I Miss You!!!!

I have missed those of you who follow me here on Blogger since I have moved my blog to my new Website at www.teacakesandwhiskey.com.

Please follow me to the new site so we can keep up with each other. You can read my latest blogs:

The Isley Brothers Revisted
Hugh Laurie Takes on the Blues
Letting My Hair Down with Gregg Allman
What Jason Isbell Can Teach You about Writing
Mississippi's Best Kept Secret - The Jason Turner Band
Strange Days - Life in the Days of Social Media

These are just a few of my offerings.

So please take a look at the new site. I hope to see you there!

Kat

Follow My New Blog on Word Press

Hello Followers,
   Please hop on over to www.teacakesandwhiskey.com to find my new blog and website. Follow me there to find out what is happening with Flamingo Funeral & Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey, read my blog, check out interviews and book signings.

  Hope to see you there!

                                             Kat

What Makes a Southern Writer Southern?

For those of you who have not yet followed me over to my new website on Word Press, please follow me now to read my latest blogs.

This week's offering: What Makes a Southern Writer Southern? is at www.teacakesandwhiskey.com
You can continue to follow me there! Hope you will join me at the new site!

www.teacakesandwhiskey.com

If you have found me here, welcome!

Please follow me to www.teacakesandwhiskey.com to read and subscribe to my new blog and website at wordpress!!!!

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

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!

  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  

Flamingo Funeral & Tales from the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey now available on Amazon

Hey Y'all,

 

Just a quick post to let you all know that Flamingo Funeral & Tales From the Land of Tea Cakes and Whiskey is now available @ Amazon. com in the Kindle edition. The paperback is due by the end of November.

 

I am so excited to have the book finally completed!

 

Here's the back cover with a little information about the book.

 

 

And here's the cover and a link to my Amazon Author's page.

 

 

www.amazon.com/author/katkennedy/

 

 

 

Look for changes in the near future. I am in the process of setting up a new website and blog.  Don't worry, I'll be taking you all with me.

 

Until then .....

 

Kat

 

 

Melinda McGuire: Guest Blogger on Tea Cakes and Whiskey

Melinda McGuire Guest Blogs on Tea Cakes and Whiskey

Fairhope, AL held its annual Grand Festival of Arts and Books last weekend. My fellow Southern writer and blogger, Melinda McGuire, who is a devoted believer in the promotion of Southern writers made the trip to Fairhope from Texas. Here is her impressions of her trip and the Festival.

 Melinda, welcome to Tea Cakes and Whiskey!

Road Trip

This past weekend I traveled from northeast Texas to Fairhope, Alabama, for the Book Festival sponsored by Page and Palette.

To be honest, I had planned on this post being a list of things that were wrong with the festival, but I will say just two things about that:

1) Communication is the key to success. An email letting people know that they are registered and what they can expect when they arrive (where to go, who to speak to) would have been greatly appreciated. And, a packet with information and details when the exhibitors for the book side of the festival arrived would have been excellent.

2) Note to self – when the literature for something says “Over 150 authors and exhibitors join together to bring thousands of art and book lovers to downtown Fairhope,” this might actually mean 7 authors with booths, 10 authors hosted by Page and Palette, and the rest were art and crafts exhibitors.

Okay, one last thing about that – if you are a writer and you are thinking about setting up a booth for this next year, please feel free to send me an email – melindamcguirewrites at yahoo dot com – and I will be glad to share more about my experience there.

Now, enough of that. On with the good stuff!

Leaving the Pine Curtain (northeast Texas)

Pine trees heading from home to Shreveport

It was beautiful weather for a road trip.

I left out early Thursday morning. First “big” city on the trip is Shreveport.

Getting close to the river

The next “leg” of the drive is from Shreveport to Natchitoches then on to Alexandria. Once you pass through Alexandria, things get a little muddier

Whiskey Bay exit, before Lafayette

I’ve never stopped in Whiskey Bay, Louisiana, but I am going to next time. I want a picture of that bay.

I stopped in Lafayette on my way down to meet Erin Z. Bass (Deep South Magazine) and had some Gelato at Carpe Diem. The downtown area of Lafayette is wonderful and vibrant. Carpe Diem was a cute shop, and the gelato, well, I had the salted carmel. They had free samples, but really, when you see salted carmel gelato, is there really any reason to try anything else? No. Not for me.

