In which her ladyship admits that her French accent is worse than Mr. Ron Rash's, Ms. Leila Meacham admits that she wasn't born in Texas, a lady loses her shirt while sunbathing in an airplane cockpit (in Texas), Ms. River Jordan admits she will obviously eat anything, and Mr. Michael Malone insists that "...everything you learn about the South in novels is true."

Arts Calendar | STARS |Gossip |Okra | The Blogs | Read This! | Found in Lady Banks' Commonplace Book | On her ladyship's bookshelf

Dearest Readers,

Life is full of serendipitous moments and unlooked-for coincidences, is it not? Whilst paging her way through the books that are featured on the current list of Okra Picks (her ladyship continues to giggle when she types that phrase) she came across a name that sounded vaguely familiar to her. Not so familiar as Mr. Ron Rash (Burning Bright: Stories)—whom her ladyship had the pleasure of seeing last month at the South Carolina Book Festival and who, she discovered, is possessed of a much better French accent than her ladyship’s own—but nevertheless, familiar enough to cause her ladyship to pause, and wonder. Mr. Jeffrey Stepakoff, author of Fireworks Over Toccoa. Mr. Stepakoff, she read, was the co-producer and writer of the television show Dawson’s Creek. This is his first novel.

Well then, her ladyship thought. That explained it. And she dutifully sought out the author and said to him, “My dear sir, I believe we have had dinner together.”

For Dawson’s Creek, although fictionally located in Cape Cod, is in reality called Hewlett’s Creek, located in Cape Fear, North Carolina, and her ladyship had a house there for over a decade. During part of that time, the creek would often be lit  by the artificial brightness of a television production company’s equipment during filming. And her ladyship, if she happened to dine with friends at this time, would find the yard in front of their house all but disappeared under a collection of tents and trailers, for the crew would set up the dining tent and mobile kitchen on their lawn. Her ladyship enjoyed quite a few excellent (and free) meals thanks to the generosity of the film crew.

Her ladyship explained this to Mr. Stepakoff, and wondered if they had ever dined together in the same tent. “My dear lady, he answered, I am sure we have.”

Fireworks over Toccoa is very sweet, and sad, set partially during World War II and partially in the present day as eighty-four-year-old Lily Davis looks back to an earlier time and an unexpected love story. And let us be honest, isn’t love always a little bit unexpected?

Her ladyship, the editor

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!

Ten years of great southern lit for $9.95!

How well do you know your Southern lit? We dare you to use a pen on these crossword puzzles, each inspired by one of the winning titles of the SIBA Book Award, honoring ten years of the very best in Southern literature as chosen by the people who would know...Southern Independent Booksellers! A great gift for your book club, for puzzle-lovers, and anyone who loves Southern literature.

$9.95 paperback. Available at Southern Indie Bookstores.

Play a sample puzzle online!

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. Visit the STARS directory at Authors Round the South for more information.

Literary Gossip & News

The news  of late has been sad, even distressing. Mr. Barry Hannah passed away quite suddenly, on the eve of the Oxford Conference for the Book, where he was to be especially honored. The honors and accolades were still in evidence, but it was a bittersweet moment in the world of Southern letters.

We also lost Mr. Charles Moore, UAP photographer during the Civil Rights Era, whose images of the arrest of The Reverend Martin Luther King remain imprinted upon us even now.

And let us not forget to note the passing of a place, of several places, in fact. For longtime bookstore Goerings Bookstore of Gainsville, Florida, has closed its doors after thirty nine lovely, literary years. The Open Book of Greenville, South Carolina also quietly said good bye to its patrons this month, and by the time the winds of March have blown us into April, we will also have lost Urban Think! In Orlando, Florida. And her ladyship’s favorite local used bookstore, Old Books on Front Street, is no longer on Front Street owing to the inconvenient fact that their building was condemned. They lead a rather virtual existence at the moment.

