Traveling and Musing

It was a funny time to be traveling around, talking about books. I think Ann Patchett said it best in her recent blogpost, which you can read HERE.

And talking about books like mine seemed like a relatively important way to help kids figure out their worlds. Just before my visit to SQUARE BOOKS JR. in Oxford, MS, the fabulous folks there tweeted this about my visit:

So I think I'll share a few photos from my week going "home" to Mississippi and let them speak for themselves.

The event at Square Books Jr. The table that greeted me!

My friend Frieda Quon stirred up the Chinese community and they came! 
And my family, they came!
We had some really great conversation afterwards at Boure on the Square in Oxford.
Thank you, Frieda. Thank you, Jane and George.

My sister donated a copy of MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG to the Batesville library, where I met the very smart and enthusiastic new librarian, a recent transplant from New Jersey!

And of course, we ate.

The obligatory stop for fried chicken, turnip greens and the like, 

and boiled peanuts- at the local gas station.

Lunch with family after my event at the Friends of the Bolivar County library event.
(where nobody took a single photo?)
Thank you to all the people who came and asked great questions.
And to my friend Lonnye Sue for inviting me!

Airport grocery for barbecue. My past life is on the walls...

If you are ever in Cleveland, Mississippi, home of all sorts of attractions like a GRAMMY MUSEUM, be sure to stop in at the Train Museum (HERE's the link). 
My brother, sister and I donated our dad's "train doctor" certificate, and they have it on display!

The opening line in my new book, MAKING FRIENDS WITH BILLY WONG, mentions a 3-cent stamp.
I had to take this photo!

A beautiful drive to Memphis, through the Mississippi Delta. And all good things must end. 

Thank you to all the friends and family who hosted me, showed up for my signings, 

and helped with everything!

PS: Cotton used to be baled like this.

 I guess these are mostly decorative these days.
As a wise southerner once said, (I paraphrase and I think it was either Willie Morris or Dave Barry) Someday Soon all we ever knew about the South will be inside a big book on a coffee table in a Brooklyn brownstone...



If you haven't had enough of my trips home, CLICK HERE for a previous post, with photos.
And a little more about the train that once came through my hometown. You may have heard of it? (The City of New Orleans)  :)

Graceland

 I'm reviewing a book for DELTA MAGAZINE right now. (More later on that.)

It's only available on Kindle, and the magazine mostly reviews traditional books. But because it's written by a local (local to the Delta), we are spotlighting it. 

This is the bargain of the year. 
Dorothy Shawhan's GOING TO GRACELAND. 
Click on that title link up there, please.

Only $8.00 for your Kindle. 
(Free to borrow if you have a Prime Account. Though I hate to share that because I'd love to think the author got a tiny bit of amazon's $$$ if we read this book...)

When I read the New York Times obituary of Delta bluesman, T. Model Ford, this week, it reminded me of the stories Dorothy Shawhan's travelers tell in her book. She's a Delta State University literature literature professor, mostly retired, who now teaches creative writing. 
So the writing is flawless. 
And then there are the stories her characters share. 

Which brings me to T. Model Ford's obituary.
Which you must read. Just for the stories.

Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/arts/music/t-model-ford-late-blooming-bluesman-is-dead.html?emc=eta1

Delta Blues

If there's anybody out there who doesn't know where The Delta is, you must not be from Mississippi. Some have claimed it's as much a state of mind as a geographical designation. But for those who may not have set foot in the Mississippi Delta, it's the flat, rich farmland tucked between the Mississippi and the Yazoo rivers, the northwestern part of the state. And it's my birthplace and my heart’s home.



It's also the birthplace of the Blues. Music, that is. And now it's the title of a collection of short stories, edited by Carolyn Haines.



In this very readable collection, James Lee Burke, John Grisham, Les Standiford, Beth Ann Fennelly, and more—a total of twenty of the best Southern writers—link music, crime, passion, the Blues and the Mississippi Delta.



Many of the stories really grabbed me, sent me searching for more by that author.

In Suzanne Hudson’s “All the Way to Memphis,” two unlikely characters set out on a road trip, stopping at Buck’s Diner, a place where time has stopped. A lone waitress saunters to the table offering more tea, calling them honey and sugar and baby, her “blood red fingernails clicking against heavy glass.”

The characters in Lynne Barrett’s “Blues for Veneece” uncover, quite literally, a crime scene one family had hoped was buried forever. In another story, the wife of a captain of the Parchman State Penitentiary dreams of any life but the one she has.

In fact, most of the characters in these stories seem to dream of elsewhere, singing their own Blues tunes to the beat of an ordinary life.

Often played out against a backdrop of murder and misappropriation, the stories tell of second chances and new beginnings, lives wasted and more than a few rescued. Moonlit nights, shape shifting, concealed and un-concealed weapons make appearances, leaving readers with chills running up spines or hearts beating faster.

As if reading this collection for the pure enjoyment of the writing isn’t enough, a portion of the sales will be donated to literacy efforts in the Delta. Well done, on many counts.

Home Sweet Home

Where do you consider home? I've lived in 11 places in my life, unless I missed one or two (OK, I'm counting college and a few Navy deployments with my husband- so what, I lived there) but the only one I really mean when I say "going home" now is the Mississippi Delta.

I won't bother telling you where it is. You either know or you sure can figure it out. It's been called a lot of things. Some not worth repeating in polite company. One merited its own book title: The Most Southern Place on Earth.

I grew up knowing about cotton, mosquitoes, not smoking while standing up, high school football, food (especially barbeque, finger sandwiches, Cokes, caramel cake, beer.. OK, I'll stop now), and a whole bunch of other stuff I've probably forgotten and never needed to know. But it was an interesting place to grow up for many reasons, good and bad.

(For all you Yankees reading this? Cotton in bloom- Ready for picking, late summer/ early fall.)


Click on over to this Delta blogger, photographer Kallie Dreher, to see some really fabulous pictures and read what she just introduced me to: CULTURALLY INTENSE. That says it all about the Delta.

Her pictures are for sale and, although copyrighted, she's kindly allowed me to share a couple here.

I didn't grow up in Good Grief. My little town had a few more than 7 people, 5 dogs and probably even more than 4 grouchy old men.

But the Delta was home and I still love it.