After leaving Lafayette, I hung a left and headed towards Baton Rouge.

A little side note: when I was younger, I had these “improve your memory” books that were full of devices to help you with your study skills and memorization tricks. There was a cartoon of a giant red stick stuck in the mud in a map of Louisiana because Baton Rouge is the capitol of Louisiana and the name means “red stick” – so there you go, the memory books worked!! 1 cartoon out of a set of 10 books…

Leaving Baton Rouge, we drove through Slidell, and then on into Mississippi. It was dark so I don’t have any pictures of that part of the drive (unfortunately).

The next morning, it was time to go to work!

Before the festival

Downtown Fairhope, Alabama is beautiful, artistic, shops on every corner. It really is a great place.

Flannery made the trip from Lafayette to Fairhope. Deep South Magazine is sponsoring a conference in November. Wish I could go!

Setting up the booth …

Rich Fabric anthology and my grandmother’s handstitched quilt

I think someone forgot to mention to Fairhope that October is actually Fall, not summer. They really didn’t get the memo on that.

I’m melting… The Powerade bottle in the background adds to the quality of the pic

I remembered to bring the copies of Josephine – Red Dirt and Whiskey that had the “Adult Content” stickers on the front cover. I don’t want anyone to be “surprised” by that!

Josephine Red Dirt and Whiskey

Nelson and Cora got to hang out in the shade for the morning.

Nelson and Cora

I met some GREAT people there --

Sarah Watson, illustrator

Jessica Jones, editor, writer, special publications news director with Gulf Coast Newspapers

Rosemary Palmer, writer from Nottingham, UK. (That’s a long way to travel!)

Isabelle Parker from Wonga Studios. Our conversation kickstarted all kinds of brainstorming

Nita McGlawn, a previous guest of mine on Southern Creatives and author of Bama Primer.  www.nitamcglawn.com

 After the festival ended, I stopped at Cousin Vinny’s in Daphne, Alabama, for the best muffaletta sandwich, period.

Dinner at Cousin Vinny’s in Daphne, Alabama. It was ridiculously good.

Heading Home

On my way home, I thought it was a little too early for Boudin …

Stayed overnight in Lafayette. Headed out the next morning –

But then when we made it to Scott, Louisiana, I decided that no, it actually wasn’t too early for Boudin

 

Drove the scenic route from Scott to Natchitoches (meaning I got off the interstate!)

Cora’s Antiques in Natchitoches, La. My Cora would approve! 

Home again, home again…

Hello again my lovelies!

Thanks, Melinda. Hope to see you at next year's Festival!

Contact Melinda McGuire

Author's page on Amazon: Melinda_McGuire

Smashwords author's page: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/melindamcguire

Email: melindamcguirewrites@yahoo.com

Blog: http://www.melindamcguirewrites.wordpress.com/

          http://www.southernsugarbaby.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @melindamcguire

Unplugged

How could I do such a thing? How had I been so careless? But the evidence was there. Or not there. After a weekend trip to attend my granddaughter's first birthday party and my brother's wedding, I had left behind the charger to my laptop.
DANG!!!!
This was the week I was going to complete the last edit of the book.
This was the week I was going to finalize the book cover.
This was the week I was going to clean out my inbox.
This was the week I was going to .....

So there I was on Monday morning unplugged.
Of course, I had my trusty iPhone. I began to call around. Out-of-stock. It cost what!?!? The number you have reached is no longer in service. You left your charger behind? (Ouch.)

Finally, after a quick web search, I found a place that would mail the charger, for a reasonable price, the very same day. Great it should be here by Wednesday! The week was not a total loss. A Wednesday delivery leaves Thursday and Friday to catch-up.

Now what to do with my two and a half days of down time. The prospects were glorious. I could clean my closet and hold off Hoarders for another year. There's that flower bed that needs attention.
Oh and my office - I'm always saying I should organize my office. Where to begin?

I began by pouring myself a cup of coffee and starting a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish. And just for the company, I turned on the TV. . . .

The charger finally arrived on Thursday afternoon. I answered the door, squinting into the bright afternoon sun. As I eagerly opened the yellow envelope, my eyes fell on the partially completed list of things to do. The TV blared - Here Comes Honey Boo Boo! Don't judge me. Y'all know you love a train wreck, too.

