play performed (You may read about how well that is going here and here). She bakes her own bread and relishes the time required to knead the dough. She is wistfully contemplating a proposal to participate in a year-long group read of James Joyce’s Ulysses. And she is gazing at her William Faulkner books and wondering whether she need wait until August to reread Light in August.

It seems quite ridiculous that her ladyship sits surrounded by so very many books and still finds it difficult to set aside enough time to read. For this reason, her ladyship has decided quite firmly and with admirable determination, that part of her life must be simplified. Things must be abandoned in order to make way for time to read. Therefore, after a careful and sober deliberation, her ladyship has decided not to vacuum or dust or wash clothes quite so frequently.

Authors 'Round the South

Authors Round the South is the home of one of the most extensive listings of literary events in the South, including author readings & appearances, book club meetings, book & literary festivals, open mics, poetry slams and writing groups. No matter what part of the South you live in, you can find a bookstore and author appearance near you!

Reader, meet writer: STARS authors on the road

The following authors are traveling this month and open to meeting with book clubs, talking to schools and participating in library programs. To find out more information click on the author's name to see their profile and request them for an event. There are hundreds of authors in the STARS directory, and new writers and trips are added every day. Visit the STARS directory at Authors Round the South for more information.

Book Festivals & Special Events

Author! Author! Shreveport’s Celebration of the Written Word
Location: Shreveport, LA
Date: July
This festival promotes reading in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas with not only guest authors and the usual book festival activities such as workshops, panels and author presentations and signings, but also a Pre-Opening Event and a Grand Ball.

Haywood County Book Mania
Location: Waynesville, NC
Date: August 1
Haywood County Bookmania is returning thanks to generosity of Waynesville's First Presbytarian Church. Mark your calendar for August 1st 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We expect 35-40 regional authors and readers from all over. There will be a couple of surprises for the day so be sure to come and stay. Readings, story-telling, and refreshments will be available too.

Decatur Book Festival
Location: Decatur
Date: August/September
A multi-day event that features 14 stages packed with authors, live music, poetry readings, panel discussions, signings and cooking demonstrations. The children will be entertained with authors and illustrators, a parade and field trips and games/activities. The downtown square will be filled with food and been vendors, a wine garden and plenty of other culinary establishments. The Rare and Collectible Book Fair is included and closely aligned is the Writers’ Conference.

Georgia Literary Festival
Location: “Moveable”; it moves to a new location within the state each year.
Date: September
This festival focuses though not exclusively on homegrown authors. Over the course of three days, it offers readings, storytelling, theatre, a book sale, lectures, author appearances and signings, craft demonstrations, children’s activities, exhibitors and more.

Bookmarks Book Festival   
Location: Winston-Salem
Date: September
A one-day festival that nevertheless offers a rich variety of events. The authors, readings, panels, storytelling, demonstrations, writing workshops, book signings, interactive activities such as Games Readers Play and Literary Parties, reading-related exhibitors and food vendors all work to make this a very special events.

North Carolina Literary Festival
September 10 - 13
Noted North Carolina authors Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle, along with acclaimed Nashville musicians Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman, will perform together the original works that inspired the "Good Ol' Girls". Created in 1998, the musical "Good Ol' Girls" debuted at the first North Carolina Literary Festival, continues to be staged by regional repertory companies and a production most recently appeared on UNC-TV. Readings and discussions by Smith and McCorkle, describing some of their best known scenes and characters, will alternate with selections rendered vocally and on guitar by Berg and Chapman.  Venue and ticket information available in August.

Charlotte Literary Festival    
Location: Charlotte
Date: September
This small but growing festival hosts local, regional and national authors in various genres who greet guests at panels, presentations and signings. Also included are bands, an Authors’ Lane, vendors, and a Kids’ Corner that includes an arts and crafts fair. There are also storytellers and other live entertainment as well as special events.

Fall for the Book Festival
Location: Fairfax
Date: September
This week-long event includes lectures, talks, receptions, readings, a used book sale, music, children’s entertainment, all of which revolve around writing, reading, books, current events and more.