Her ladyship, the editor’s grandmother used to say to her in times of adversity (such as the time when she broke her favorite necklace) “The Lord giveth, and the Lord can taketh away.” It was not a sentiment which aroused much sympathy in her ladyship’s then young and suffering heart.  Now, older and wiser and more careful with her jewelry she remembers that the Lord may taketh, but he also often giveth. For while some booksellers may have closed their doors, others have thrown them wide open, including Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Still others, if they have not quite thrown open the doors, are at least patting their pockets and looking for the keys to unlock them. Avid Bookshop and Over the Moon Bookstore and Gallery (Crozet, VA) are both planning on opening this spring.

And while some Southern voices may have been lost to us, others continue in robust hale and hearty fashion. Walker Percy’s for example, which has been preserved in the newly created Walker Percy Center for Writing and Publishing.

Nor have we lost the voice of the Shenandoah. The literary review is not going away, it is going digital.

Listen, also to the voices from Virginia Festival of the Book: Ms. Lee Smith: “. . . one of my definitions of Southern literature is, “Could this story have happened in any other place?” In many cases, it couldn’t have. This has been traditional with Southern writing, but this is changing as the South is changing.” and Mr. Michael Malone, whose wise opinion her ladyship is considering putting into cross-stitch and framing to hang above her desk: “Everything about the South you learn in novels is true.”

Author 2 Author

Leila Meacham: Reinventing the Epic Saga
A conversation with Jackie K. Cooper

When you read Leila Meacham’s best selling novel Roses it is a little like stepping back in time. This seventy-one year old retired school teacher writes in the style and manner of an Edna Ferber or a Margaret Mitchell, but there is nothing old fashioned or out dated about the content of her book. She just writes a story that can best be classified as a sweeping saga that crosses several generations in relating the stories of a Texas family. It is a style we have not seen lately but it suits her and her story telling abilities.

When I contacted Leila Meacham and established a time for our interview she e-mailed me she would be waiting and she would have the coffee on. That’s the kind of warm and informal person she is. When I did get her on the phone I felt that we had been talking for years and it seemed she and I were sitting at a kitchen table drinking coffee and having a wonderful conversation.

The first thing I asked was whether or not Roses was her first book. At first she said yes but then she amended that to say she had written three romance novels. “It was back in the mid-80’s and a friend bet me I could write one of those novels and I bet her I couldn’t. Well I lost that bet as Walker and Company bought the first one and signed me to a three book contract. I had to buy my friend an expensive steak dinner,” she said with a laugh.

“Once I finished those three books I was through with writing. I don’t like deadlines. It is like being forced to write something,” she added. “It wasn’t until after I retired from teaching that I began a draft of Roses.”

Leila and her husband live in San Antonio and she taught high school English for twenty years. “I wasn’t born in Texas,” she admitted, “but I got her just as quickly as I could. I love living in the south and think southerners and especially southern writers are wonderful.” This could be why she mentions Carson McCullers and Edna Ferber as two of her favorite authors.

She is also an admirer of Daniel Silva. “His books have such a great narrative to them,” she confided. “You know publishers don’t like for books to have too much of a narrative in them but he does it and is successful with it.”

Leila Meacham feels she was truly inspired to write Roses. A strong Christian, she states it was up to her to write the book and God did the rest. How else to explain the way she landed famed literary agent David McCormick as her agent. “I was at a luncheon,” she explained, “and a good friend of mine asked if I was through with my book. I told her I was. A few days later she told me her niece was married to the agent David McCormick and that he had agreed to take a look at a synopsis of my story.

I didn’t even have a synopsis at that time so I sat down and wrote one and again it was inspired. I sent it to him and he wrote back and asked to see the manuscript, which he later agreed to represent. He sent it out and told me that five publishers wanted it. It ended up with Grand Central Publishing who have been wonderful to me and the book. They have done a great job with publicity and everything else.”