How could I do such a thing? How had I been so careless? In just two and one half days, I had solved thirty crimes, watched twenty interventions, seen I don't know how many people buried alive, and watched a Georgia mother melt butter and ketchup together to make "sketti" sauce for her family's dinner. And most of those shows were on networks with names like Bravo and Arts & Entertainment.

Those are days I can never get back. But I have learned one thing. I will never again feel guilty for spending time writing or reading. Or watching the Independent Film Channel. With my computer charging away and my mind returning to the world of art and literature, I repent and vow to never spend another wasted minute on the junk that passes as entertainment today.

Wait . . . did they just say Sugar Bear is taking Honey Boo Boo and the family out to something called The Redneck Games where Pumpkin will bob for pig's feet? Well, my computer isn't fully charged yet. Maybe just one more episode.

Carl Purdon Interviews . . . Me

Last month, Carl Purdon interviewed me about my writing process and my plans for Flamingo Funeral. Carl is an excellent interviewer. I appreciate the fact that he takes time to do his research and seems to always ask the right questions. As I am in the throes of getting the book ready for publication and all the work that goes along with self publishing a book, I asked Carl if he would mind if I posted the interview here on my blog. Being the generous writer he is, he agreed to let me post it.

 Carl Purdon's 10 Questions with Kat Kennedy

#1: Your novella, Flamingo Funeral, is set for release this year (2012). Tell us about that and how it's progressing.

The novella is finished. It was so much fun to write. It’s the story of a con man’s bizarre funeral, but more than that it’s the story of how family loyalty will lead us to do the craziest things in the name of that loyalty and how, in Faulkner’s words, “the pull of blood” is stronger than common sense. That’s one of my favorite themes. The call of blood can transcend our morality, our sense of justice, even compromise our own well-being. The book, Flamingo Funeral, will include the novella as well as five short stories. Flamingo Funeral just placed as a short list finalist in the William Faulkner Wisdom Competition, so I’m pretty hyped about that.

#2: You have been an English teacher in middle school, high school, and at the college level. Which did you prefer, and why?

There were certainly things I loved about each group, but with my personality, I’d have to say the college level. I have a sarcastic sense of humor, and you can’t really do that in the lower grades. My college students could appreciate the quick comeback to their own remarks which made for some lively discussion. Plus I taught world literature in college and loved discussing Virgil, Chaucer, and Dante -- all the greats and connecting the themes of the Classics to their lives. It was always a blast to see them get it.

#3: What is the South Georgia Writing Project?

South Georgia Writing Project was an extension of the National Writing Project. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. NWP gave assistance to universities to create writing seminars for local teachers in grades K-college level for six-weeks each summer. During the six-week seminar each instructor would produce an intensive presentation concerning some aspect of writing instruction. After my first summer as a participant, I was asked to co-direct the project at Valdosta State University. I did this for two more summers as I completed my Masters. I would have loved to continue, but I got married and moved back to Alabama. In fact, as soon as I was back from the honeymoon, I went back to Valdosta for six weeks to finish my final stint in the project. I served leftover wedding cake for our first meeting. I guess you could say I was dedicated to the project.

Let me share one lesson. One lovely first-grade teacher gave us a test. It was one picture – a frying pan. We were to write the name of the object. We all wrote frying pan. She came around and marked a HUGE F on our paper. I hated the look of that big red F. She then went to the board and wrote the correct answer – Spider. Now, I had heard a frying pan called a spider before, but had never even thought that a student would call it something other than a frying pan. It was a valuable lesson in cultural perspective. I never taught the same after that.

#4: You are currently the editor/moderator of Five Rivers Writers’ Critique Group. Tell us something about the group.

We are an online editing group dedicated to helping writers improve their skills and have a forum for discussing the writing process. We have been in existence for only four months and have been growing each month. We meet face-to-face once a month for socializing and to actually “see” our new members. Also, it’s important to meet because when editing online there is a potential for misunderstanding, so we encourage our writers to bring questions. We also allot time at our monthly meetings for readings if anyone wants to share. I’ve found reading material in groups or at open mics to be valuable in helping to work out areas that might need some tweaking. As editor/moderator, I keep up with what’s happening around the area with workshops, members who have been published, awards, etc.

The group has just started an online magazine, Southern Delta Literary Magazine. I’ll be asking you soon for a submission, Carl.

#5: Why should writers join critique groups?

