Sunday, January 20, 2013

Dear Followers

Letter to My Followers:

Dear Followers,

I have finally gotten my new website/blog up and running!!! It is my sincere wish that you will find it
in your hearts to follow me to www.teacakesandwhiskey.com.

I will be increasing my posts this year as I embark on the exciting journey of book signings and (fingers crossed) small book tours.

On March 5th I will be having my very first television interview promoting Flamingo Funeral & Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey which I will post on the new site.

For those of you who read my last post about Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, I am planning on documenting my trip to the Mississippi Delta in June and our first meeting. (Assuming, of course, he likes the book!)

So dear readers, I invite you to come on along for the ride. I may not always take the direct route to  my destination, but I've never taken a trip that wasn't fun along the way.

Which reminds me of a story:

When my son was fourteen, we had just moved to a new town and I had to take him to Montgomery, AL for something that escapes me now. There were several routes to get to I65 from where we lived. So as we were preparing to leave, I told Travis I had found a new route that would cut a good ten minutes off our trip.

Travis immediately responded, "I don't know, Mom. Maybe we should just go the way we know."

"Don't be silly," I replied. "It'll be fun! Think of it as an adventure."

Travis doubtfully shook his head. "Going to the store with you is an adventure. This will probably be more like an epic journey."

Now, I'm not promising anything so spectacular as an epic journey, dear readers, but I hope you'll come along for the ride. I may not always take the direct route to my destination, but I don't recall ever taking a trip that wasn't fun along the way.

And Travis, now with children of his own, still loves to go for those journeys. Today he says, "Whenever I go on a trip with Mama, I always come back with a story."

And that is what life is all about -- the story!

Thanks for following ....... Kat

www.teacakesandwhiskey.com


Thursday, January 17, 2013

A Conversation with Jimmy "Duck" Holmes


There are some days we just look back and say, "Dang! That was a great day!"

Yesterday was that kind of day for me.

Here's how it went. I have one New Year's Resolution - get organized (which will, of course solve all my problems.) I have dedicated my morning hours to promoting Flamingo Funeral & Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey. I was researching the Mississippi Blues Trail as it is a great dream of mine to possibly set up a small book tour along the trail as blues music is an integral part of many of my stories

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes is considered by some to be the last of the great blues musicians to play in the Bentonia style of blues. I listened to his music to set the stage of the bar scene in which Mr. Holmes is a character in my novella, Flamingo Funeral.  I thought if I could find an address for his fan club, perhaps I would send a copy of the work with the hope he would learn he had a fan who had included him in a book.

The website for the Blue Front Cafe is modest, as is the Blue Front Cafe. It's history, however, is fascinating and detailed on the Mississippi Blues Trail website.

I dialed the number and told the man on the other end I was an Alabama writer trying to find some information on Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, to which he replied, "Yeah, this is Jimmy "Duck"!
Ok. There are (everyone can tell you this) very few times in life when I am rendered silent. But for a moment, just a moment, there was dead air on the line.

What followed was a twenty minute conversation - I'm going to say not one-sided - about his music, old blues music, growing up in the South, when he last played in Alabama, the Bentonia Blues Festival, I think the fact that Gregg Allman covered Skip James on his last CD, how cold the weather is and yes, about the fact that I have a new book out and you Mr. Holmes are a character in it.

He asked me about the book and I told him a little about the bar scene in which he is playing. He seemed to get a kick out of my having him play the Skip James' song, Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues, in the story.

As I write this, there is a copy of Flamingo Funeral off to Mississippi and I am planning a trip to the Bentonia Blues Festival the third week in June to meet Jimmy "Duck" Holmes.
And if I'm lucky, maybe he will sing a little Hard Time Killin' Floor & Devil Got My Woman. And if I'm real lucky, just maybe he'll take a pic with me and the book.

Now, that is what I call a damn good day!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

  I've been nominated!!!!! This is a great idea to venture out and discover new blogs and bloggers. Thanks to friend and fellow writer Carl Purdon for the nomination. This is how it works: A blogger is nominated and he/she

  •  Posts 11 random facts about themselves and answers the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated them

  • Passes the award on to 11 other blogs (while making sure to notify the blogger that nominated them!)

  • Writes 11 NEW questions directed towards THEIR nominees.

  • Is not allowed to nominate the blog who nominated them!

  • Pastes the award picture into their blog.

So here goes. Eleven random facts about me:

  1. I spent a summer in the seventies (late seventies -- okay, mid-seventies) hiking up the coast of California.

  2. I once helped deliver a baby at home.

  3. I am a BIG Bob Dylan fan.

  4. I lived in Flagstaff, AZ for five years.

  5. I am obsessed with Sons of Anarchy. (Opie, I miss you!) But hey, the new season of Justified began last night! Thank you, F/X.

