New biography on John Kennedy Toole

Even if you've never read A Confederacy of Dunces, you may have heard the unusual back story behind its publication... The author, John Kennedy Toole, committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 31. His mother, Thelma Toole, convinced of her son's genius, struggled for years to get his manuscript published. It was, finally, in 1980 with the help of fellow Southern author Walker Percy, and a year later won the Pulitzer Prize.

Now, Cory Mac-Lauchlin has written a biography describing the life of New Orleans author Toole entitled Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces. Kevin Allman has written a great review of the biography. Check it out, and if you haven't yet read A Confederacy of Dunces, you should -- it's bizarre, Southern Gothic, grotesque, and inspiring (more so because of the back story) in a weird way.

Interviewing people for fun and profit!

Well, sort of... I'm teaching a webinar about how to interview sources for all kinds of writing -- magazine, newsletter, technical, research... Learn the basics about what sorts of questions to ask and what to do if someone is rambling on about his/her pet parakeet, etc... Here are the details:

Title: "Interviewing Sources: A Beginner's Guide for All Writers"
Date: April 4, 2012, 9 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.
Site: http://www.anymeeting.com/AccountManager/RegEv.aspx?PIID=EC57DF83834D
Cost: $25 (via Paypal)

Read an ebook week!!

It's "Read an ebook Week," and you can get tons of discounted and free books until March 10! Check out: https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1

I'm offering my book of short stories "Rocky Road" for free this week only. Just enter coupon code REW25 at checkout.

Short and sweet book reviews

The lovely Chapters Bookshop in Galax, VA, offers quick reviews of popular books on its website. These snippet reviews are a great way to discover new books for your reading list. Here's an example from the website:

Hit Man, by Lawrence Block (publisher HarperTorch $7.99)

Alright, I know that this is not a new book. But Mr. Block is new to me. I have just discovered his books, and thankfully, he has lots! The series I am reading right now begins with Hit Man. The story revolves around Keller, a man hired, mostly by the mafia, to take out informants, and other ne’er do wells. But sometimes he makes a mistake. The writing is wonderful, with descriptions of life in New York City and other places rich from a different angle. His philosopy of life is fascinating. If you like mystery/thrillers, youshould try Lawrence Block. (Reviewed by Theresa)

What's out??

Here's another roundup of recent Southern books being published. We've got an eclectic mix, as usual!

Wiley Cash's first novel A Land More Kind Than Home is set in the mountains of North Carolina. Here's what the Library Journal has to say:
"The River Road Church of Christ in Signs Following is a secretive place, with newspapers taped over the windows so you can’t see in, and the minister, Carson Chambliss, is often seen on a Sunday morning carrying cages made of wood and chicken-wire into the building. Still, the neighbors pay little attention until an autistic child becomes the victim of a special healing service, and the local sheriff launches an investigation."

Mississippi author Jonathan Odell sets his second novel The Healing during plantation-era slavery slave-era. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the book "transcends any cliches of the genre with its captivating, at times almost lyrical, prose; its firm grasp of history; vivid scenes; and vital, fully realized people, particularly the slaves with their many shades of color and modes of survival — none more so than Polly Shine and Granada."

 New Orleans resident Michael Jeffrey Lee recently published Something In My Eye, a collection of short stories that won the 2010 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Says Sarabande Books, who published Lee's collection, Lee's stories are "bizarre and smart and stilted, like dystopic fables told by a redneck Samuel Beckett. Outcasts hunker under bridges, or hole up in bars, waiting for the hurricane to hit."

Meet Southern stars for lunch

If you happen to live in the Chapel Hill, NC, area or are going to be there on February 19-20, you will want to check out the "Writers for Readers Book and Author Luncheon." It's going to be at the fancy Carolina Inn, and all the Southern big guns will be there: Lee Smith, Daniel Wallace (of Big Fish fame), Kevin Wilson (The Family Fang),  Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey, and The New York Times best seller, Robert Goolrick.

You can buy tickets from The Orange County Literacy Council website.

Southern books to check out...

Here's a random list of Southern-style books I've found while rambling online... I haven't read any of them, but they all look interesting, and I'm going to try to check them out this year.

Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons. Before she became an author, O'Connor wanted to be a cartoonist. Here's an anthology of her cartoons for high school and college publications.

Preachers and misfits, prophets, and thieves: The minister in Southern fiction by G. Lee Ramsey, Jr. An exploration of the weird world of religious zealots in Southern fiction such as Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood.

Southern Fried Women by Pamela King Cable. Ten short stories featuring women of the "real" South; these ain't your typical Southern Belles!

In Love with the Enemy by Brigett Scott. This is the first novel from Scott, who is also an assistant professor at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. Her book features a "small-town Southern girl" who looks to be a regular "Jane Bond"!

NC author attacks Southern "staleness"

The Greensboro News & Record did a great write-up of Kat Meads's new novel When the Dust Finally Settles a few weeks ago. The novel is set in Northeastern North Carolina, just below the Virginia line, in 1968 amid desegregation. According to blogger Charles Wheeler:

The novel attacks staleness. Southern fiction often gets mired in mud holes of stereotypes. This story splashes through them like an open-throttled John Deere. A deputy sheriff is kind, understanding, reasonable and humane. A black high school basketball star is tentative and unsure of himself. A small community welcomes change, though not with wide open arms. It’s not easy. Change never is.

What do you think about Southern stereotypes in fiction? What's the difference between a stereotype and an artistic "rendering" of a region? The Southern authors I admire, like Lee Smith and Tim McLaurin, manage to capture the essence of the South without compromising their characters or the story.

Mag writing course still has openings!

Need some extra cash? Want to see your name in print -- or online, as the case may be these days? Learn about magazine writing with my online class at www.writingclasses.co.uk starting January 16. It's ten weeks, for 150 pounds (about $232), which isn't bad for 10 weeks. At the end of the course, we put together a mini magazine, showcasing your writing, and post it on the website for the world to see!

Marianne Wheelaghan (right) has been running her online school for 10 years and also features classes in short story and novel writing. Check it out!

Anthology seeks Southern fiction

Q&W Publishers, a small press out of Grayson, GA, is looking for submissions for its Anthology on the "Old, Weird South." They pay $50 a pop, which is better than many, which pay zilch! Here's the description from their website:

The American South is a haunted place — full of ghost stories, native legends, persistent devils & angels, souls sold at the crossroads, and moon-eyed maidens living in the Okefenokee. The South’s best writers — Faulkner, O’Connor, McCullers — all keep this sense of the otherworldly in their fiction.
In this spirit, Q & W Publishers is looking for submissions for an anthology of short fiction and non-fiction that explores the fantastic, eerie, and bizarre side of the American South.