The Well and the Mine

Disclaimer: I do not seek out Southern fiction, but sometimes it finds me.

A few weeks ago I read a glowing review in Publishers Weekly about a debut Southern writer. Gin Phillips chose to write about a coal mining town in Alabama in 1931. Pre-teen Tess watches a woman throw a baby into her family's well. In her child's mind, this becomes a mystery that plays out against rural America during the Depression, against racism, potential mine disasters, company towns, and poverty. Yet the family is strong and supportive, and the climax is subtle and profound. From her opening sentence, "After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time." Now, THAT'S a hook.

Phillips has a fine ear for idiom, but doesn't bog down dialogue with regionalisms. Enough for the reader to get the point, but no more. Her characters are as down to earth as the coal dust in work-hardened hands. Her language soars and dips, spare and lush, and always drives the story forward.

I loved the experience of reading this book. I didn't put it on a Kindle. This demands the reader enjoy it in analog format -- a page-turning book.

Formal Book Launch

Last week, Becky Mushko, author of Ferradiddledumday, and her illustrator, Bruce Rae, launched the publication of their new book with a pair of a dramatic readings of said work. The global premier was on Tuesday, January 26th, at the Franklin County Library in Rocky Mount. On Thursday, January 28th, the pair gave another spirited performance at the Westlake Library.


The crowd got into the reading, er, performance, and laughed in all the right places.

The Lake Writers at Smith Mountain Lake and the Valley Writers of Roanoke (a chapter of the Virginia Writers Club) are rightfully proud on this publication. We all thank Cedar Creek Publishing for seeing the worth of this retelling of the Grimm Brothers tale of Rumplestiltzkin and bringing the work to light.

And now for the last shameless plug for a while: buy the book, buy the book, buy the book. I bought two and will buy more for presents.