It will make their writing better. Having input on your work is so important. I don’t always agree with every bit of advice I get from critique groups, but if several people are telling me the same thing, there’s probably a problem in my work. People can also give insight that can lead to some wonderful places. Flamingo Funeral started out as a short story. After it went through editing with the group, I had one comment that stuck with me – there’s more to this story. Then my friend and one of my fellow co-founders of Five Rivers Writers' Group, Charles McInnis, sent a text – Have you ever thought of having his relatives bury him in the backyard? What was an eight page short story became a novella.

I also think reading other people’s work is important because it opens you up to what’s happening out there. Writers tend to be alone much of the time. We really have to, don’t we? The connections one can make in critique groups and the help in feedback is essential.

#6: Do you think being a poet helps you write better fiction?

That’s an interesting question. I started writing fiction because we had too many poetry entries in one of my college lit magazines and they asked me to try a prose piece. I ended up with a short story and essay in the issue. Then, during my time in South Georgia Writing Project, I wrote a few more things. It was only recently that I started getting serious about writing fiction. I think poetry helps because when I get stuck, I can take a break and work on editing or writing poems and have the feeling of accomplishment - a finished piece. It also gives me ideas sometimes for storylines. My poetic voice, however, is very different from my fiction voice. I even sound different when I read, so I guess the answer is maybe?

#7: There seems to be a mystique about southern writers. I've never heard the term "Northern Writers," or other like labels applied. Why is that, or do I only notice "Southern" because I, like you, am from the South?

It’s funny, as a teenager, all I wanted was to get out of the South as fast as possible. When I lived in the West, I found people had trouble understanding me. (I grew up in southeast Alabama on a peanut farm and have a very Southern drawl.) For the most part, people were interested in the music. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Southern Rock was huge in the ’70s. Now, the South is my muse. There’s a certain mystique about the South, the dialect, the food, the way of life. It’s more than this though. Anywhere in the world that two Southerners happen to run into each other is a family reunion. It goes back to the blood and transcends race. We’re bound together in a way other areas are not. We’ve lived through a tragic history that I believe has left us, a more humane and enlightened culture. We can’t rewrite that history, and we can’t ignore it either, it wraps around us like kudzu. We can only learn from it and teach our children and grandchildren its lessons.

We also have a great oral tradition in the South. I would bet growing up in the South, you have spent many a night listening to stories on the front porch told by uncles and grandfathers or heard old Scottish and English ballads sung by grandmothers and aunts. I’ve never met a Southerner who didn’t have a good story to tell about something, and most love to embellish.

#8: One of your hobbies is researching old blues music. Mississippi has a solid history of blues music and is currently celebrating it with markers along the "Mississippi Blues Trail" program. Have you visited any of these sites?

No, but I have researched them. Flamingo Funeral has a scene which takes place in a black juke joint in Alabama, and the guest musician is the Bentonia blues musician Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. I hope to see him perform one day. I love his way of playing.

I also love to listen to old bluegrass and country music when I write. Most of my stories are set in the late 60’s and early 70’s, so listening to the music I grew up with helps put me back in that time period.

And, I have to have my daily shot of Bob Dylan. He has probably influenced me more than any other writer because I first heard him when I was fourteen and beginning to question some of the ideas of my elders and their views on social issues. His early lyrics made me look at life a different way.

#9: Speaking of blues music, the actor, Morgan Freeman, owns a club in Clarksdale, MS called Ground Zero. Have you ever been there? (If not, you should go).

I just saw the documentary about this. It’s definitely on my bucket list – Ground Zero and the Blues Trail. I think I feel a road trip coming on!

#10: Let's do something different. There has to be a question you were hoping I would or wouldn't ask. Ask yourself that question (please let us see the question), then answer it.

Okay, here goes, but remember you asked.

Why do you think it is Carl can only come up with 9 questions for his 10 Questions Blog?

Answer: I don’t know. Maybe it’s the humidity.

* * *

Thanks, Kat. When winter arrives we'll test your theory on question #10. I'll also be waiting for that submission request.

You can find Carl Purdon at his links below. Be sure to check out Carl's novel, The Night Train, available through Amazon.com and Carl Purdon.com below. It's a ride you don't want to miss.