  6. For my birthday this year I took my son to see Drake White, Kenny Wayne Shephard, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

  7. A few months before the concert above, I took my granddaughter to see Swan Lake.

  8. I once lived in an old church that still had the steeple on it.

  9. I am extremely clumsy.

  10. I cannot parallel park. (See above.)

  11. I once had to go to court because a crazy woman (not me) accused my roommate's dog of stealing her chicken. The police searched my house for the chicken, but found no evidence. Why did I end up in court? My roommate's dog, Mac, was in the yard when they arrived, so they got him on a leash law violation. I had to sign for him right then or let them call animal control. Because I signed for the dog, I had to show up in court as the "owner." Mac was cleared of all chicken related charges, but I had to pay the leash law violation fees. We celebrated with a trip to KFC and the pet store for a toy chicken. I spent the rest of the day teaching Mac to retrieve the toy chicken whenever I said, "Winner, winner. Chicken dinner."

 

Now, here are Carl's questions:

 

1) Before now, had you ever heard of the Leibster Award?

No, I never had.

2) Before now, had you ever heard of me?

Yes, I have heard of you. I am a big fan. Love The Night Train.

3) How long have you been blogging?

For under a year.

4) What is the primary purpose of your blog?

I began mainly because I had decided to get serious about writing.

5) Where do your blogging ideas come from?

From different areas of life. I wrote one about my trip to New York. One I wrote when I had left my computer charger at my son's house after a visit and had spent the time waiting for its replacement watching garbage on TV. It was my first introduction to the world of Honey Boo Boo. Oh my.

6) Do you blog according to a schedule or is it more random?

Too random. My only New Year's resolution is to get on a schedule.

7) If you have a day job, what is it? If not, just say something interesting.

I am fortunate that writing is the only job I have. So if any of you hear that me whining, you are allowed to cuss me. in fact, you should cuss me.

8) Which search engine is set as default on your browser?

That would be Google.

9) Did you have to check your browser before answering #8?

Of course, I did Carl.

10) What is the title of the last book you read?

Almost finished with Auraria by Tim Westover who does a wonderful supernatural story about this Appalachian town in north Georgia. He handles the setting and dialect beautifully even with English as his second language. A good read.

11) Have you ever met a famous person?

I have a great story about Amarillo Slim the great poker player and over-all gambler in Vegas. He was out there for a tournament in 2010 and my husband and I were taking a break from walking around in the Belagio when we spotted him sitting at a table with one gentleman. I really wanted to introduce myself and ask him a few questions because he had written in his book, Amarillo Slim in a World of Fat People, about my distant relative. Chill Wills, the western movie character actor whom I had never met, but who sounded like a real scoundrel from all the stories that had been told at different ancestor reunions by the faction who was into the geneology bit.

So when it looked like a lull in the conversation between Amarillo and his friend, I went up to their table and said, "Mr. Slim, my name is Kat Kennedy. my mother was a Wills and  I was wondering if you might remember Chill Wills."

Slim looked up at me, tipped the hat of his tan cowboy hat with the skinned rattlesnake serving as a hat band, its head facing me, mouth wide-opened, fangs intact and menacing, "That damned Chill Wills, yeah I remember him. He caused me to get dang near knocked offen an escalator in Hollywood (Florida) one time! Pull you on up a chair little lady. Chill Wills, now that's a name I aint heard in awhile. He was always a-getting me in trouble."

And so my husband and I spend the next couple of hours with the notoriously famous Amarillo Slim as he regaled us with stories of the escapades of these two very talented and adventurous men. There came a point when Amarillo, now into his nineties, said, "Miss, do you have any aspirin in your purse? I fell the other day and could sure use a Tylenol or aspirin." I did not, but walked all over the Belagio until I found some. I paid $4.29 for four Tylenol.

On the way back to our hotel Randy and I were talking about how great it was to have met Amarillo and gather the stories when I stopped in mid-sentence, the cold, hard realization dawning on me. I, just as so many before me, had been taken by the greatest of all. Amarillo Slim. The multi-millionaire had beat me out of $4.29 for a pack of Tylenol! But this time Mr. Slim, the sucker at the table came out ahead. I wouldn't trade the hour I spent talking with you for a million bucks.

Amarillo Slim died last summer. I will always treasure that night as one of my favorites with a wonderful man who knew how to tell a story and make a buck.

Now -- my questions.

1. What was your favorite discovery from last year?

2. Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?

3. Have you broken any New Year's Resolutions?

4. What would be your dream vacation?

5. What is your favorite SNL skit, past or present (or both)?

6. Do you have a favorite cult classic movie?

7. Downton Abbey, Yes or No?

8. Where do you write?

9. When do you write?

10. What is your guilty pleasure?

11. What is the best advice you were ever given?


There it is. Now I get to pass on the torch to eleven bloggers.

Lauren Clark                                 Melinda McGuires

Janet Nodar                                  Carrie Cox

Laura Howard                               Stephanie Lawton

Christine McKnight                       Angela Quarles

Molly Greene                                Christopher Cox

                         Mahala Church