The Louisiana Book Festival

Festival day is almost here, and I’m excited! The Louisiana Book Festival starts Friday, October 16, but most of the action is on Saturday, October 17. Lana and I will be going up Friday afternoon for the Authors Party dinner from 7:00 to 9:00 at the State Library. Then we plan to just get a room, if we can find one nearby, because my talk is on Saturday morning from 10:00 to 10:45. I’ll be talking about my writing, with specific reference to Witch of Talera, which is my most recent novel.


If you’re not familiar with the Louisiana Book Festival, it’s held on the Capitol grounds in Baton Rouge. It basically starts at 10:00 and ends at 5:30. The general link is here. And there’s also a link to my profile here. My talk is in the Capitol building itself, in House Committee Room 4, which is in the basement (Alario Hall). I’ll be doing a signing at the Barnes & Noble tent at 11:00, which is along Spanish Town Road on the Capitol grounds. After that I plan to hit a bunch of other exciting panels and presentations.

The festival is free and open to the public, and they have all kinds of things for kids to do as well. There will be booths up during the day with food and exhibits, and there are kid’s tents, live music, a cooking demonstration, and much more. There’ll be lots of books. Hurray! The State library and State museum are also right there. At 6:00 there is a free concert by the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

If you’re going to be in the Baton Rouge area on Saturday, stop by. The Capitol grounds are gorgeous and there should be many interesting sights and sounds to experience. Plus, did I mention "books?"

Needless to say, I won’t be blogging until at least Sunday. But I’ll give a report here when I get a chance. In the meantime, I’m going to have some fun.

Witch of Talera

I'm stoked. After quite a long wait, Witch of Talera has been published. This is the Amazon link. I can't find it up anywhere else yet. I'm a tiny bit disappointed that the cover isn't shown. I'm assuming it is the same cover format as the other two, but I was curious about the color scheme. For some reason I'm thinking it's going to be green but I really don't know.

I'm very happy, though, to see this book in print. As some of you know, the first two Taleran books were serialized and so have been previously published, although in somewhat truncated form. Witch was supposed to be serialized as well but it didn't happen. I had to take a four month break in the middle of writing it because of family issues, and by the time it was done the magazine was getting ready to fold after something like 12 years. So, in a way, it's nicest to see this one ushered into the world.

Here's the opening paragraph of Chapter 1:

It is a custom on Talera for those about to be married to spend the last hour before the ceremony meditating alone. Thus, I was in my apartment within the great pile of Jystral Castle when the assassin came for me.

Alien's and Baby T-Rexes, and More Mysteries

First, in answer to my picture questions last blog, the Alien Egg is indeed a Cypress knee, although it is one of the largest ones I've ever seen. One area of the Flatwoods is a Cypress swamp. As for the footprint in water, although Lana and I didn't see it made, we have seen a big heron in the area several times and his/her tracks are identical. I try to imagine it's a baby T-Rex footprint, though. As for the butterfly picture, anyone notice how the yellow goldenrod looks like a hand on which the butterfly has perched?

Second, Lana and I watched The Rise of the Silver Surfer last night. It had some good moments and I enjoyed most of the special effects, although both "The Thing" and "Dr. Doom" looked kinda cheezy. It was worth a PPV rental, though.

Third, I hear from my editor that Witch of Talera has been sent to the printers so I'm hoping it will be published soon.

One of these days I'll get back to posting more writing thoughts. School has really been kicking my butt for the last two weeks, and will be doing so through at least next week. In the meantime, here's two other Flatwoods pics that are quite interesting. I did not expect to see the one on the left at this time of year. Any guesses as to the nature of these?