Comfort Reading Continues (edited)

Essays are, for me, comfort reading.

I write them for that very same reason.  Essays have long been my first writing love.



There have been periods of time when I just simply have not had enough sense to read a novel.

These have been periods of stress when I've been concerned about loved ones and can't seem to hold a thought in my head for long without worries nudging it aside.

And there are times when I've been sitting on a deck, or on the beach, watching the waves and all I want is a little literary comfort to go along with the peace I'm feeling.

Now seems to be a time for essays.

It's not just a cookbook (although it can stand alone as one that cooks and cookbook aficionados would love). It's full of some of the most delicious essays written with the pure poetry that you would expect from Pat Conroy.

Saturday in The Low Country

 

As usual, my day began with coffee on the porch and a visit with Moonpie.

Then I took a drive to find Pat Conroy's grave to pay my respects.

Then I visited The Penn Center.

https://www.penncenter.com/

https://www.penncenter.com/history-timeline

The Brick Church is part of The Penn Center and is where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote part of his "I Have a Dream" speech.

On my way back to MarshSong I spotted  church run seafood festival that looked, and smelled, too good to pass up.

Delish!

Then it was time for a little more porch time with MoonPie and a phone chat with Donald.

I'm missing that cute guy of mine pretty bad.

We ended the day with the Wrap Up Reception at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.  

It was a perfect evening.

More pictures from this evening coming soon - check back!

Life is Good!

Pat Conroy

One of the most important items on my list of things to do while I'm in South Carolina is to pay my respects to a man whose writing has brought me such great joy.

Pat Conroy was a larger than life individual with a charisma that knew no bounds.  

Through his love of words and story, he continues to live in our hearts.

Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016)

 Excerpt from Pat Conroy Website

"Pat is buried in St. Helena Memorial Gardens cemetery (Ernest Drive, Saint Helena Island, SC 29920) a decision Pat made facilitated by his life-long friend Roland Gardner, who has deep roots in the Gullah community. Pat first met Roland at an event at the Penn Center on St Helena’s Island while both were in high school, at a time when schools were still segregated in South Carolina. Pat went on to become a bestselling writer and Roland a nationally recognized as a leader in community medicine. Gardner is the revered CEO of Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, serving three counties in South Carolina. He is also a member of the founding board Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Three weeks before Pat Conroy’s death from pancreatic cancer, Roland advocated for his friend, making Pat the first white person to be buried in this cemetery near the Penn Center, a National Historic Landmark and the site of the historic Brick Church and one of the country’s first schools for formerly enslaved people. The Penn Center is widely recognized as one of the most significant African American historical and cultural institutions in the United States. Those who knew Pat best believed his unspoken last act was that of a teacher: he wanted his readers to receive an important education in Civil Rights History. And that is one of the many things that the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort works to accomplish."

A desk is a desk is a desk . . .

 

Unless.

It's THIS desk.

This desk.

Anyone recognize this desk?

So, I gave you some pretty good hints, huh?! 😏 🙄 😊

In just a couple of weeks I'll have an opportunity to sit at that desk.

Pat Conroy's desk.

That and all the other amazing things that will be happening while I'm in Beaufort, SC attending the 8th Annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival  (October 26-29, 2023) will find its way right here, so please stop by.

I'm going to have lots to share - it's not every day a gal gets to be selected as a recipient of the Pat Conroy Literary Center Writer's Residency.  

squeeeeeeee . . .

The only thing that could possibly make this honor even more precious would be the opportunity to tell Mr. Conroy personally how proud, and how very touched, I am by all this, including how welcome the PCLC folks are making me feel.  

Life is good.  Awfully, awfully good.

and oftentimes bittersweet.

How'm I Feelin' ?

 

Well, I'll tell you . . .

I have written and posted endlessly about being awarded the PCLC Residency. 

I have not, however, written about how I feel about this prestigious award.