Generally stories about getting a book published are not this simple. Leila knows this and seems truly in awe of how easy it has been. “David has been amazing to work with. He is willing to wait for the next book without pushing me to finish it. It is going to be another saga, probably around six hundred pages. I could never be one of those authors who just turns out one book after another in order to meet a deadline. I have to write and think and mull over my story. If I need to spend an hour getting the right word then that is what I will spend,” she said with firmness in her voice.

“I am hard on myself and I will drive myself to get things done, but I don’t want to have to deal with deadlines. I do my own research and when I write something I know when it is right,” she concluded.

“It is amazing how the characters will lead me in the right way to tell their story,” she continued. “They just take control and the story will just flow through you. That is when you know you are getting it right.”

When I ask if there will be a movie or mini-series of Roses Leila informs me there is interest. “David tells me there a lot of people interested but you never know about these things. Everyone has an opinion as to who should play Mary and Percy and Rachel. But who knows?”

As we ended our conversation Leila shared a story with me about a person who had read the book – twice. He told her the first time he read it, it was good but not great. Then he decided to read it again and this time he realized why it is considered to be a great story and novel. He explained that the first time he rushed through it just to learn the secrets of the plot. The second time he read it for the characters. He claimed it was like reading another book. The secret, he told her, is you have to stop and smell the Roses.

And that is the secret of Leila Meacham’s grand success with this epic novel. It is a book filed with living, breathing characters who give the book more than just a plot, they give it atmosphere. ---JKC

Jackie K. Cooper was born in South Carolina and now lives in Georgia. He is the married father of two sons and the proud grandparent of a boy and two girls. His latest collection of stories is titled THE SUNRISE REMEMBERS which was also published by Mercer University Press.

Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book

Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) like the PT

One day a trainee was soloing on a perfect day and could not resist exposing herself to the sun. She soon learned that, although Cochran’s Convent was off limits to the male cadets, in the skied women trainees were fair game. She trimmed the PT perfectly so that it flew almost by itself, and held it straight and level by holding the stick still between her knees. Checking for other aircraft in the area and seeing none, she took her shirt off and leaned back, her face toward the sun. After several luxurious minutes, she heard an unexpected roar. Opening her eyes, she saw two other PTs on either side of her. Soon she was surrounded by a flock of primary trainers. In the cockpits were not women trainees from Avenger Field, but male cadets who were grinning and waving enthusiastically. Her PT began to weave and bob as she fumbled with her shirt in the windy cockpit. The shirt slipped out of her hands and sailed away over the roar of the engines her aerial audience cheered. She ducked down in the cockpit and, sneaking looks over the side, banked steeply and headed back toward Avenger Field. When she landed, she taxied to the flight line, cut the engine. From a seemingly empty cockpit, waiting trainees heard a voice yell: “ Somebody bring me a blanket!”

--From Women in the Wild Blue: Target-Towing WASP at Camp Davis, by David Stallman

From the Blogs

The Authors

A Wing and a Prayer: Authors River Jordan and Shellie Rushing Tomlinson were challenged by a mutual fan to join forces and take their respective radio selves on the road to interview book sellers, book clubs, readers and yes – even each other - as they create shows focused on great storytelling. The challenge has been accepted and The Southern Wing & A Prayer Tour will be arriving in the nearabout’s of your hometown spring 2010.

Book lovers will not want to miss out on the storytelling fun run as River and Shellie’s charge across seven states reading from Saints In Limbo and Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On, interview each other with surprise questions and comments at every stop, talk to book clubs about their favorite new reads, and query those great unsung hero’s – the booksellers themselves about just how they found themselves supporting thousands of writers and millions of written words every year, all of which will be featured in upcoming radio programs.

They also eat some quite, um, interesting food.

A Good Blog is Hard to Find  : This is the time of year when Floridians open their doors for their friends and family who have been shivering up north for months. And it reminds me of the things that I love the most about where I live. Here they are, both the warts and the diamonds.

• Our Conch Republic dress code. We so worship leisure and comfort here that dressing up for dinner at a four-star restaurant means choosing the khaki shorts that have pleats. My executive wife loves the fact that she can go to work on most days sans hose.
  