Literary Gossip & News

Oh my. It is the tenth anniversary of the GET CAUGHT READING literacy program, sponsored by AAP (Association of American Publishers).  Her ladyship can still bring to mind the picture of young Anakin Skywalker curled up with a book, smiling innocently at the camera with nary a hint that he would soon grow up to be one of the most frightening forces of evil in the known universe. (Her ladyship is quite the Star Wars fan).  Oddly enough, she can’t remember the book he was reading, but she has noted that Inkwood Books in Tampa, FL is celebrating this auspicious anniversary with their own “Get Caught Reading” photo contest, complete with a panel of distinguished customers as judges. (Her ladyship wonders, are any of their customers ‘undistinguished’?).Submit your entry by email or drop a copy at the bookstore by August 1. Grand Prize is a $100 Inkwood gift card plus a poster of your photo in the bookstore for a year and one to take home.

Some congratulations are in order, first for Erica Eisdorfer of the Bulls Head Book Shop in Chapel Hill, NC. Erica has just had her historical novel The Wet Nurse’s Tale published by Putnam. She is now one of the “STARS” authors traveling in the South and enjoying the bookstore experience from the other side of the counter.  Also, her ladyship was pleased to note that Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC has moved to a bigger, better, busier location.

And her ladyship, the editor was most gratified to read this story profiling Belmont, NC’s Bookin’ It! Mobile Bookstore and its owner, David Bratcher. It is possibly the only bookstore of its kind. Unless anyone else knows of a bookstore in a 25 foot air conditioned trailer? With carpeting? Her ladyship thinks it could only happen in the South.

Also of note:

The Oxford American has a new website, and its cyber finger on the pulse of southern culture.

Mr. David Sedaris bribes the people who came to his reading to buy somebody else’s books.

The Decatur Book Festival has announced its line up (with a poster that would make the Simpsons Comic-Store guy salivate!)

There is still time to enter the Save the Frogs Poetry Contest (deadline is July 10th)and, speaking of off-the-cuff found poetry, they are hosting a contest for Southern Haiku over at Maggie Reads.  Her ladyship just attempted to write a review in haiku, but was only able to say the most scathing things on the theory that any book worth reviewing in three lines was hardly worth discussing at all. So she is doing the mannerly thing and since she can’t say something nice, she will not say anything at all.

Author 2 Author

It takes some kind of courage to run a bookstore, and another kind of bravado to start up a literary festival in light of the current economic conditions and the overall bad news about the book industry.

None of that deterred Farris Yawn, however. Yawn’s Books in Canton, Georgia recently kicked-off the Literary Celebration in collaboration with the Canton Festival of the Arts. While the weather was less than cooperative, Yawn said that many of his customers stopped by the store the next week saying, “Let’s do it again next year.”

River Jordan and Karen Spears Zacharias were two of a multitude of authors featured on panels throughout the weekend. Join Karen as she interviews River Jordan about her stunning new release, Saints In Limbo.

Q:  There is a myth in Saints In Limbo about angels falling out of heaven. Did the novel originate with this myth? Was this really something you’d heard growing up or was it something you conjured up all by your lonesome? 

River: I do my best work conjuring in my lonesome. The novel originated with this image I had of Velma sitting on her porch. That was it. I knew it was her birthday and that something special, and unusual was coming in a whirlwind.  The Angels fell from Heaven on their own accord. ‘Course, I think there is something about that back there in the beginning of days in the Bible.

Q: Reviewers are calling Saints In Limbo classic Southern Gothic. Was that your intent?

River: I never seem to intend anything as a writer but Lord knows, I’d like to. I guess my only intent is to really tell the story that’s asking to be told. If reviewers are saying classic Southern Gothic, I count myself in good company. I used to walk around searching for my genre the way some people do a mate. I needed genrematch.com or something. Then an editor looked at a manuscript of my first novel years ago and said the same thing – Southern Gothic. Maybe that’s the case but it was never my intent.

Q: The rock given to Velma True by the stranger at her door transports her beyond the boundaries of time and death. It has similar qualities as the Terrasact in A Wrinkle in Time, although its purposes are quite different, aren’t they?

River: When this gift was given to Velma it wasn’t clear to me what its purpose was. I don’t exactly know things in advance when I’m writing. What Velma taught me was that our lives are made up not of years, or days, or even minutes – but moments. Possessing those fully can be powerful medicine.

