As my inbox fills up with cancellations with this coronavirus outbreak, some hurt more than others. Top of the list is a tie between the Kaigler Book Festival and the JambaLAya Writers Conference. 

There are few things that can bring on as many mixed feelings for me as technology. A recent news item showing a writer who still uses a typewriter looked absolutely archaic and brought tender feelings toward my computer. 

Knowing her love of reading, Carrel’s son asked which book, of all the ones she had promoted over the years, she would like him to read aloud to her.

I recently took an interesting challenge to write about myself at fifteen and then as I am today.

When you start with a good English mystery set in a historical time and throw in a bit of romance, you have hope of an excellent read. Charles Finch makes good on that promise in The Last Passenger published on February 18. 

Grandson Benjamin asked me a hard question, “Grandma, when did you start liking books?” Truthfully, that goes back beyond my memory, although I remember loving books long before I could read.

The prologue to Robert Dugoni’s murder mystery that is just out this week, A Cold Trail, begins in Cedar Grove, Washington in 1993. “Heather Johansen wiped her tears and the driving rain that blurred her vision and ran down her face.” 

In the advertising for the annual Fay B. Kaigler Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi each spring, special writers and illustrators are touted along with great and meaningful breakout sessions that enhance experiences with children’s and young adult books. 

As Valentine’s Day approached, Facebook picked up an appropriate memory from four years ago. The two youngest grandchildren lived in DC at the time and loved crafting with colored Styrofoam shapes. They had a huge project of making designs with Valentine hearts. 

Elizabeth Acevedo doesn’t need my accolades for her book The Poet X since she has already won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award, but my blog readers need to know not to miss this book if they enjoy young adult literature.

My young adult friend Tina, who had known us and our children for several years, had a question. She had been paying attention as our nest had emptied with our youngest two children heading to college a year apart. “Virginia, are you really this happy or is this a front?”

Leaving the theater after seeing the current version of Little Women, my daughter-in-law and I discussed the perennial question of which character we identified with, and she brought up an interesting point. 

Nothing brings on the need for a Pity Party like a sheet of paper with the heading “INSTRUCTIONS FOR SCALING/ROOT PLANING PATIENTS” from the periodontist. I’ve been in this predicament enough times that I’ve become an expert at making plans.

Surrounding myself with things that make me feel good is a coping mechanism for dealing with the days when the writing won’t come or the rejection letters do. The photograph, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” is one of those. 

Paul Yoon’s novel, Run Me to the Earth, begins in the 1960s in Laos during the Vietnam War. The author’s note at the beginning sets the stage for three orphans, Alisak, Prany, and Noi, who learn to navigate their motorcycles between the unexploded cluster bombs or “bombies.”

I should have known to sift through all the Styrofoam peanuts, plastic bubbles, and newspaper stuffing when I opened my daughter’s package, but I was probably relieved that I finally got into it at all. 

Facebook friends formed a tag team this week and have taken me back to talk about an old book instead of a new one. Who would have thought that the 125thanniversary of the New York Public Library would have such significance for a country girl from Mississippi?

A funny thing turned up in our recent move that took me back in time. We were living in Germany, and our planned trip over the Thanksgiving holiday season had a few glitches.

A prologue set on Tuesday, September 21, 1926 at 9:12 p.m. sets the stage for The Hollows, a mystery by Jess Montgomery, located in Ohio near a railroad track through the Appalachian hills.

The Shetlands are cute and friendly, but not too bright. In fact, they might be more aptly named Dumb and Dumber. Proof lies in looking carefully at the area on either side of the fence.