Rosemary Poole-Carter’s novel, Women of Magdalene, was a moving read for me for many reasons. First of all, I read everything I can that touches on the Civil War, and though this novel’s setting is after the War, the War has deeply affected the novel’s characters. The writing is rich in allusions. The author reveals extensive research, not only into matters that concern the war, but research of a neglected part of Louisiana history and the life of its residents in a post-war setting. The novel also moved me because of the subtle and beautiful way its lines touched the life-issues of family, love, women’s rights, medical practice, including especially our treatment and view of “the insane.”

If I were asked to express what the possible themes/messages of this fine novel might be, I would suggest these:

1)  Robert, the protagonist, has been as scarred internally by the war, as scarred and maimed as the hundreds he feels he maimed as a physician. He is a tormented soul who finally finds redemption and peace when he finds something and someone worth dying for. The story is told masterfully from his point of view.

2) This is a story about our need and our search for healing through true love. Robert and Effie’s love is a pure one, so unlike the lust or power-driven relationships about them. When one discovers that kind of love, then like Robert he or she can say, ” I will ask for nothing more.”
3) This is a story about madness, about the madness in each of us, about how close to the edge of madness we all are. The story is also about masked madness, the hidden insanity of those who have no conscience, those who judge, define, use and control those deemed to be mentally incompetent, especially women.

To learn more of Rosemary Poole-Carter and her wonderful fiction, go to http://www.poole-carter.info/ 

After I completed my second day of Civil War programs at Hallsville, TX Junior High yesterday, I drove to my Delta Community College class, arriving at exactly 5:00 p.m., which is when my class starts.

I had a grand time with these students at Hallsville, and it seemed that as word spread through the junior high grapevine, the students’ energy (who began rather reserved) greatly increased. Likely that’s typical for junior high kids.

This weekend, I’m off to Oklahoma to visit my parents and help them prepare their garden, and I’ll also be working on a book I’m editing.  The author is Bob Boan, and it’s entitled, Williams Lake Was Once The Center Of The Universe.  I think the author has a winner here. I’ll give it a little review after I’ve finished my editing.

A Song about Catalina: A friend read my post about my Catalina Island visit and sent me these song lyrics. Evidently the island is much more famous than I realized.

(Words and Music by band members Glen Larson and Bruce
Belland)

Twenty- six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance,
romance, romance

Water all around it everywhere
Tropical trees and the salty air
But for me the thing that’s a-waitin’ there-romance

It seems so distant, twenty-six miles away
Restin’ in the water serene
I’d work for anyone, even the Navy
Who would float me to my island dream

Twenty- six miles, so near yet far
I’d swim with just some water-wings and my guitar
I could leave the wings but I’ll need the guitar
for romance, romance, romance, romance

Twenty- six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance

A tropical heaven out in the ocean
Covered with trees and girls
If I have to swim, I’ll do it forever
Till I’m gazin’ on those island pearls

Forty kilometers in a leaky old boat
Any old thing that’ll stay afloat
When we arrive we’ll all promote romance, romance,
romance, romance

Twenty- six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance,
romance, romance

Twenty- six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
[these lyrics are found on http://www.songlyrics.com]

These East Texas schools keep surprising me. I had a WONDERFUL day with the 8th Graders at Hallsville Jr. High. These kids are sharp, civilized, polite, and eager to learn new things. This has to be because of the fantastic teachers here. A few of the 8th grade teachers and I gathered at Papacita’s, a Mexican restaurant in Longview where my lodging is. Here is a photo of Mary Beth, Rachel, Melissa, Margaret, and myself after our meal.

Librarians continue to be my favorite people, and Terri Nalls has a fantastic library. In tomorrow’s post I  need to tell you more about her program, and especially her co-workers, Sarah Roberts (one of the most committed librarians I’ve ever met) and Tom Campitillo who is a parent who volunteers to work in the library. And I must mention her very diligent student workers.  Meeting them, I am convinced that students who WANT to work in a library will be on the sharper side of the human race.

With librarians who believe in the power of books, librarians like Terri, these young readers will be sure to grow intellectually and emotionally.  Tomorrow, I have another day with the 8th graders at the school, again presenting my Civil War program. More later then. Make music, make peace, make the world a better place.

Book Signing and Program News:

Tomorrow (Monday) morning at 8:00 a.m., I’ll be interviewed at The Cross, KBMQ/KLIC  in Monroe, Louisiana.  The subject will be writing and discussion of my children’s book, Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House.

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 1-2, I’ll be at the junior high in Hallsville, TX, presenting my Jim Limber and Civil War Program.