Q: There’s a beautiful scene of physical longing between Velma and Joe in the barn. Does it take discipline as a writer to stop short of offering today’s readers the solicitous sex they are so accustomed to? Or do readers ever express disappointment that you didn’t write such scenes in salacious detail?

River: Okay, first to be very honest, I’m laughing. People – you know, people, always say sex sells. So, I used to joke that I would start my next novel with a sex scene. But it was really a joke. Reckon I just don’t feel compelled to write them. However, I do know something about old people. I had grandparents and great-grandparents that were a huge part of my life. Both living with us and taking care of them in all manner. What that taught me was a level of understanding, compassion, and comprehension. 

What I guess I’m saying is, I know something about growing old and it doesn’t take much to imagine what it would be like to be growing toward what you think are the end of your days and then to suddenly find yourself so very, much younger, newly married, and staring at your husbands naked, sweaty back in a barn. ‘Nuff said I guess so I don’t add salacious details. It’s repossessing that moment with full awareness and passion that makes it so special.

Q:  Saints In Limbo is published by WaterBrook, billed as the inspirational imprint of Random House. Do you worry about being branded an “inspirational” writer? Would such a brand be an accurate description of your work? Or of this work specifically?

River: Honey, I was raised by the tribe of Eeyore. I can worry about anything and everything. As a literary southern writer, I would like my work to find it’s way to the hands of people who will embrace the story being told. In that respect, I don’t want to be branded anything that would keep any reader from picking up Saints In Limbo and discovering what lies inside those pages. So, I think that the work, my writing, can be brandied Southern Gothic more than anything else. Often us southerners embrace the dark side in our writing but I just run my toes through it. The light is more evident in my stories. A prevailing sense of hope, of hanging onto love, if nothing else. I think that’s where the inspirational tag sneaks in.

Of course, one of the greatest compliments anyone has ever given me is, “River, you inspire me.” And I hear that frequently either in reference to a novel or to a speaking engagement. But what I inspire people to do seems to run the gamut between calling their grandmother, to going fishing, or writing their memoir. I’m just a mixed bag of stories. There seems to be something for everyone in there.

Q:   The writing in Saints has an ethereal quality, very reminiscent of Toni Morrison in that haunting way. Who are the writers that have shaped your style of writing?

River: So many writers have influenced me in so many ways but I think it was listening to all those old people telling stories when I was a little girl that had the greatest influence really on my writing. It was the poetry of their words, their southern cadence, their dreams, faith, and even their superstition. It’s that dark house on a stormy night, the creek on a hot summer afternoon, and porch talk at firefly time. Moonshine under the moonlight and people who had faith in God always even in the middle of a lot of poverty and pain.

Q: The redemption in Saints isn’t in the plan of salvation or even in the magical rock, but is found in the act of surrender, of letting go of the fear. Tell us about how the title came about. What does it represent to you?

River: I flat out stole the title from a friend during conversation. I was telling her a story (surprise) and she said-"oh, like, saints in limbo, right?" And then my eyes did that cartoon bugged out thing because I was half-way through the novel and I just knew that was the perfect title. I think we are all everyday ordinary saints and we're all transitioning from one thing to another whether we like it or not. And a lot of times in life it seems like we are just stuck on our druthers. I think that's when men go fishing and women dye their hair. Or vice-versa. I don't want to give anything away because the novel really hits on the title deeper into the story.

Q: You appear to have an easy knack for phrasing. I loved your line about Rudy, Velma’s errant good-for-little son. You said “Manhood was not his number.” And that, he had “bedded a paper-chain of women.” Do you labor over such descriptions or do they rush in as you write?

River: I have to show up and be willing to listen, but they just come out like that. I’m so thankful for that.

Q: How long between the inception of a novel to a finished draft for you?

River:  All my life. Really. For this reason. Those voices I heard as a child come floating back up full force. Then that’s all mixed in with Dr. Yolanda Reed of the Loblolly telling me something wise, such as, “Just listen to the story, that’s all. Just listen.” And then of course Velma’s place is none other than my daddy’s old homestead, a real place that took no time to create at all. I worked on Saints In Limbo for three years but that’s no tried and true formula. On the other hand, I have a novel I’ve been carrying around now for over seven years but it’s not the right season yet for that work. I love the process. I think the most important thing is when I get that fist little snap, something inside catches my attention, and I keep testing that image or voice to see if it’s true. If so, and the character keeps talking, then they’ve got me. I’m in there with them for the ride no matter how long it takes. Three months of no sleep and absolute solitude or ten years makes no never mind. I do start out writing on a new novel for just a few hours a day but when the story picks up momentum- I’m gone, living there in my mind all the time and might as well be writing it all down all day, all night long.

