State of the Heart

State of the Heart, an essay anthology written by South Carolina authors about the places they love, is published by USC Press and edited by Aida Rogers (who spent hours researching and compiling appropriate photographs to enhance the text). This volume offers a love letter to the Palmetto State, a remembrance of past traditions, and a testament to what makes the people of South Carolina so strong, resilient, formidable, and unique. Last Saturday, at the Ernest F. Hollings Library Program Room in USC’s Thomas Cooper Library, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from contributors, including Pat Conroy and my friend Sam Morton. 

   

More from the State Fair

The South Carolina State Fair continues. My former law clerk, Kathleen McDaniel, entered an Italian Creme cake with pecan cream cheese frosting. Here are the before: 

 

and after shots, including her prize ribbon.

She made a note to herself to include more icing between the layers next year. I’m sure it tastes as fabulous as it looks.

 

With the website, the winners are listed online with the amounts awarded. Mrs. Pat Wilson, who used to play the calliope at the Fair, won again for her vanilla pound cake. One year, her grandson Nick placed ahead of her with her recipe!

Kate Heald's Painting at the State Fair

Kate Heald and I met in elementary school. I remember the most delightful afternoon when her parents took us out on their pontoon boat. Her father even let me drive. Over the years, we had drifted apart, then last April, at the Big Nosh, an annual celebration held at the Tree of Life Synagogue, we reconnected while waiting for our lunches. This week, as our State Fair is readying to open, I see on Facebook that Kate has a wildlife painting hanging among the juried exhibits. Congratulations to Kate. May you continue to thrive in this endeavor and all others!

Barb Goffman's Macavity

Congratulations to Barb Goffman, excellent mystery short story author and program coordinator for Malice Domestic, who won the 2013 Macavity Award, given by Mystery Readers International and Mystery Readers Journal at Bouchercon,  for “The Lord is my Shamus” published in the anthology Chesapeake Crimes: This Job Is Murder (Wildside Press 2012) and republished in her collection, Don't Get Mad, Get Even (Wildside Press 2013). Her newest stories are: "Dead and Buried Treasure," in All Hallows' Evil (Mystery and Horror, LLC) and "Operation: Knock Her Down A Peg," to appear in The Killer Wore Cranberry: Room For Thirds (Untreed Reads Publishing).