In addition, I’ve been asked to perform for the children at the Swamp Celts Festival in Baton Rouge, April 12.  I’ll also have a booth to sign my books at.   You  can learn more about this fantastic Celtic festival here, http://www.swampcelts.com/ 

Excitement is building for my Scottish Alphabet book which we hope to have in print by August-September.  I hope to begin preselling and making presentations for the book soon. If you would like to preorder a signed and discounted copy, drop me a note and we’ll discuss it. rickeyp@bayou.com

A Wonderful Civil War Song: On Rosemary Poole-Carter’s website, I found a beautiful arrangement of a song, “Somebody’s Darling.” If you like Civil War music, be sure and check it out. (Wava Everton, vocals; Lesley Modisette, guitar) Rosemary is the talented author of Women of Magdalene. http://www.poole-carter.info/images/Wava%20Everton%20-%20Somebodys%20Darling.mp3

Every now and then I take an inventory on the tools that are helpful to me in my writing. Of course, the most important tool is self-discipline, for as John Dufresne says, “The first rule of writing is to sit your butt down and write.” However, I’ve also found these tools most helpful:

1. My Dictionaries.  I use two: Miriam-Webster 10th Collegiate Edition and the American Heritage 4th Edition.

2. My Thesaurus: The Synonym Finder.  There’s not a thesaurus like it.

3. Magazines:  I read these for ideas, inspiration, and writing trends. Currently I subscribe to Poets & Writers, Writer’s Chronicle (this keeps me informed on college trends and the academic side of creative writing) Cowboys & Indians (as it seems more and more of my work is going west, and besides, I just like it) and Oxford American (for the Southerner in me).

4. Fiction and Novel Writer’s Market by Writer’s Digest. Don’t know where or to whom to send your work? This is invaluable! I should get a new one each year, but I usually get two years out of an edition. Mine is already dated and needs to be replaced.

5. The Internet. Now, one can obtain instant answers, spelling, information, or directions immediately.  Lots of junk, true, but good stuff too.

5.  My iBook. My whole life is in my laptop. I would not surrender it during a robbery. It is more portable than a typewriter and I can usually find Wi-Fi free, though that is becoming more difficult.  As soon as I’m financially able (yuk, yuk!), I plan on using the AT&T service that enables you to have wireless anywhere you can get a signal for a cell phone.

 One of the programs I do in schools is creative writing. In those sessions, I teach students how to create their own children’s book.  Teachers with whom I’ve discussed this program are excited about it.  If you’re a writer, you might find a door into being published through a good children’s book. Now, writing a good children’s book is harder than it may sound, but it is worth the effort. Here are five reasons why you (as a writer) might want to write a children’s book.

1. As a  writer, you need to know about the genre. Everything you learn about writing and publishing can be of use to you in your marketing and in your conversation.

2. There is a huge market for children’s books. Parents who read WANT their children to read.

3. If you want to reach two or more generations at one time with important information, then a children’s book is the way to do it. This is why I chose to write Jim Limber Davis: A Black Orphan in the Confederate White House in children’s book form. I knew I would reach teachers, parents, grandparents, and children with this touching story that’s been left out of the history books.

4. Children’s books are valuable to teachers as performance readings and story time material.

5.  Children’s books inspire students to become writers and artists.

Say it ain’t so! Civil War Quotations: “The Rebel Army is now the legitimate property of the Army of the Potomac.” — Union general Joseph Hooker said this shortly before he was defeated by the Confederate Army at Chancellorsville, VA.

Another favorite ironic quote: ” They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”

http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=294&forum_id=1:

Certainly billed as one of the most ironic and famous last words of a man at the battle of Spotsylvania.  The highest ranking Union general to be killed in the war,  “Uncle John Sedgewick, was shot through the left eye by a Confederate sharpshooter (using a Whitworth).

Not long ago, as you may remember from my blog notes, I was in Dublin, Texas. In the parade, I was reminded of our debt to Mexico. Here is a photo:

Here are the Dublin Beauty Queens! What beauties!

Here I am, waiting on the parade and orders to march.

And here is a photo of a beautiful girl. I call this photo, “California Bonnie.” She is standing underneath a statue of the Greek goddess, Diana, the Huntress.

I do try to take as many photos as I can these days.  I throw away many. But I’ve learned those Kodak moments can really mean something in the future, but if we lose them, we have to live with the regrets.

After listening to The Tin Roof Blowdown on audio CD by James Lee Burke, I am more impressed than ever with Burke’s writing.  His writing has fascinated me for some years now. Since first lines in writing a novel are so important, I decided to take a look at the first lines of some of the Dave Robicheaux novels:

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead “The sky had gone black at sunset, and the storm had churned inland from the Gulf and drenched New Iberia and littered East Main with leaves and tree branches from the long canopy of oaks that covered the street from the old brick post office to the drawbridge over Bayou Teche at the edge of town.”

Jolie Blon’s Bounce “Growing up during the 1940s in New Iberia, down on the Gulf Coast, I never doubted how the world worked.”

A Stained White Radiance “I had known the Sonnier family all my life.”

