Today I took a profitable road trip to Louisiana Tech at Ruston, Louisiana. The university library is now going to carry my books, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House and Stories of the Confederate South.  In addition, the university bookstore manager said he would order about a dozen.  I also met with some of the staff in the English department, working on future readings here. I’ve known a couple of the English instructors here for many years.  I then dropped into the Lincoln Parish Library hoping to catch the Vivian McKain, the director, but she is out attending a library meeting somewhere. Vivian has always been a fan of my writing, and very generous and helpful in many aspects of my writing career.

Tomorrow, I am at the Books-A-Million in Bossier City, Louisiana. That signing will start about 10:00 a.m. and as usual, I plan on it lasting till all the store’s books are sold. Sunday, September 23, the first day of fall, is my birthday. Sigh. Last year’s birthday is still firmly planted in my mind, and the gifts I received and the memories of those who gave them are still with me.  I think last year’s birthday was one of my better ones. I  looked at a poem I wrote the day after. I won’t post the whole poem for fear of it causing me to slip into bathos. Here are two of the lines:

Today was my birthday,
And the first in a decade I haven’t hated.

I hope this year’s birthday will be as good as that one.