Writers, I think, enjoy the practice of journaling to process their feelings.  I often wonder how others handle and process the litany of feelings and emotions we all experience during times of extreme highs and/or lows if not by writing. 

We can talk it through, for sure.  IF we have at least one person we trust and who we know honestly and truly wants only good things for us.  Someone who is proud of us when good things happen, and who hurts right along with us when bad things happen.  No pretending.

Not everyone has that person.

Not surprisingly, my person is Donald.

Over the past 40 years, he has celebrated the highs with me, he has cradled me during the lows.

He has also never hesitated to tell me when I need to back up, slow down, rethink and reset.

It's for this reason I did not immediately share with him, or anyone, the lightning bolt of an email I received from Jonathan Haupt, Pat Conroy Literary Center Executive Director.

I wanted to think this through for reasons some of you might find surprising.

Sherrie Norris, in her High Country Press article, says, "Applying for the Writer in Residency opportunity was a rather simple process for Barley, she said. “I saw the application on-line, and filled it out, hit send . . ."

Yep.  That was the easy part.

Because I also thought that was the end of it.

Believe me.

I filled out the application thinking, "how very cool would this be?  Pat Conroy would probably say 'go for it.'  And who knows, it could happen, right?!"  Also, there was the opportunity to stay in the most precious cottage on St. Helena Island, MarshSong.

I believe MarshSong was singing to me.

I have never applied for a writer's residency before.  Never really thought about it, never even considered it.  The fact that this was all about Pat Conroy and the Center   built to honor him, along with the residency over-lapping with the 8th Annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival,  just felt like I might be able to have a chance at a dream.

It was, to me, all about Pat Conroy.

And an opportunity to get back to the beautiful, magical Low Country where my novel WHIMSEY is set.

An opportunity to try to revisit and create some new Whimsey magic.

I know there are people who were surprised by the announcement.

Let me assure you, no one was more surprised than me.

I've been asked two questions several times.

How did I feel when I learned mine was the winning submission, and what are my plans?

A little hard to explain those first immediate feelings.  

Stunned and silent.  That was my first reaction.

After re-reading Jonathan's email a couple of times, catching my breath, wiping away a couple of tears, whispering "Holy Shit," and fixing a fresh cup of coffee I allowed myself time to think.

Did I want to do this thing?  Well, of course I wanted to do it.

But, could I?

Could I honestly present myself as a writer?

A "real" writer?

Go to Beaufort, SC as the newest PCLC Resident Writer?

Maybe it was the splash of Kahlua in my coffee that had me nodding my head muttering, "I can do this."

What fool would walk away from this opportunity?

It's not as if this sort of thing happens every day - OR even once in a lifetime.

I responded to Jonathan's email in what I hope was a non-gibberish version of "Yes.  Thank you.  I am beyond honored."

Then hopped up to share my news with Donald.

LordAMercy, but what would I do without Don Barley?

Watching his face light up, hearing him say, "I am so proud of you, Kaye Alan."

Life is good.

Really, Really Good.

Over the past few days, I have been exchanging emails with the gracious Mary Ellen Thompson who will be my hostess at MarshSong.  Mary Ellen has already made me feel welcomed and embraced.  I look so forward to time with her sharing a glass of wine and long conversations.  I think there may be an adventure or two . . .

As to plans . . .

First on the list is deciding what I'll pack to take to Beaufort.  

               . . . will I need a new frock?

That's as far as I've gotten (aside from pulling out my WHIMSEY #2 manuscript for a  dusting off . . .)

But, y'all?  Ain't life grand?!

Do not ever forget that dreams do come true.

Me! Writer in Residence!

From The Pat Conroy Literary Center:

 Congratulations to Kaye Wilkinson Barley, the newly selected recipient of our Pat Conroy Literary Center's Fall 2023 Writer's Residency! We look forward to welcoming Kaye to our beloved Beaufort for her week at the MarshSong cottage, overlapping with our 8th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. 