Black Cherry Blues ” Her hair is curly and gold on the pillow, her skin white in the heat lightning that trembles beyond the pecan trees outside the bedroom window.”

Heaven’s Prisoners “I was just off Southwest Pass, between Pecan and Marsh islands, with the green whitecapping water of the Gulf Stream to the south and the long, flat expanse of the Louisiana coastline behind me–which is really not a coastline at all but instead of huge wetlands area of sawgrass, dead cypress strung with wisps of moss, and a maze of canals and bayous that are choked with Japanese water lilies whose purple flowers audibly pop in the morning and whose root systems can wind around your propeller shaft like cable wire.”

Dixie City Jam “Not many people believe this, but in the early months of 1942, Nazi submarines used to lie in wait at the mouth of the Mississippi for the tankers that sailed without naval escort from the oil refineries at Baton Rouge into the Gulf of Mexico.”

*Though there are several other novels I could have used, I think these are representative of Burke’s style. Writing in the first person, he is a master of narration with wonderful diction and insights into the human condition. I would like to know your thoughts on Burke, so drop me an email with Burke in the “reply” window.

Thoughts on Jefferson Davis: After refraining from reading our local paper for months, I was once again reminded why I had made that decision. One of the AP articles the Monroe-News Star ran on Sunday, Feb. 24, and on the front page, was entitled, “Other Civil War leader gets little respect at 200.” The AP article claims that people are not excited about Jefferson Davis’ birthday celebration planned for this year. It points out that President Bush was excited about Lincoln (the article called him the Great Emancipator; is the author of the article kidding?) The article claims that Davis’ 200th has “turned out to be something of a lost cause.” This author is so out of touch and it is biased press like this that makes me distrust many modern journalists in print and media. To contest this article, I want to make these points:

1) The claim is without evidence. Those (thousands of them) who do want to make this year special for Davis know that excitement is high.

2)  This is the year of Jefferson Davis. Note this article printed at: http://shnv.blogspot.com/

Jefferson Davis was born 200 years ago and 2008 will be a special year for the Sons of Confederate Veterans as we honor the memory and legacy of the one and only Confederate President. As your Commander-in-Chief, I will ask every Compatriot, Camp and Division to do whatever is necessary to see that the Davis record is honored both as a Confederate President, patriotic soldier, loving family man, and as an American statesman.

The General Executive Council has decided that something unique needs to be done to truly honor Jefferson Davis. By a unanimous vote, the SCV will commission famed sculptor Gary Casteel to create a statue of Jefferson Davis which will be here 100 years from now as a token of the respect of the membership of the SCV in 2008. This will be our token of affection and gratitude for what Jefferson Davis did and what he stood for. It is hoped that the statue will be completed this year.

Our monument will emphasize the humanity of Jefferson Davis. It will consist of three figures, Jefferson Davis, his son Joseph, and their adopted black child Jim Limber, a person lost in history by revisionist historians who felt his existence would impair their contrived notions of Davis. The statue will serve as an educational reminder that Davis was much more than the villain today’s politically correct historians castigate.

The statue will be paid for through individual contributions. There will be no corporate or municipal shakedowns such as when the Abraham Lincoln statue was forced into a Confederate landmark, the Tredegar Ironworks. A careful fundraising program will be created for SCV contributions and freedom loving Americans who understand what Davis represents. The SCV statue will represent the love of the Southern people who Davis bore much of the suffering for. We have not determined the exact location of the statue but will determine a suitable spot during the time the statue is being constructed.

I ask all members to be a part of this historical endeavor. Our statue will be the first public statue of Jefferson Davis in a century. Every member, Camp and Division are asked to contribute to this when we begin fundraising. The SCV may be the only organization in this country who will honor the memory of Jefferson Davis and that includes many Southern organizations. Next year will be the bi-centennial of Abraham Lincoln. I am sure you can guess the hoopla that will entail. This year is the bi-centennial of our President. Let’s show the world that Jefferson Davis was not only a man of his times but a man for the ages.

Christopher Sullivan
Commander-in-Chief
Sons of Confederate Veterans

Well, I’ve returned from California. Time now to settle down to my writing work. I’m still in traveler recovery–so many images, so many people I met, so much I’ve learned. My next children’s book (published by Pelican) is a Scottish Alphabet (ABC) Book. It should be out in August if all goes well. I hope that anyone who is Scottish will order a copy. Here is a sample of the artwork, done by Connie McLennan,a freelance illustrator. She is a member of the San Francisco Society of Illustrators, the Northwest Air Force Artists, and the Picture Book Artists Association. She has won awards from both the San Francisco Society of Illustrators and the Sacramento Ad Club. She is also a founding member of OASES, a parent advocacy group for children with special needs. McLennan creates and sells “daily paintings” via her painting blog and through eBay.  Here is a sample of what she’s done with my book:

As you can see, the artwork is wonderful! Once again, I was lucky to have my publisher find an illustrator who could do wonderful work.