• With surf shops, Trans Ams, flowing beer, and a plethora of tanned, tattooed bodies, Fort Myers Beach is the Gulfshore's Coney Island and a fascinating study of human sexuality and hedonism.
  
• Sunsets anytime, anywhere, though I am partial to the sharp-edged, hot-pink lozenges common in mid-winter.
  
• Dolphins in the bay. Pelicans in the air. read more
  

Janis Owens: Though I make light of it in the cookbook, there is in our cultural mélange the unsettling reality of the Mean Cracker. You know: the slack-jawed miscreant you hate to see appear in the movie; the one with the hillbilly accent and missing front tooth, whose introduction to the storyline guarantees the most dewy innocent member of the cast is about to go through an unpleasant life-changing moment.

I shudder as much as anyone when they appear, as I’ve met a few such bullies in my day and make it my business to take a wide berth around them. The few documented murderers in our tribe were less feared than the bullies, because bullies are just a pestilence, while murderers, if they had just cause, were respected. read more

The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature:  Women writing in Kentucky today share two themes. One is a loss of culture. Not nostalgia precisely, though it can look a little like it. Rather an urgency to record what was of value about the older skower ways before they disappear. The second is an honoring of our elders… read more

Fried Chicken and Coffee: You don’t have to pay much attention to this blog to know I’m a huge Ron Rash fan.  His new collection Burning Bright arrived in the mail yesterday. I’m saving it until tonight when I can devote full attention to it. In the interim, here’s a review from, of all places, the Harvard Crimson. read more

The Booksellers

A Cappella: Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s Jeff Garlin, was in town to promote his new book, My Footprint and to perform at the 14th Street Playhouse on Friday night and at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center on Saturday. My Footprint is about Garlin's simultaneous attempt to lose weight and "go green." Like everything he does, though, it's also about making people laugh.  read more

A Reading Life: But most of us read for story. We like to get lost in a book. And this, I think, is what made me whimper a bit when my friend wrote that she preferred to read three good short books to one good long one. I really like to get lost in a book. Really lost. Not a “Calgon, take me away” hour-long bubble bath lost. Not a lazy afternoon on the beach with a book and a cooler of beer lost. No, I prefer to be David Livingstone somewhere in Africa lost.  Lost with no hope of return, and does somebody need to send out a rescue party? read more

Book Witches Blog  Demographically, the term “young adult” generally refers to people 18-24 or 20-24 years old. You will often see separate categories for  Teens and for Young Adults in surveys, indicating that they are in fact two separate, if overlapping, groups. As I’m sure many of you have noticed, in recent years the term “young adult” has, in some contexts, been adjusted from its traditional meaning referring to, well, young ADULTS, to refer to all teenagers; the two terms are often used interchangeably. In the world of books, especially.  (Even television ratings surveys peg young adults as 18-34 years old.) read more

Burry Bookstore:  From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose voice you'll never, ever forget. Out of My Mind - Sharon Draper

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school--but no one knows it. Most people--her teachers and doctors included--don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can't, because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write.

Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind--that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.
read more

Regulator:  Discovered painted on the trash can outside the shop.

In the hopes of
Reaching for the Moon
Men fail to
see the
flowers
that blossom
at their feet

Albert Schweitzer see the photo

Page 854:  Here in the North Carolina mountains we're trying not to get accustomed to our current spell of early spring weather for fear that we will be thrown right back into the gales and storms of winter. Last week, for example, the wind blew and the snow fell, but that didn't stop Accent on Books from taking our show on the road on three different occasions. On Sunday and Friday last week, we were proud to take copies of Requiem by Fire, Wayne Caldwell's new novel, to two different receptions honoring the increasingly famous author. read more

Pomegranate Books:  GARDEN EXTRAVAGANZA DAY! and we can't wait!
Here are some of the fun events to anticipate.

• Kids activties

• Garden storytime

• Garden workshops

• Book signings (Of COURSE!)

