Lady Word of Mouth, culture-weaver--

Yesterday I thought quite a bit about the work of Lady Word of Mouth. I was forced to ponder how it does little good to be told that one's book was a "close runner-up" for a prize, as it proved yesterday, and to consider what else I can do for three recent books that flew into the world in close succession. Later I spent some hours talking with the newly-made Episcopal deacon, singer-songwriter, and founder of Mons Nubifer Sanctus (aka a dream, the Holy Cloud-Bearing Mountain, a center for contemplative prayer in the Catskills) about how to point arrows toward a new enterprise and raise funds. It's a similar puzzle to what one faces with books--how do you get the word out, how do you support a made thing, how do you make sure the gift you were called to give finds its recipient? An award is a little arrow pointing at the gift made, just as many other things are--an ad, say, or a review or a launch party or re-tweets and shares on a twitter or facebook account where one chats to readers and critics and other writers.

The world is filled with interesting gifts from the people who, curiously enough, are not always all that comfortable with making their own arrows to point to those gifts. Exploring the world of alternatives to the books, music, art, and culture heavily advertised and pushed by major companies and publishers is part of what we do to create the world we would like to see and live in.

All this to say we are back in business with Lady Word of Mouth today. Fly here to see Marjorie Hudson's new edition of Searching for Virginia Dare (Press 53, 2013.) You want to support small publishers and help Marjorie and other writers publishing outside the monoliths of the Big 5 this Advent season? Buy books as presents. Buy yourself a present. Every copy sold tells a publisher that they made the right decision to publish the work. Read, pass judgment, be a passing-the-word minion of Lady Word of Mouth!

Home

North Carolina touring done, and I am at last home after a long drive. On Saturday I had a grand time reading a chapter from A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage at McIntyre's in Fearrington, answering questions, and even reading a few requested poems. Afterward had lunch with writer friend Marjorie Hudson (Accidental Birds of the Carolinas - PEN Hemingway Honorable Mention) and some of her students. And I spent Sunday night in Roanoke with longtime friend, painter Mary Boxley Bullington. Good night!

Another step + "Auric Hour"

After lunch with the grand Louis D. Rubin, Jr., I have moved on to Pittsboro and enjoyed a Friday evening of Susan Ketchum singing and Marjorie Hudson reading from Accidental Birds of the Carolinas (honorable mention for the PEN Hemingway.) Lovely counterpoint.

Reading from A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage at McIntyre's (Fearrington Village / Pittsboro) at 11:00 a.m.  So goodnight, all!

New poem up: "The Auric Hour" (written in memory of Alton Van Cleef) at String Poet.

The House of Words (no. 7): Luck (Marjorie Hudson)

5 birds, 3 eggs: Press 53
Cover artist Emma Skurnick
A Novello Literary Award Finalist

7. More on luck

Marjorie Hudson’s second book, Accidental Birds of the Carolinas: Stories about Yankees Moving South, is forthcoming on May 15 from Press 53. Doris Betts says “Hudson’s prose is pure as birdsong.” Visit her website here. Click on the title to sail onto her page at Press 53.

I e-met Marjorie after now-novelist and then-and-now bookshop manager Erica Eisdorfer told me that she had talked about my novel Catherwood in her first book, Looking for Virginia Dare (originally published by Coastal Carolina and now reprinted by Press 53.) And I still like to keep up with what she is doing. Some day when I am in North Carolina, I shall meet her. In the meantime, luck to her!

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Marjorie's first book
came out in hardcover and paperback
from Coastal Carolina Press.
Now available from Press 53.

I think my big stroke of luck was getting a job at Algonquin Books in 1985 reading fiction. My job was to fix typos and fact check and run schedules. I was good at that. But the urge got stronger and stronger to write Southern fiction myself. So I quit my job and started doing it. For a Yankee, I've done well. I think my good luck started when I moved here. But that was because of a sign from GOD. A rainbow over a farmhouse for rent. I kid you not. I've had plenty of lousy luck too--ironies so brutal that only another writer could understand the pain--having the NY Times book page editor call, leave a message, but turns out he was fact checking a review of a rival book and was checking in with me as an expert--me, who wrote a book he was not going to review. Oh, the anguish! That's not bad luck really, it's just the convoluted system at work re: who gets attention. Other bad luck: having my publisher go out of business in an economic crash just as my first book was getting more attention and orders. What I do with bad luck? Sometimes I cry. But I've got a stubborn streak and I always get up and keep trying. My first book, Searching for Virginia Dare, is back in print and selling respectably. And the new publisher is publishing my debut fiction, Accidental Birds of the Carolinas. Press 53 has just won a bunch of IPPIE awards, so I feel really fortunate to be associated with the editor and other authors.

I kind of like being obscure and brilliant. There's a lot of freedom in it, and great pleasure in the work. Wish there was a little more money in it.