Finally!

The book that was supposed to be here before Thanksgiving got here just before Christmas.

Not that it made any difference, 'cause I been sickern a hound dog after eatin a rotten carcass.

I am finally almost well, and am begging meeting with folks to set up interviews and book signings.

I'll be on the local tv station morning talk show Monday, Februrary 9 at ten a.m.. Watch if you dare.

March 14, 2014 from 1p.m. to 3p.m. the Gilmer Arts and Heritage Association will host a book signing for me.

I'll do something I've never done before at a book signing - I'll be reading a short excerpt from the book.

Now, I have attempted to make this a funny book, and let's all hope folks laugh.

And not at me.

The book is "The Year of Nine: Where the Rain Begins" and is set in 1963. Tansy Corbin is nine years old that year, and she tells in first person her view of the world during that time.

Some folks have already purchased it, and invariably ask: Is Tansy really me?

Yes. No.

If you are a writer, you know that there is a part of you in everything  you write.

This book is also an outline of sorts of my childhood.

I describe the town and neighborhood where I grew up, and it is indeed almost identical to the real town and neighborhood. (In fact, on the back of the cover is a photo of my granddaddy's store, the name Corbin photoshopped to cover up the real name). But Tansy isn't really me on the inside, nor are all the people who populate the book real people I knew. Some of the characters you might recognize by behavior - especially one, if you are from 'round these parts in those years.

I in no way attempted to get into anyone's skin and write about them, I just used their outline and filled it up with an imaginary person.

Some things you read about happened. Some things did not.

Anyway, here's hoping you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.