South Carolina Book Tour and 12/12/12 Wedding

I guess one might say I have just completed my very first book tour. And it was fun! The inspiration was the wedding of one of my dearest friend's daughter who wanted a destination wedding. The bride and groom chose Charleston as the destination and 12/12/12 as the date. Magnolia Plantation set scene for a lovely wedding and Catherine Buck Corell was a beautiful bride.

It was logical to set up a few book events. After spending one night with my husband's brother Bill and his wife, Joyce, we set off on our adventure. Spartanburg was first on our stop. The venue was the Hub City Bookshop (which has the unique feature of being both publisher and book seller. The shop serves many purposes: Writers Project, Publisher and Book Shop encouraging writers and artists, publishing andhttp://hubcity.org/bookshop/) promoting their work.

The interesting thing about this book tour thing is that you do not know who your audience will be until they appear. That night an English teacher offered extra credit to those who would go and "hear the author." The old English teacher came out in me and I thoroughly enjoyed my audience. A father who decided to come in rather than just wait in the car paid me an enormous compliment by saying he found my talk on the book extremely interesting and he bought his daughter the book. I got lots of questions about writing which pleased me no end. I asked them to let me know whether they thought the book appropriate for a young adult audience. My publisher had once considered marketing Swimming with Serpents as young adult because of the age of the hero and heroine.

Tuesday took us to Greenville and a luncheon event at Twigs hosted by Fiction Addiction and Jill Hendrix. Jill's father Jim McPherson is an author who has written a novel based on his ancestor Penelope who came to America as one of the early settlers of New Amsterdam. That novel has proved interesting to me because of the genealogical connections to my own ancestors (Newkirks and Slechts) who settled in New Amsterdam. Sitting at my table was an old Dothan connection, Cathy Roberts, who once lived in Dothan and served at one time as President of the Dothan Service League. Though she still has family in Dothan, Cathy and her husband have moved to Greenville where she has become a book blogger! http://bermudaonion.net/ is where you will find her.

Wednesday was wedding day so we took the day off from book events and just enjoyed Charleston. Charleston is understandably renowned for food. We started off at Toast (http://www.toastofcharleston.com/images/toast_menu.pdf) where I had the Eggs Meeting Street, fried green tomatoes topped with a crabcake, poached egg and covered with remoulade sauce. Fantastic!

For lunch we had the very best she crab soup ever at 82 across the street from the Mills House where we stayed.

Friday was Blue Bicycle night (http://blue bicyclebooks.com/) where we not only got to see Catherine Ford Fancher's daughter Crystal (only a year and a half away from completing medical school in Charleston) but we got to see old friends Bob and Frank Hardie and meet, for the first time,  Bob's wife, Gail. Bob spotted the note Crystal left about her cousin's (on the other side of the family) restaurant, Carter's Kitchen. Article in the Post and Courier:  (http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120217/PC05/302179903) The note caught Bob's eye because he lives in Mount Pleasant only blocks from the restaurant. So, we followed Bob and Gail to Carter's Kitchen and then followed Frank back downtown where he lives with his wife (unfortunately busy that night) in a condo on the water. Retirement is looking good on these guys.

The book events have many benefits beyond the actual book sales. I enjoy people. We met lots of new people and rekindled old friendships. Couldn't have had a more successful week! 

Looking a lot like Christmas

Well, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today my daughter remembered the story I wrote about the Christmas Elf named Alliwishus. She asked if I had sent it off lately because she thinks it is a super story that others, outside our family, would enjoy as well. It is the story my mother told me about an elf she met on the battle field of France during WWII. She was a nurse on a hospital train on the way to the Battle of the Bulge. I told her I had sent it off to an agent and would continue sending it. It meant a lot to me that she remembered that story.

Alliwishus looks a lot like this elf sitting in our tree. That's where he listens to the prayers of those whom the Master has entrusted to his charge -- in the tree outside their bedroom windows.  That's what my mama told me.

