A Pirate Birthday

Photograph by Erin Crawford

To celebrate the upcoming publication of my short story, "Ghost of a Chance," in the Dark Oak Press/Kerlak Publishing anthology tentatively titled, A Tall Ship, A Star, and Plunder, my office threw me a pirate birthday party, complete with skull and crossbones eye patches and a wonderful cake. Arrrrrrgh good time was had by all! My bestest buddy, author Susan F. Craft, organized the event and presented me with a pirate skull cap. Her third book about Lilyan Cameron takes place on ships traveling the Carolina coast that encounter pirates. And, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is on 9/19/2013!

Photograph by Erin Crawford

9/11/2001

I have a NYC skyline poster of the twin towers standing, where a TKTS booth and the famed Windows on the World restaurant operated. On September 11, 2001, I watched on television as the second plane hit a tower. I spent that day talking on the telephone with relatives about the latest news. The world changed. Now, we commemorate each anniversary as Patriot Day, when 2977 were lost by terrorists’ acts. I saw a picture of a police woman who hid in the rubble so search dogs could find a living person, not just the dead. Let us never forget.

The AJC Decatur Book Festival

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The country’s largest independent book festival took place in Decatur, Georgia, on August 30 through September 1, 2013, with more than 300 national and local authors in 18 venues.

A writers’ conference at Agnes Scott College featured Clyde Edgerton as keynote speaker. 

 

Three mystery book launches occurred, Diane Mott Davidson's latest Goldy Schultz mystery, The Whole Enchilada;

Charles Todd's (Caroline and Charles) A Question of Honor about Bess Crawford's family; and

 

   

 

Susan M. Boyer's Lowcountry Bombshell, the second in her Agatha award winning series.

Exhibitor Alan Gilbreath (Dark Oak Press) will publish my pirate short story, “Ghost of a Chance.”

My Father

Today would be my father’s birthday. My first memory of him is when he came home to West Virginia from an overseas military assignment. I was five and had no recollection of his face, so I kept running to the parlor to look at his picture until he arrived. When I was growing up, it became his tradition to cook Sunday dinner for my mother and me. Dessert was pineapple upside down cake made in a cast iron skillet. My mother told me when I was born, he brought a pineapple upside down cake instead of flowers to the hospital.