• Information about organic gardening

• Raffle of a GREAT BIG BASKET OF GARDEN GOODIES

All proceeds from the raffle, and any donations that day will go to the New Hanover County Arboretum's Ability Garden.  They do great work, helping people with challenges enjoy life through gardening.  Read more about them here. and here

Read This!
recommended reading from your neighborhood southern booksellers

THE LOST CITY OF Z: A TALE OF DEADLY OBSESSION IN THE AMAZON by DAVID GRANN
“In the early 1900s, much of the Amazon jungle was an unexplored and mysterious terrain that ate men alive. Hostile indigenous tribes, infectious swarms of insects and extreme lack of food made traveling in this environment a horrific, yet addictive, experience. In 1925, a hardened veteran explorer, Percy Fawcett disappeared into the jungle in search of “The Lost City of Z.” His disappearance long remained a mystery as generations of explorers met their fate following his dream. With unprecedented access to Fawcett’s personal diaries, David Grann retraces Fawcett’s last expedition in a thrilling quest to uncover the Amazon’s greatest secret.” Christian at Inkwood Books

Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett. Hardback, $26.00.
A hard-driving investment banker, a New England spinster whose dogs talk to her, and a high school stoner who stirs up strong passions in both of them. It's hard to believe, but this prophetic book was written before last year's financial melt-down. Banker Doug Fanning could well be the Gatsby of our time. As the review on the web site bookslut puts it, "Haslett hasn't written a novelization of the nation's most recent economic debacle; this is, at its heart, a book about people...It's been years since a novel has captured the zeitgeist of contemporary America this well; it's been years since a new author has convinced us, with just two books, that there might be nothing he can't do."  Regulator Books

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
by Rebecca Skloot
Crown Publishing, hd. 26.00
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. Square Books
Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier

I really think this is Chevalier's best book yet. (Her previous novels include The Girl with the Pearl Earring.) It is a novel but is based largely on the lives of two women who were fossil hunters in Lyme Regis, England, in the early 19th century. Although I think the title is meant to refer to the fossils they found, these two women were remarkable creatures themselves. Read the first paragraph or two and see if you can put it down!
' Margot Wilcox, City Lights Books

Winter/Spring 2010 Okra Picks & the 2010 SIBA Book Award Long List

What would you do if someone said “Here are a hundred books you should read”? If that does not sound daunting, then her ladyship would like to point you to the 2010 SIBA Book Award Long List. This is a list of every book that has been nominated for the award, so, in other words, every book published last year that Southern booksellers wanted—and still want—you to read.

Then too, don’t forget to have some Okra. These are the books from this year those same booksellers want you to watch out for:

Fiction

Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives by Brad Watson
W.W. Norton, March 2010
9780393057119 $23.95

An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell
Unbridled Books, April 2010
9781936071661, $24.95

Burning Bright: Stories by Ron Rash
Ecco, March 2010
9780061804113 $22.99

Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
St. Martin’s Press, April 2010
9780312581589, $22.99

Hold Up the Sky by Patricia Sprinkle
New American Library,  March 2010
9780451229144, $15.00

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler
Grand Central Publishing,  April 2010
9780446540681, $23.99

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, January 2010
9780670021390, $25.95

This is Just Exactly Like You by Drew Perry
Viking,  April 2010
9780670021543, $25.95

Nonfiction

Confessions of a Rebel Debutante by Anna Fields
Harpercollins, April 2010
9780399156311, $24.95

Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming by Rheta Grimsley Johnson
New South Books, April 2010
9781588382504, $24.95

Gullah Cuisine: By Land and Sea by Charlotte Jenkins and William Baldwin
Evening Post Publishing Company with Joggling Board Press,  March 2010
9780981873596, $36.95

I Love You, Now Hush by Melinda Rainey Thompson and Morgan Murphy
John F. Blair, February 2010
9780895873781, $16.95

Lincoln on Trial by Burrus M. Carnahan
University of Kentucky Press, February 2010
9780813125695, $30.00

Lady Banks’ Bookshelf