We're having lots of fun with the grandchildren. George, our oldest grandson, thought he needed a tree.






I've been traveling a lot with a great schedule of events. Kathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary Agency has been my greatest asset -- my publicist.  While you always hope for a good crowd at your event, Kathie makes the point that getting your name and your book before the public is always a major reason for participating wherever you might go. At SIBA I was told of one author who attended an event where only 2 people showed up. He took them out for supper.

This is the lineup. If you're nearby, please come!

SIBA	Panel by Invitation
Book Launch for Swimming with Serpents	Speaker
Ladies Auxilliary St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club	Speaker
Books Alive Local Authors	Keynote
Public Radio	Guest
PC Writers Guild	Keynote
Supply Store U of A Auburn/Alabama	Book Signing
Beach Library Bag Lunch Author event	Keynote
Hub city Books	Book Signing
Fiction Addiction	Keynote
Blue Bicycle	Book Signing
Something's Cookin'	Book Signing
Bay Point Woman's Club	Keynote
Wilcox County Historical Society	Keynote
Panama City Genealogical society	Keynote
Chatauqua	Faculty Speaker
Litchfield Books	Keynote
Alabama Historical Society	Member
Southern Kentucky Festival	Panel by Invitation
Daughters of the American Revolution	Speaker
South Carolina Book Festival	Panel by Invitation
Florida Historical society	Member
Georgia historical Society	Member
Historical Novel Society	Panel by Invitation
NEST OF VIPERS IS RELEASED	Events to be announced

An Old Man's Prayer

Mattie Lee Martin taught me many things. She was my dearest friend for many years. She was my mentor and my teacher. I did not see the color of her skin. To me she was love.

So, when I became a teacher, I saw no difference between my black children and my white children. What I saw was many children who could not read. That motivated me to get into politics and run for the school board.

Because I did so, I was privileged to view the power of simple faith.

My husband and I both come from privileged homes. When I ventured into politics driven by what I had seen in my classes, we were told that white politicians were encouraged to go into the Black community to attend the prayer breakfast that rotated from church to church. We did so and were warmly welcomed.

My husband and I are still moved by the prayer that morning. An old white-haired gentleman, wearing a well-worn, shiny black suit, cane hanging on the back of his chair, folded his calloused hands and closed his cloudy eyes. "Lord," he said. "Thank you that I opened my eyes this morning. Thank you that I could see this beautiful world. Thank you that I could sit up. Thank you that I could put my feets to the floor. Thank you that I had shoes to put on my feets. Thank you that I could stand. Thank you that I have warm clothes to wear here to your house. Thank you that I have food to eat. And friends to eat it with. Thank you for Jesus. Amen."

Sometimes it is a good thing to be called to recall what is really important. That prayer puts everything into perspective.

By the way, I lost. But I still benefit from having run, because I will never forget the lesson taught me in that church.

John Wesley on Elections

It was All Saints Sunday at the Methodist church today. In the bulletin, Pastor Jim Sanders reminded us: "John Wesley wrote in his journal on Thursday, Oct. 6, 1774: I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against 3. And, to take care that their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side."

I am afraid that as the result of some actions and words these days our Lord would say, "I never knew you," as the result of the venom and vituperation spewed by folks who call themselves by His name. I know the first thing I learned in my Presbyterian catechism was "God is Love." Sadly, that is something that seems sorely missing in politics today. Unfortunately, our political face is often the only witness some folks have of religion.

William Augustus Bowles

William Augustus Bowles
If I were to cast my novel, Swimming with Serpents, Alec Baldwin would play William Augustus Bowles. Bowles is a very good example of how we just do not know when we begin life how or where our lives will wind up. Bowles began his life in a home of privilege in Maryland. One of his descendants, Dale Cox, writes about him on his website: http://www.twoeggfla.com/billybowlegs.html.

Books Alive! Panama City

  I was privileged to be asked to speak to this group of writers on the process of getting published focusing on publication by a university press. It was a fun event. Great bunch of folks. I will be speaking at their monthly meeting next month focusing on technology and social networking.

