I am excited to announce that I am opening a used and specialty bookstore called Joy of Books in Hendersonville, North Carolina in the Kanuga Cottage District, 302 Davis Street (just past the busy bend in Hendersonville).

Joy of Books is an independent used book seller that sells all types of used books and features everything Western North Carolina and the South.

The Grand Opening is April 1 with a ribbon cutting ceremony @ 4:00 followed by light Hors d'oeuvres…

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The cold rains of spring come every year;

Driving down from the heavens,

Flashing from the dark cloud masses,

Creating a muddy mess of bogs, puddles, and torrential streams.



Humans hunched over against the gusts scurry about

Encased in Gore-Tex and plastic grimacing at the windy wetness.

Cars and trucks driving on dirt roads and grass driveways,

Spinning tires helplessly boring tracks into the sodden turf.



Cold winds whip the rain into a… Continue

I'm driving to Tennessee to do The Writer's Show on Wednesday - to air in April. I hope there will be a podcast to link to!

Then in May I'm doing LitChat .

Going to have my first reading for Secret Graces at Blue Ridge Osondu Books on April 17 (not sure what time yet)

In June, looking forward to the Blue Ridge Book Festival June 4-5 in Flat Rock.

There's a great source called Book Tour where you can…

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Visit www.BlueRIdgeBookfest.org and then mark your calendar for June 4, 5 2010. Fifty authors will present their books and there will be free workshops for writers and aspiring writers. See the schedule and click on presenters and on through to their websites to see who will be here.

Rob Neufeld will be on stage and interviewing keynoter Terry Kay from the Georgia Writer's Hall of Fame and Hendersonville's native son Robert…

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A recent comment left on the Blind Pig & the Acorn by B. Ruth got me to thinking about all the old folklore I've heard about the garden and about the outdoors in general.

• Never plant vegetables that sound alike together. Think potato and tomato. (Pap told me that one)
• Never say thank you if someone shares their flowers or plant cuttings with you-if you do the…

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I feel happy because I'm on the long list for the 2010 Siba Awards ... well, I'm not exactly, but my book Tender Graces is.



I feel honored to be listed by others out there - like, Pat Conroy, Kathyrn Stockett, Fred Chappel, Rebecca Wells, Jill McCorkle, etc.



*smiling*

So, win or not win, TG was nominated by independent booksellers and that makes me feel…

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I am a transplanted "Tar heel". I have never forgotten my Western North Carolina roots, and although I have lived in California for a good portion of my life, I still consider Western North Carolina as "home."

In August of 1981, after my Dad's memorial service, a group of family members went out to eat at a family style restaurant in…

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http://www.blip.tv/file/2978552 75th. ANNIVERSARY OF CCCs DVD

OPEN WEB SITE ABOVE TO VIEW DVD

My publishers have decided that "the graces" -the virginia kate sagas- should be more than 3 books . . . perhaps 4 or 5 . . . so I best get busy *laughing*



secret graces will be out in April 2010 - the second in the books. But, Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books have decided to publish another of my novels in November 2010 -Sweetie. The first plans were to publish Sweetie later next year, but . . . well, they changed their minds!



Sweetie is set in western North Carolina, in a… Continue

There's a joke whose punch line goes like this "One of our boys did it".

Ron Rash's Serena may be made into a film with Angelina Jolie as Serena.

http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com/angelina-jolie-and-darren-aronofsky-in-talks-for-serena-a-novel-2010030238836

Whether or not, she actually comes through, just the buzz is…

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[The following poem is the last written by the able pen of our deceased friend and former countryman, Mr. W. Cotten Downing. It was first published in the Asheville Evening Journal Feb., 28 [1890], and finding, as all his writings did, such a warm reception from the people, it was called back and appeared again the next day in the same paper. We do not produce it as an average specimen of the poetical talent of this true Southern gentleman who loved the Sunny South, but who now lies cold in…

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Giant bulldozers cut across contour lines;

Up and down hillsides, slicing through the forest mat;

Grinding and crushing the bones of the mountains.

“See what attracted me!”

Cutting back hillsides, leveling out home sites;

Raw red earth spilling into streams;…

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D’S ROUNDTABLE RADIO SHOW

· Do you have a hot topic to talk about that people need to hear about?…

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