SC Book Festival 2012

The South Carolina Book Festival, which continues today, has been terribly good to my writing career. Yesterday, as I moderated two panels consisting of talented authors and engaged audiences, I felt very much at home.

A highlight, besides commingling with such fiction notables as Ron Rash, Josephine Humphreys, Emily St. John Mandel, Michel Stone, and Jillian Weise, must of course be noted: shaking the hand of Pat Conroy and telling him how much his work inspired me to be a writer, and how much it meant to be able to finally tell him that. He accepted my dewy-eyed gratitude with graciousness, charm, and a twinkle in his eye that let me know I was far from the first person to lay that rap on him, but still appreciated.

After two years in ‘the woodshed’, as I keep calling this period, I’ve emerged sitting on a number of polished manuscripts that are ready to make their way out into the world. The range of diverse material I believe I’ve produced should present itself as reasonably accomplished, but who knows? As we go into a new submission phase of my career, look for this blog to be updated with regularity.

Full disclosure: this shot is from Mr. Conroy’s appearance, and not one of my own panels. Considering the competition we faced, ours were still exceedingly well attended.

In the next post, I will update the status of various manuscripts as discussed in earlier postings.