 Undercurrents: Connect with authors at Books Alive!

Contributed Photo

By TONY SIMMONS | PanamaCity.com

Published: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 16:33 PM.

PANAMACITY— Sharman Burson Ramsey will be a keynote speaker at the Books Alive! Local Authors event Saturday at the Bay County Public Library.
I have a friend in common with Sharman (her publicist, Kathie Bennett, daughter of Gerry and the late Barbara Clemons), but I was intrigued by her work because she also writes about the area my wife’s people are from — and actually knows something of the area’s genealogy.
“I’m always glad to find new connections and how they all fit together,” she said during a phone conversation this week.
“Connection” is a recurring theme. Her talk on Saturday, “Pit to Pinnacle: The Path to Publication,” will focus on the importance of networking for success in publishing.
“There’s a lot of pitfalls you can go through in the publishing process,” she said. “How you make connections and how you network are so critical to getting out there.”
Sharman credits some of her success to advice she got — including the name of an editor who was looking for her kind of book — by meeting Karen Spears Zacharias and other Books Alive authors.
“We all have our bucket list, and you want to get published so badly,” she said. “But then you get there and there’s another pinnacle you have to climb. … There is so much politics that goes on, even just marketing a book.”
Ramsey is a former radio host, freelance writer and adjunct professor who divides her time between Dothan, Ala., and Panama City. She writes about Southern culture, manners, etiquette and genealogy on her websites, Southern-Style.com and SharmanBursonRamsey.blogspot.com.
Newly released from Mercer University Press, “Swimming with Serpents” is the tale of star-crossed lovers of mixed Creek and Anglo heritage caught up in the massacre at Fort Mims, Ala., in 1813 and the Red-Stick wars. The sequel, “Nest of Vipers,” set during the First Seminole War, will be out next year.
Author Janis Owens, originally from Marianna and no stranger to these shores, called the new novel “a lush plunge into a forgotten corner of American history … a vivid, detailed story that reflects the passion and brutality of the day and gives insight to the nation we have become.”

Other local authors participating in Saturday’s event will include Anne Ake, Sherry Anderson, David Angier, Carole Bailey, François-Marie Bénard, Mark Boss, Bert-May Brady, Michael Brim, Jay Furr, Bruce Gamble, Michael Lister, Judy McCarthy, Nick May, Janet   Nicolet, Pamela Peterson, Christopher Scharping, Todd Vandermolen, Linda Williamson, Greg Wilson, Marlene Womack, the Gulf Coast Woman’s Club “Heritage of Bay County, Florida” and myself.

Come out and see us, and make some connections.
Peace.

Books Alive! Local:

• What: Morning presentations and afternoon book signings by 24 local authors; free admission, open to the public
• Where: Bay County Public Library Meeting Room, 898 W. 11th St. in Panama City
• When: 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday
• Schedule: 10 a.m. presentation by Sharman Burson Ramsey; 11 a.m. presentation by François-Marie Bénard; noon to 1 p.m. lunch on your own; 1-3 p.m. book sales and signings
• Details: 522-2120 or bmead@nwrls.com

St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club Ladies Auxilliary

October 11, 2012

The St. Andrew Bay Yacht Club Ladies Auxilliary invited me to talk on the history leading up to Swimming with Serpents. My dear friend Kathy Swigler, an old friend from our DHS cheerleader days, came as my guest. We enjoyed visiting with June Sapp and Charmian Cretney while we waited for the food to be served and the time to arrive for the program to begin.

JoAn Gramling and June Brackin were early arrivals. James and I were scrambling to make sure the projector for the Power Point presentation worked. We had to exchange the blue cable from the projector to the computer and finally it all came together. I always arrive early to get the feel of a place and to make sure I know how to operate the equipment. I was VERY glad I did this morning.

Marty Gerde watched as I inscribed Kathy's book.

It's been a long time since our DHS cheerleader days. Lots of bucket wishes fullfilled in the meantime.