Carl Purdon, Author

Carl Purdon.com

Faulkner Wisdom Short-list Finalist Excerpt

Flamingo Funeral    Placed as short-list finalist in the 2012 Faulkner Wisdon Creative Writing Competition . Excerpt

I began the long drive to Clayville . . . Meandering through the two-lane black top roads that mark the old Emancipation routes along the Chattahoochee River, I easily fell into the habit of throwing up my hand in greeting to each car I met. Old, unpainted shot gun houses sank into overgrown foliage beside unkempt single-wide trailers alongside the three bedroom Farmer’s Home Loan houses that had sprung up in the area during the sixties and seventies. Memories of my brother, Jim, made me laugh out loud when I recognized the old black juke joints he and I would haunt when we were in high school. I had never felt afraid in those places because everyone knew Daddy and wouldn’t dare lay a hand on me or my brother. We were accepted for what we were -- poor white kids who liked to drink, listen to good blues music and had a gun-carrying crazy-ass father.

I could hardly believe some of these places were still standing, especially J.B.’s, but there it was rusty roof and broken down porch overgrown with kudzu just as it had been in the mid-seventies. Two black men in beat up, dusty overalls lounged at one end of the porch drinking a clear liquid from mason jars and smoking cigarettes. J. B. was known for his signature moonshine which he called Peachy Pearl as it had a distinct flavor of peach and went down “smooth as a pearl.”

The last time I had been at J.B.’s Juke Joint had been just after high school graduation. It was a hot May evening and Jimmy Duck Holmes was going to play at J. B.’s because Duck and J. B, were old friends and Duck was particularly fond of Peachy Pearl. I had been looking forward to the night all week and had even passed on a graduation trip to Panama City, Florida. He was known for playing in the Bentonia style of blues created by Skip James and Jack Owens both Mississippi blues players. It was a style of blues that had a haunting, country sound, and I loved to listen to songs like Devil Got My Woman and Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues by Skip James. Daddy had a bunch of Delta blues records and there was nothing I liked better than listening to them when I was growing up. I had never heard Jimmy Duck Holmes, but I knew if he was anything like Skip James, it would be one fine night.

Jimmy Duck was as good as I had hoped and had already begun his second set when Gus burst through the front door with his usual assortment of strong-arm misfits. Gus owned the mortgage on J. B.’s and had decided to call in the note that night. He staggered over to the bar and put his pocket pistol on the counter while his crew positioned themselves by the front door. I slunk down as far as I could into the booth praying that Gus wouldn’t see me. My brother, Jim, pulled his old ratty Universtiy of Alabama cap down low and whispered, “Get ready to run like hell, Sis.”

J. B. Grimsley was not one to be bullied by a crooked businessman like Gus. He had known Gus since they were children when J. B.’s father had worked as a sharecropper on the family farm. J. B. must have seen this day coming from the time he signed the loan papers on the bar and had been waiting for the first opportunity to beat Gus at his own game.

J. B. pulled his shotgun from behind the bar, “Gus, just settle on down, now. Come on over here and let ole J. B. po you a drank. I gots somethin you needs to see ‘fore you shoots up da place.”

Gus drank down the shot of whiskey J. B. had poured for him, “Alright. What is it?”

J. B. reached under the bar and put some papers in front of Gus. “What the hell is this?” Gus growled, pushing the papers back toward J. B. without even looking at them.

“You knows what it is. You knows you signed this place over to me in that poker game las week. Now don’t be sayin you don’t remember. I’s been knowin you a long time, Gus. A long time. You knows and I knows what’s right.”

J. B. poured Gus another shot. Gus looked around at the bar full of people staring at him and let

out a, “Humph.”

Everyone in the place was frozen as if in a photograph. Most of the people there owed money to Gus or had kin that did. No one would dream of intervening.

J. B. nodded toward Jimmy Duck and he began to play Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues, a superb choice, I thought. Gus picked up the shot glass and tipped it at J. B. before drinking it and slamming it back down on the deed papers. He picked up his gun and put it back in his front pants pocket, got up from the bar stool and stumbled back out the front door.

“Son of a bitch!” Jim shook his head laughing. “J. B. that’s the coolest damn thang I ever did see.”

Jim stood up and took off his cap and gave a gentlemanly bow toward J. B.

J. B. scrowled, “Sit yer white ass down fer I tell yo Daddy you been in here ever night this week.” He picked up the deed papers from the bar and started folding them up. He indulged a momentary smile before putting them back under the counter and retaining his usual stern no nonsense stance.

That remains the only example I know of Gus ever coming out on the shallow end of a deal.

Copyright ©2012 by Kat Kennedy

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