First things first: the proceeds from Bouchercon’s Murder Under the Oaks go to the Wake Country Public Libraries. And folks, reading is cool. In November 2013, thieves broke into a Modesto, CA orchard and made off with 140,000 pounds–70 tons–of in-shell walnuts. In February 2012, a shade to the north, 40,000ish tons of walnuts went missing from a Butte…… Continue reading Behind: “Crack-up at Waycross”
Category: Southern Fiction
Behind: “First Rodeo”
If you were around a century or so ago, and you knew him well, you might call him Bill. On a legal document, William Sidney Porter. If you read any of his 300+ published stories, you knew him by his pen name: O. Henry. The name now commands a prestigious short story award, but more than anything, his work effectively trademarked…… Continue reading Behind: “First Rodeo”
Behind: “Dark Days for the Professor”
Southern lit. Family conflict. Race and social issues. Push-pull of tradition. Sense of belonging to place, like it or not. I don’t write it. Or at least I hadn’t until earlier this year. So it’s a thrill that my “Dark Days for the Professor” has been included in NWMG’s Southern lit anthology Not So Fast. So…… Continue reading Behind: “Dark Days for the Professor”