No Need to Alert the Authorities

I'm still here. Still alive. The biggest event of my job-year has come and gone -- The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. This year it was a two day event, which has kept me busy since January 1, but has kept me just barely head-above-water drowning the last two or three weeks.

On Thursday I met our four authors -- three previous inductees and one of this year's inductees -- at their hotel and spent the morning ferry them to and fro an interview. I had the enormous pleasure of spending gobs of time with Ferrol Sams, Terry Kay, John Stone and Bailey White. If you have not read anything by these authors, I highly urge you to check them out. My favorites of the above are Run With the Horsemen (which is the first of a hilarious trilogy) by Ferrol Sams, To Dance with the White Dog by Terry Kay (which was made into Hallmark movie starring Hume Cronyn and for which Hume won an Emmy), and Music from Apartment 8 by John Stone (a cardiologist who also writes poetry. He was the first poet who made me think I might actually like poetry).

Most of you may know Bailey White from her folksy essays on NPR's All Things Considered. A publisher compiled several of her essays into two books, only one of which I've read so far, but it has quickly established itself as one of my all-time favorite works, Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Other Dangers of Southern Living.

On Thursday evening I went to a very nice soiree at the President's House...the President of the University, that is. The Robert Osborne Film Festival is in town, so I got to meet Mr. Osborne as well. He was nice and there was kind of a frisson of excitement in meeting someone "famous," but honestly, it was much more thrilling for me to meet the authors.

On Friday we had our annual induction ceremony, which was lovely. In addition to Bailey White, we also inducted Calder Willingham, who originally called Rome, Ga his home. He wrote Rambling Rose, the novel that was made into a movie starring Robert Duvall and Laura Dern. He also wrote the screenplay for, and was nominated for an Oscar for, The Graduate.

After the ceremony, the judges convened to elect the newest inductees, which won't be announced until next year. I know who they are....but you'll never get me to tell!