Many thanks to all of the talented writers who applied, representing 20 states, and special thanks to our generous local benefactor who makes possible our residency program. 

Kaye Wilkinson Barley lives with her husband, Don, and their corgi, Annabelle, in the mountains of North Carolina. Kaye is a voracious reader and lover of books, a long-time blogger, an amateur photographer, a dabbler in mixed media collages, and a fiddler of fiber arts. She is the author of the novel Whimsey (for which she plans to write a sequel), and she is also a contributing writer to the Western North Carolina regional anthologies Clothes Lines and Women’s Spaces, Women’s Places.

Y'all.  Life is really, really good.

Pat Conroy bio "Man on Fire" by Catherine Seltzer

In case, like me, you're still wondering when we might be able to read that biography . . .


From https://patconroy.com/



"This site will also be the place to come to for news of possible film adaptations of his work as well as for updates regarding the much anticipated biography of Pat Conroy by Catherine Seltzer, "Man on Fire", to be published by his longtime editor Nan A. Talese/Knopf. It is a moving and definitive literary biography of the man and his work, scheduled for publication in 2022 but due to its complexity it has been delayed to second part of 2023.   Your patience will be handsomely rewarded..!!'

I first talked about it here - http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2020/07/a-new-pat-conroy-bio-by-catherine.html

A Sunday Project

You know those projects you think about doing?

And think about . . .

And think about some more . . . 

Until you FINALLY get around to doing them?

Well, that's me.

Today.

This little set of built-in shelves is in our bedroom.  And here lives books by my favorite authors.  

Can you read the titles?

I always try to read book titles in pictures and videos. 

They are all books by Anne Rivers Siddons, Pat Conroy, Margaret Maron, and Louise Penny.

Most are first editions.  Several are ARCs.

Most are autographed and/or personalized.

Treasures.

Books I will keep forever.

That empty shelf? 

Well, there were several books there that I love.  Old faves, and new.  More about them in a minute.

Sadly, there won't be new books from Anne Rivers Siddons, Pat Conroy, or Margaret Maron.

But that empty shelf is waiting for new books from Louise Penny.  

This little now empty bookcase lives in our bedroom as well.

It once held books on writing, along with some of my favorite books of poetry and essays.

But then they, along with those favorite books from the built-in shelves, ended up here.

Piled on our bed.

This project is taking longer than I thought, and if I don't get myself moving we're going to be sleeping on the floor tonight.

But while pulling books off shelves I found a few fun things, like this special little book.

Along with several notes and cards I've held on to from special friends.

But enough of all that.

I need to get back to work.

My plan is to move Paris books from here - - - 

(This is just some of them)

to the shelves in the bedroom.

The books piled on our bed are going to replace the Paris books on the vertical shelves in the sunroom.

And that, my friends, is my Sunday project, and I gotta get moving!

But first I think I'll have a fresh cup of coffee . . . 

(I'll let you know if we end up sleeping on the floor . . . )

A New Pat Conroy Bio by Catherine Seltzer

This morning I read that Nan A. Talese, president, publisher & editorial director of her own imprint at Doubleday, announced she will retire at the end of the year after six decades in publishing.

The first thing that went through my mind was "I wonder if this somehow means we'll see Catherine Seltzer's Pat Conroy biography?"

I have no idea is Ms. Talese has had a thing in the world to do with Catherine Seltzer's Conroy bio, but I never see the name Nan Talese without thinking of Pat Conroy, and I know Dr. Seltzer has been working on that bio.  (this is all sort of like "give a mouse a cookie," isn't it?!).  

I learned about it when Donald and I went on one of our "Pat Conroy Road Trips" in 2015.

This one was in Columbia, SC, at the University of South Carolina.  

Catherine Seltzer and Pat Conroy opened the South Carolina Book Festival with an event.  An "Understanding Pat Conroy" conversation. 

Catherine Seltzer wrote "Understanding Pat Conroy."  It's an academic study of his work.  Not a biography, as they both stressed.

