This weekend featured a trip to Jesup, a town about thirty miles away from us. It's bigger than Blackshear but similar in size to Waycross. We go there only rarely. It's a charming town with a robust downtown, but we don't often have a reason to go there.
Saturday we had a reason. The Wayne County Arts Council invited me to present a reading from my books, and being the hamwich that I am, I couldn't resist.
It was a fun, positive experience. No, it did not have world-beater crowds. But those who were there seemed to enjoy it, and it was a great variety of local talents, including some extraordinary authors. I read from Here Comes Tommy and Crowley Stories. Not to brag, but they were well-received. If I am unsure of some of my abilities, that uncertainty does not include my ability to read aloud.
I wasn't sure what to read from Crowley Stories. I practiced the two-page introduction of Crowley Stories and found myself a bit overwhelmed. Sometimes I reread something I wrote years ago, and I am horrified by the mistakes I find that I had not previously caught, or the reading flow is not as sharp as I expected.
Not so with the introduction of Croley Stories, Good Morning Bright Crowley Sun. It held up, so much so, it almost took me to my knees, and I had hard keeping my emotions in check while I read it.
One of my decisions not to try agents with Crowley Stories was that this brief intro has a very long run-on sentence at the heart of it. That was a stupid decision. Having read it aloud for the first time, to me, it sang beautifully, a hymn as to what's to come in the Crowley Stories. My inability to promote this excellent book is one of the biggest failures of my life. That and not moving back to Michigan in 2016 and convince 11,000 Michiganders not to vote for racist Donald Trump.
We also discovered a great new restaurant in Jesup, One Love, with 'island" food, which I believe is Carribean, Alison had some jerk chicken, and I had island pork with guava BBQ sauce. The sides were delicious as well, and I had a custom made fruit punch that was out of this world. Now Alison is busy trying to come up with reasons to go to Jesup!
They have a TV facility at the Wayne County Arts Council, so some of what we did may be on TV there, or even on YouTube. If I hear more about it, I'll let you know!
Yall should check out the Historic Strand movie theater in Jesup! It's a good time and neat place to see a movie (we go here instead of Waycross..much cooler experience). Also they have good food at the connected Strand Bistro :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info!
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