Check It Out

Set in the sultry, moss-draped South, Spirit Willing: A Savannah Haunting offers a tale of conniving and greed. It concerns the extremes to which Charlotte Horner will go to oust her aging Aunt Olivia from her historic Savannah home, not only "to put it to better use" but also to exact revenge.
     With the help of Great Great Grandfather Cyrus (dead for 100 years and motivated by an agenda of his own), Olivia sets about to foil Charlotte's plans. In time this unconventional alliance causes Olivia's staunchest supporters--even the lady herself--to question her mental stability, a complication that plays neatly into Charlotte's devious hands.
     The love between Charlotte's brother, a struggling artist and his British model ultimately helps to resolve the conflict, but not before his avaricious sister has done her worst.
     Does Cyrus exist? Or does he live merely in Olivia's imagination? In this ghost story for non-believers, only the reader know for sure.

(Scroll down to the Blog Archive to read additional posts.)

New Literary Journal

Today's Savannah Morning News announces the launch of Literary Savannah, a new online journal "designed for readers and writers in Savannah and the Tidewater."  It features prose and poetry by area writers--of which I am one.  Other contributors to the first edition are Thomas A. Williams, Manly Heidt, Henry Precht, Kevin McCrary, Maryanne Stahl, Lisbeth Thom, Judy Trout, and Phil Linz.  It is published bi-monthly by Williams & Company, Book Publishers of Savannah and can be viewed at www.publishingentrepreneur.com.

(Scroll down to the Blog Archive to read additional posts.)

Tough Love

We're finding it difficult to celebrate the holiday season while mourning the loss of a much loved family member.
     One spring afternoon in 1995, a white kitten with a black eye patch crawled into my lap and looked up at me as if to say, "Here I am. Take me home." So of course I did.
     She was true trailer trash, born beneath the single-wide of a good ol' Georgia boy. But we never told her that. Instead we named her Calliope (after the muse of epic poetry), and she grew into a blue-eyed beauty. She charmed us with her quirky habits, such as sleeping in a shoe box or leaping to the bowl of the fountain in the garden and drinking from the spout.
     After a period of dramatic disdain, Callie condescended to accept Sam (named for Samuel Johnson, poet and essayist), a marmalade stray who came over the board fence one day and decided to set up housekeeping. Eventually, they became buddies and bedmates, sharing the wicker basket in front of the fire.
     In this, her fifteenth year, Callie's beauty faded, and she grew blind, arthritic, senile, and incontinent--despite all our efforts to the contrary. Parting with her just before Christmas was our most difficult--and kindest--act of love.

(Scroll down to the Blog Archive to read additional posts.)

A Christmas Surprise

U.P.S. just delivered my complementary copy of Warren Adler Short Story Contest Winners, one of which is my story "Caprice." Mr. Adler, author of thirty novels (Random Hearts, The War of the Roses) has anthologized the work of twenty winning authors from all over the globe who participated in his annual competitions during the last five years. I'm thrilled to have been selected and can't wait to read it from cover to cover. If you would like to own a copy, the paperback is available at Amazon.com for about $9.

(Scroll down to the Blog Archive to read additional posts.)