With Keyboard In Hand

"What Writing Is"

     "Telepathy, of course. It's amazing when you stop to think about it—for years people have argued about whether or not such a thing exists, folks like J. B. Rhine have busted their brains trying to create a valid testing process to isolate it, and all the time it's been right there, lying out in the open like Mr. Poe's Purloined Letter. All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation."

- Stephen King 
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Copyright 2000

      
     No one could express it better. Every writer worth his or her ink sends a reader to places they've never been and brings them home with memories they've never experienced in the corporeal sense.

     Seeing Delaney's People in print is one of the great joys of my life. Most days I hear from someone saying they loved the book or enjoyed traveling along with me and my imagination. Those comments are treasured.

     In three days I will be hosting my Very First Book Signing. It is no exaggeration to say that I did not dare to dream such a thing for most of my life. Throughout years of event planning I learned a lot about throwing a party (thank you, Junior League!) and I am giddy at the mere thought of this one.

     Today's post is a giant, heartfelt thank you to all the people who believed in my writing and read every word of each draft, from rough to less rough to polished. They are named on the acknowledgements page, and I am more grateful than I can say.

     If you've read the book, you are familiar with Margaret. She embodies some of the very best characteristics of my beloved grandmother, Lucile Kadle Holder Sodeman. There would be no Margaret without my "Mamas." It breaks my heart that I lost her before Delaney's People was published, but I feel her with me every step of the way. Her spirit will be there Saturday. 

     Writing has always made me happy. Hearing from those who have enjoyed my work . . . well, that's more than I could have asked for. 

Love from Delta.

What If . . .

I do not know Molly Watkins, but I sure do like her style. "What If" embodies some excellent points to be taken to heart, and I am proud to promote it here. Please watch and share with your friends!

Love from Delta.

Complicated Life, Simple Food

With a plot (pun intended) reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, "Eating Alabama" chronicles a young couple's return home to Alabama where they set out to eat the way their grandparents did—locally and seasonally. 

The documentary will have its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, March 9-14.

Tuscaloosa's Andrew Grace and his wife, Rashmi—both of whom were raised in suburbia—spent a challenging year that produced moments of comedy and episodes of adventure, but also some deep thoughts about the rapid pace of change and what may have been irrevocably lost in the rush to modernity.

 Watch the trailer . . . this looks good.

Eating Alabama Trailer from Moon Winx Films on Vimeo.

I have a daughter majoring in horticulture, and we grow a lot of our own food (though our chickens are never in danger of human consumption). I can relate to Andrew and Rashmi's experience on a much smaller scale.

Andrew says, "I had an assumption when I started this project that what had been disconnected was my relationship with farmers." He assumed that by tracing food back to its source, they would re-establish their connection to place, people and the seasons.

"We discovered that it wasn't very easy."

He lost nine pounds on "an unintentional Atkins diet."  He and his wife discovered the upside of lengthy meal preparation: they spent more time together than ever, even if there was no supper until 9 p.m.

Both Rashmi and Andrew are just a few generations separated from the old ways. Grace said his grandfather grew up on a north Alabama farm but left at 15, earned an engineering degree and helped design the booster rockets for the space shuttle.

Through his grandfather's memories, Grace had a sense of the kind of close-knit community that once predominated, one marked by self-reliance, but also a system of mutual interdependence. These days, even in rural Alabama, farm life is very different. Most food production is outsourced to other states or other countries.

"I had a nostalgic and romantic idea of farm life, but today it is a very mechanized, industrialized workplace," Grace said.

The documentary evolved into a tale of how much our economy and lifestyle has changed and how difficult it is to make a living farming. I think we should be pondering those things.

Andrew Grace teaches filmmaking at the University of Alabama and serves as the director of an interdisciplinary program called Documenting Justice. Rashmi Grace is now director of the Druid City Garden Project, a community-based nonprofit in Tuscaloosa that works to increase access to fresh, locally grown produce.

Their film will be seen on Alabama Public Television this fall, and eventually nationwide on PBS. I will be watching for it, because the trailer beautifully illustrates people coming together in Alabama fashion.

Makes me proud.

"Eating Alabama" on Facebook










Love from Delta.

Happy Valentine's Day With Love

Let's start with the cynical:

Unfortunate Coincidence

By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying -
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
 

-Dorothy Parker

Here are some lovely love thoughts for your Valentine's Day enjoyment:

"Each moment of a happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life." -Aphra Behn

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." -Dr. Seuss

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." -Robert Heinlein

"For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow." -Rosemonde Gerard

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." -Judy Garland

"If I could be anything in the world I would want to be a teardrop because I would be born in your eyes, live on your cheeks, and die on your lips." -Author Unknown

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence." -Vincent van Gogh

"Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear." -John Lennon

"Trip over love, you can get up. Fall in love and you fall forever." -Author Unknown

"Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart." -Author Unknown

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." -William Shakespeare

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." -Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"Love is the only gold." -Lord Alfred Tennyson

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven." -Karen Sunde

"When love is not madness, it is not love." -Pedro Calderon de la Barca

"Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

My All Time Favorite John Donne Love Poem:

The Baite

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.

There will the river whisp'ring run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ;
And there th' enamour'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest ;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait :
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas ! is wiser far than I.



and . . . 

Since I am on an Adele kick, here's one of the best angsty love songs ever: 
 

Happy Valentine's Day to you and the most special people in your life.

 Love from Delta.

Forget Chocolate. Forget Flowers . . .

. . . here is a Valentine I could truly embrace. Heart shaped pizzas are all the rage, and I did not even know until this morning. Papa John's sold 60,000 heart-shaped pizzas in 2010, and a little bit more than 60,000 last year. It expects to sell 75,000 this year.

"We first offered them nationally three years ago, and they've become widely popular," said their spokeswoman Tish Muldoon, adding that the company debuted them again last week.

Why did no one tell me this? All those years of Godiva and floral arrangements that make me sneeze—and I could have had a romantic, gooey, cheese-laden pizza. Papa John knows what girls like.

Searches on Google for "heart-shaped pizzas" have soared 230% since January. If you'd like to craft your own, here is a video featuring a busty woman who calls herself "Sexy Mama" displaying her . . . um . .. method. I can't bear to sit through it, but I think I could engineer a way to produce a pizza valentine on my own.

Thank you, Nice Lady.

There is no Papa John's within thirty miles of my home, but if anyone wants to send me a passionate Valentine's Day gift—ahem—this idea is drool-worthy.

Happy Valentine's Day.




Love from Delta.

Alabama Shakes

I love Brittany Howard's soulful voice. She fronts the band "Alabama Shakes" from lovely Athens, Alabama. Brittany represents her state well—pardon the bragging, but The Heart of Dixie routinely hatches some of the best singer-songwriters in the world.

Alabama Shakes made their national television debut on Conan last night. He was impressed, and so am I.

I am posting my favorite. "I Ain't The Same." Have a listen:

Best of sweet Southern luck to Alabama Shakes. Tell your friends . . . their debut album "Boys and Girls" drops April 9th.








Love from Delta.

Acura Rocks.

My car is one of my favorite things in the world. Acura has been my brand for several years now—I smile and nod knowingly at fellow TL owners in traffic.

Maybe that is why I love this commercial so very much. It combines great humor with one helluva good-looking Acura.

No need to wait for the Super Bowl and all that tedious football . . . here it is:

Love from Delta.