Q: What are the non-negotiables for you when deciding to commit the remaining hours of your life to reading a book? What does that book have to offer you? And how do you incorporate that into your own writing?

River: The remaining hours of my life? Okay, now I’m distracted and thinking about my funeral. I think I’ll have boiled peanuts and really good music. Maybe a live band. Okay – back to reading. I want to read something that sets my soul on fire. I want to read words that tell me what it was to have been human and to set my feet on this planet for even just a little while. I want to carry some truth away about this life that I didn’t recognize before. To connect to another person’s life in the process. To cry, fight, laugh, love, and live more passionately than when I first turned that page.

I want the story to carry me somewhere wonderful whether it’s South America, or a riverboat, or even if it’s only a backyard on a summer night. And it doesn’t matter if it’s wonderful contemporary voices southern and otherwise, or the older voices of Mark Twain, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Flannery O’Conner, Harper Lee – the list goes on into eternity. Just give me that great story. Carry me away. The words can be soft or sharp, biting or butter, I just want the passion of the writer to be so intense that the words are like a white, hot light on the page.

From the Blogs

The Authors

A Good Blog is Hard to Find: Peggy Webb finds reasons to stop writing in her pajamas-- I’ve been wearing pajamas all day for five days (different ones, since you asked), and I don’t how to stop. But I DO know how it started.  Day One: I woke up to the sound of rain pelting my skylight, and said to myself, “Oh, well, I’m not getting out in that. I might as well not even get dressed.” Since I write in my office at home, nobody would notice, anyhow - except my two fierce watchdogs. And they never change clothes, so why should they care? . . .read more.

Dead Mule School of Southern Literature: If Sisyphus is one myth we can’t live without, Quixote is another. I fear, here in Kentucky, this effort is Quixotic. Or perhaps Sisyphean. . .read more.

Janis Owens is Outdone by a Georgia Cracker: I have to confess that after many years of supremacy, I have finally been outdone in the matter of Daddy’s old fangers. One of my many Georgia cousins, Cynthia Rudd, whose great-great-grandfather Demonsthenes was older brother to my great-great-grandfather, Hortenscious, claims that one of her uncles had his foot cut off in a train accident before the war, and kept it in a jar in her Grannie’s cellar, where it still resides, to this day. In a Jar. In the cellar.  Remind me to never volunteer to clean out any of my Georgia cousins’ houses when their time comes. . .read more

Fried Chicken and Coffee: An old interview with Dorothy Allison “I have a theory about writing fiction. I often run into young writers who ask me the question "How can you tell those terrible stories about people? How can you make them seem almost real, or liveable or loveable?" And my theory is that if you create a character and if you tell enough about that character, even if you are creating someone who is a villain or someone who does terrible things, if you tell enough about them, then you have the possibility of loving them.” Read more.

The Booksellers

A Cappella Books: Great Nonfiction-- Whenever anyone asks me for a recommendation for a good book about Atlanta, I always suggest Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn by Gary Pomerantz…Read more.

A Reading Life: It looked, at first glance, like an ordinary box filled with a half dozen books—some new looking, some quite clearly bearing the small dings and scratches that come from a long existence on somebody’s bookshelf. It was an eclectic collection of titles:

A biography of Lucy Audubon.
A novel called The Twin by a Dutch author
A illustrated edition of The Elements of Style
A small book of calligraphy with botanical illustrations from the court of Rudolph II published by the Getty Museum
A coffee table version of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam published in the sixties.
A coffee table book on the Uffizi from a series called “Museums of the World” published by Newsweek in the seventies

Bound to be Read: Pete the Cat was walking down the street in his new white shoes singing, “I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes,” when … Oh, no … Pete stepped in a large pile of …read more

Consuming Books: Who’s recommending what?  Jill Hendrix, owner of Fiction Addiction in Greenville, SC, offers these titles for Summer reading: Return to Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank, Ape House by Sara Gruen, Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton, Apostle by Brad Thor, Black Hills by Nora Roberts, Off Season by Ann Rivers Siddons, Siege of Macindaw by John Flanagan.

