Christmas Eve eve

Cold here in NE Louisiana, but no snow. Plenty of rain and cold, however. The fat guy is gonna have to mush-mud here.
Nevertheless: Merry Christmas.

Memphis Book signing

Book signing went great at Booksellers at Laurelwood. Lynda Lee Meade Shea, Miss Mississippi/America 1960, came by and we got to visit. Lynda was an early contrbutor of praise for Mississippi Cotton. She is a  genuine Southern lady.

Polk Miller

For a interesting website, visit  http://www.polkmiller.com/

"I not only recommend him to your intelligent notice, but personally endorse him."
Mark Twain

A good old Alabama boy won a bass boat in a raffle drawing.  He brought it
home and his wife looks at him and says,

"What you gonna do with that. There ain't no water deep enough to float a
boat within 100 miles of here."

He says, "I won it and I'm a-gonna keep it."

His brother came over to visit several days later. He sees the wife and asks
where his brother is.  She says,
"He's out there in his bass boat", pointing to the cotton field behind the house.

The brother heads out behind the house and sees his brother in the middle of
the  cotton field sitting in a bass boat with a fishing rod in his hand.  He yells out to him, "What you doin'?"

His brother replies, "I'm fishin'. What does it look like I'm a doin'?"

His brother yells, "It's people like you that give  Alabama a bad
name, makin' everybody think we're stupid. If I could swim, I'd come out there and whip your butt!"

Southern Medical Terminology

Southerners  have the lowest stress rate because
    they do not  take medical terminology  seriously.

Artery................................  The study of paintings
Bacteria...........................  Back door to cafeteria
Barium............................  What doctors do when patients die
Benign.............................  What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section............. A  neighborhood in Rome
Cat  scan.......................... Searching for  Kitty
Cauterize..........................  Made eye contact with her
Colic...............................  A sheep dog
Coma.............................. A  punctuation mark
Dilate...............................  To live long
Enema.............................  Not a friend
Fester.............................  Quicker than someone else
Fibula..............................  A small lie
Impotent..........................  Distinguished, well known
Labour  Pain...................... Getting hurt at  work
Medical  Staff................... A Doctor's cane
Morbid............................ A  higher offer
Nitrates...........................  Cheaper than day rates
Node..............................  I knew it
Outpatient....................... A  person who has fainted
Pelvis.................. ..........  Second cousin to Elvis
Post  Operative............... A letter carrier
Recovery Room............. Place to  do upholstery
Rectum..........................  Damn near killed him
Secretion........................  Hiding something
Seizure............................  Roman emperor
Tablet............................ A  small table
Terminal  Illness............. Getting sick at the  airport
Tumor...........................  One plus one more
Urine.............................  Opposite of you're out

Website getting closer

Getting closer. Hopefully by next week. Also have a signing in Memphis on the 17th at the Book Sellers at Laurelwood from 1-2PM and a signing and reading at the Memphis Cotton Museum from 6-7:30 PM.

Southern English

Conjugation of the verb “to be.”

I am                       We are

You are                 Y’all are

He,she,it   is        They are

Update

Going to try and get to blogging again. I have a WS coming in a day or two or three. And League of the South has posted some nice reviews of Mississippi Cotton.

Signing

Signing at B&N in Jackson, Mississippi went well. Several dozen people came by

Book signing

Book signing at Barnes & Noble April 7, 2011, Ridgeland, Mississippi

Advanced Praise for Mississippi Cotton

"In Mississippi Cotton a 20th Century Huck Finn has a real adventure. No matter that his raft is a Trailways Bus along the river, the trip is no less toward maturity. If you like a good story, this is your book, a book told by someone who knows the terrain--its history, people, landscape and culture. Only a proper native could have his narrator say that his daddy taught him never to hold onto anything with Lincoln's face longer than you had to. If you want to meet a close cousin of Faulkner's well-mannered little gentleman Lucius Priest in The Reivers, then read Mississippi Cotton."

Dr. James Everett Kibler . Dr. Kibler is a retired professor of English at the U. of Georgia. He also has authored novels (Walking toward Home, Memory's Keep) and an excellent nonfiction Our Father's Fields.

Mississippi Cotton. Release date.

Release date for Mississippi Cotton is April 4th. Details to be posted soon. Now Jake, Taylor, Casey, BB, et al will be introduced to the world.

Almost

Been a couple of weeks since I blogged. But been busy. I think Mississippi Cotton will be out by the middle of March.
But today is number 37 (in years) for me and my wonderful wife.

Dixie

Spent a good part of last evening reading Dr. Clyde Wilson's wonderful essays in Defending Dixie. It's been out for a while but I read and reread. I also recommend it.

Busy with book

Coming down to the wire on Mississippi Cotton. ARC readers have reponded with great comments.

Robert E. Lee

Today is Lee's birthday.
"One of the most noble men who ever lived."
Winston Churchill

O. Henry

I was talking with an editor of a Southern magazine publication yesterday (the mag had agreed to review an ARC) and the conversation came up regarding magazines and low profit margins, etc.

Later, by chance, I was thumbing through an OLD text of Southern literature when I came across a short bio of O. Henry( William Sydney Porter). Born in Greensboro, North Carolina he migrated to Texas where he purchased a magazine (The Rolling Stone). Also working as a bank clerk, he found it necessary to help himself to bank funds to subsidize his struggling magazine.

For this love of literature he did three years in prison in Ohio.

Just a bit of trivia for the literary-curious.

Wondering

I didn't start writing for publication until late in life, so maybe I'm not the best critic. However, even a newby like me can still wonder where these so-called "journalists," many of them who get "book deals," learned their grammar and syntax. It's one thing to write nonsense in the name of political correctness; it's another to write or verbalize statements (frequently)such as: "There's dozens of people...," (we have no more plural verbs); If I would have..." (what mood, tense, etc does that mean?); John Doe, HE, went to..."; and the ubiqitious participle people ("I'm wanting to see him") These sorts of comments are not restricted to any given network, cable or broadcast newspaper or magazine, but seem to be pervasive. It's a sad day for the language when a guy like me has to defend the language. 
Oh well. Fiction dialogue makes it easier.