Oxford, MS

I'm in Oxford, MS.  Before that, I spent the morning in Jackson, MS.  I filmed a roundtable discussion for the show Writers on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.  I got to sit at a table with Richard Bausch and Elizabeth Spencer, which felt like a dream.  These are two writers that I love very, very much.  It was a heck of a lot of fun and I felt like I didn't embarrass myself.  In fact, I said some pretty powerful stuff about the art of writing fiction.  Well done, Kevin Wilson.  Tell us again how writing a story is like building a boat that you will sail to epiphany island.  Before the taping, they took a picture of us and, at the end of the taping, they already had the photo in commemorative frames for us.  Hot damn.

Then we ended up in Oxford, where I read for Thacker Mountain Radio.  It was awesome.  There were a ton of people.  I got to read with Alan Huffman, who wrote Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History.  If that description doesn't make you want to read the book, I don't want to know you.  Pat Thomas (the son of James "Son" Thomas) and The Mayhem String Band both performed and were amazing.  It was great to see SWC-alum John Oliver Hodges and UF-alum Elizabeth Kaiser.  I also got to hang out with Michael Bible and David Swider, who run the literary magazine Kitty Snacks.  They gave me a copy of the first issue, which is incredible.  It has Jack Pendarvis and Sam Pink and an interview with Geologist of Animal Collective.  Good lord, the whole event was just wonderful.  From here on out, I need to remember to read only with another, more talented, writer and two musical groups.

My dad and I ate at Whataburger for lunch.  We are not doing great on our lunch choices.  For dinner, after the reading, we went to Ajax, which everyone in Oxford suggested as a good place to eat.  They were right.  I had a dressed roast beef and gravy Po-boy.  Man, it was good.  Really, really good.  I would like to go back for lunch and eat it again.

Tomorrow we head over to Blytheville, Arkansas, for a reading at That Bookstore in Blytheville.  The description of the event on the website says, "Have potluck with the author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth."  That sounds awesome.  I'm looking forward to this reading, the last of this section of the tour.