Beth Carpenter from The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC, recommends these titles for summer reading: Valeria’s Last Stand by Marc Fitten, Border Songs by Jim Lynch, Beach Trip by Cathy Holton, Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri (author of Snow in July).

Fraser Dobson of Park Road Books in Charlotte NC suggests these non-fiction titles:
Family Bible by Melissa Delbridge, Shadow Divers or Crashing Through by Robert Kurson, Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdon, and My Father’s Paradise by Ariel Sabar.

Hooray for Books!:Did you know that the Jacuzzi brothers invented the first whirlpool bath  for a family member with arthritis?? Or that the first recorded birthday celebrations were those of  the early Egyptian Pharaohs? Robert Crowther’s Pop-Up House of Inventions includes “hundreds of fabulous facts about your home” in a fun and interactive manner.  Detailing one room at a time, children can look inside the washing machine, check under the bed, pull the shade, and look inside the wardrobe to find out random and unexpected truths about anything and everything inside their home! Read more.

Page 854:  Remembering Catcher in the Rye. One of the first times I became aware of Catcher in the Rye was back in junior high school when the Coolest Kid In The School -- imagine a combination of Draco Malfoy and James Dean -- was reading it. When a few of us asked him to tell us about it, he simply gave us a disdainful look which seemed to say, "There is no way I can explain to you losers the profundities contained in this novel." Read more.

The Regulator:  Recommended Reading from really important people at the American Booksellers Association:
Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys. (Delacorte Press, $22.00)
“In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river."
So begins this breathtaking and original work, which contains forty vignettes based on events that actually took place each time the historic Thames froze solid. Spanning more than seven centuries--from 1142 to 1895--and illustrated with stunning full-color period art, The Frozen Thames is an achingly beautiful feat of the imagination...a work of fiction that transports us back through history to cast us as intimate observers of unforgettable moments in time….read more

Read This!
recommended reading from your neighborhood southern booksellers

East of the Sun: A Novel by Julia Gregson
(Touchstone, $16 paper, 9781439101124 / 1439101124)
"Julia Gregson's second novel is set in the late 1920s and tells the story of three women traveling to India as part of the 'Fishing Fleet,' English women in search of husbands. A fascinating novel." --Lilo Eder, Fort Ashby Books, Fort Ashby, WV

I'm Down: A Memoir by Mishna Wolff
(St. Martin's, $23.95, 9780312378554 / 0312378556)
"Mishna Wolff's father totally immersed himself and his daughters in black culture. (They are totally white....) Her memoir tells of her trials trying to please her father and stay afloat in different worlds. You will not stop reading I'm Down once you have read the first page." --Judith Lafitte, Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White
(Morrow, $25.99, 9780061351600 / 0061351601)
"Mississippi wheeler-dealer Neil White, after years of snowballing financial deals and deceptions, finds himself assigned to a year in a Federal correction facility in Carville, Louisiana, home to the last people in the continental U.S. with Hansen's Disease -- better known as leprosy. From the unlikely combination of inmates and patients, White struggles to discover new values and to understand a little-known world." --Carolyn Chesser, Bayou Book Company, Niceville, FL

Last Night in Montreal: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel
(Unbridled, $24.95, 9781932961683 / 1932961682)
"Last Night in Montreal is a rare achievement, a gripping, mysterious, and original literary novel about family secrets and the unbearable weight they place on young shoulders. Emily St. John Mandel is a wonderful and refreshingly unorthodox writer, and this should be the start of a brilliant career." --Rich Rennicks, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, Asheville, NC

Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book

Pewter reflections of scarlet hibiscus colored the dirt-smudged windows of the old house, like happy memories of youth trapped inside the shell of an old man. The broken pediments over the windows gave the house a permanent frown, yet the leaf-filtered sun against the chipped Twoer-of-Winds columns lining the side piazzas painted the house with hope. It was almost, I thought, as if the house were merely waiting for a miracle.

--Karen White, The House on Tradd Street (New American Library, 2008)

Lady Banks’ Bookshelf

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