Like any one of Tennessee Williams's characters, Mississippi is a complex, brooding, neurotic, conflicted, embracing place of sultry warmth and inimitable hospitality. And in these postcards, I will present Mississippi as I encounter her, as I journey deep into her soul. She has already captured me, and here I intend to seduce you into her embrace.
April 2022 and it's just now "Spring" at least "intellectually" so...
Calendar Spring occurred almost a month ago, but Winter would just not give up. I had written that February was the "cruelest" month. Well, this year, so was March and so has April been. We can add Russia's unprovoked invasion (February24) of the sovereign country of Ukraine to this year's reason why February is the cruelest month, but it's now past mid-April and Russia is turning cities and villages in Ukraine to rubble, making it look like Dresden in the waning days of WWII, some 75 years ago. NATO, Europe, U.S. don't allow this war to turn into another Afghanistan or Syria. End Putin NOW.
As might be obvious as you read these notes, some things continue unabated. Some things come to an end, and some things begin without warning.
May 6, 2022...
Whoops, where did my life go? Seventy-fourth birthday. I suddenly, unexpectedly turned into the old man I've been seeing in the mirror for at least a decade. I was too busy feeling like I looked like the young man whose image I carry around with me to realize that I was growing old. My only observations is that you realize you're old when you begin to be invisible to people. Oh, they know you're there, perhaps in the middle of the sidewalk, an object they have to make room for, but they really don't see anything but that "elderly" facade. I've been here in Mississippi now for six years and I have already attended three funerals of those who were connected with the writer's group I belong too. Six years have passed since I moved into my house on 4th Avenue South, and I'm now the oldest person on the street! When I moved in, there were three other people older than me. Two of them have died, and one has moved to Connecticut to be with her children.
June 2022...
I've been working with other writers in my group to get their books published, and I've yet again learned more about the software I use. In the case of Angie Basson's book, I Hate Turtlenecks, I've learned how to create a book using Affinity Publisher and to make a book for upload to the publisher without ever using MS Word. For those of you who live in Mississippi, and especially Columbus, MS, it may not be necessary to tell you that Mississippi is a state that is well blessed with creative talent, as it has been throughout its history. This book was illustrated by a young man, Jyreme McMillon who lives in Meridian, MS, and while it is somewhat of a drive between Columbus and Meridian, he came down to sit beside me at the computer during our final work on the book. I've learned how to work in layers that he created using his Adobe software and to work in Affinity Photo and Publisher. I Hate Turtlenecks is currently available at the Columbus Arts Council for the special $10.00 price. It is normally $12.95.
I also worked on the writer's group joint collaboration Ferry Tales, which is nearing completion, now more urgent than ever, since it is to be dedicated to the three members of our group who have passed on. Two of them contributed stories to the ferry tales book. The book is not yet published, but I have included the layout for the front/back cover for this Postcards entry to entice anyone who might be interested to inquire at the Arts Council on the corner of 5th Street and Main in downtown Columbus.
July 2022...I haven't mowed my grass in a while because of the heat...and what had been incessant rain.
But I have been busy indoors writing and editing. I'm editing a new novel from a client from Denmark. It's in the rough draft stage, but we have already been fussing with a cover concept. Morgan David's first novel was a suspense M2M romance, and this new novel is also a thriller/murder mystery, much darker than the first novel, but just as intriguing with interesting characters, bits of historical perspective...this time on the Nazi theft of paintings and their underground sales to the world's rich.
And so, we're not there yet, but I long ago discovered that life is the journey, not the destination, not the became but the becoming. Humans are witnesses to the events around them, and even witnesses to their own events.
The Mississippi Book Festival...a destination in the journey through life...