It was during this event that I learned that  Catherine Seltzer, with Pat Conroy's blessing, would be writing an unauthorized biography.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  

Unauthorized.  

Because, as Pat Conroy explained, unauthorized means yes, he's allowing her to tell the story, with his blessing, that he feels deserves to be told.  

But, because it will be unauthorized, no one can step up and say "No.  You can't write that."  Unhappy friends and/or family members will just have to take it as it is.  Apparently, Mr. Conroy felt strongly about this and wanted the book to be an honest accounting, pulling no punches.

It was a fun event.  I always loved seeing Pat Conroy (as you well know if you visit Meanderings and Muses), and I miss him.

And I loved meeting Catherine Seltzer.  


It was easy to see the easy camaraderie they shared and a mutual admiration was evident.

And I've been wondering about that biography!

So.

(It's taken me awhile to make my point, huh?  😵 )


After reading about Ms. Talese's retirement, I started my Googling search about Catherine Seltzer's unauthorized Pat Conroy bio, and this is what I found at the Marly Rusoff Literary Agency webpage:

Man on Fire

by Catherine Seltzer
Publisher Nan A. Talese Books/Knopf, 2019

"Pat Conroy once observed that Thomas Wolfe, one of his early literary heroes, “writes like a man on fire who does not have a clue how not to be on fire.” It’s a wonderful line, a visceral description of a performance in which the writer risks self-immolation in a reckless pursuit of his art.

It’s not a stretch to argue that Conroy’s appreciation of Wolfe’s work was rooted in a profound sense of sympathy: Pat Conroy, too, was a man on fire. His novels—which include The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and South of Broad—and his autobiographical works—The Water is Wide, My Losing Season, and The Death of Santini, among them—have drawn a legion of loyal fans for both their unrestrained lyricism and their willingness to engage with the dangerous fires associated with emotional, domestic, and cultural truths. In his personal life, too, Conroy often was attracted to flame, committing himself fully to courses of action that would leave him singed if not scorched. Man on Fire: A Literary Biography of Pat Conroy, then, attempts to create a full portrait of Pat Conroy as both an ambitious writer who sought to chronicle his life and age, and as a complicated, at times enigmatic man who struggled to define himself within and outside of his art.

In many ways, Pat Conroy is already a familiar figure to a significant number of his readers. His novels all draw deeply from his own experiences, and Conroy explored his personal history in an equal number of explicitly autobiographical texts, including, most recently, The Death of Santini. As a result, the details of Conroy’s life—which include growing up with an abusive Marine father and a distant and manipulative mother; suffering brutal hazing at The Citadel, a private southern military college; and teaching in a two-room schoolhouse on a remote South Carolina barrier island during the Civil Rights Era—are well known to Conroy’s vast readership. Indeed, it’s fair to say that Conroy is not simply familiar to most of his fans, but almost familial to them. The novelist Carolyn See once confessed that although she had not met him, “I’ve always thought of Pat Conroy as a cousin or a brother or an uncle,” and this sense is broadly echoed among Conroy’s readership. He is “the cousin or brother or uncle” who has given voice to a shared history of family trauma, racial anxiety, and religious uncertainty, and the result is a connection between Conroy and his readership that is unprecedented. Man on Fire seeks not simply to illuminate the details of an already familiar life, then, but to add to this narrative by addressing the gaps—many crucial—that are the natural consequence of Conroy’s efforts to craft an engaging and coherent autobiography. (As Conroy himself explained, “I approach the art of memoir with an open heart, not [a] puritanical eye.”) Moreover, Man on Fire often complicates the existing narrative by introducing material from Conroy’s papers—unpublished journals, personal and professional correspondence, and draft manuscripts —as well as interviews with Conroy, his friends, his family, and his colleagues, texts and voices that dramatically enrich—and sometimes alter—an understanding of Conroy and his work."

Yay!

FINALLY!

No exact date, but it looks like we might be able to read it this year.

I'm a happy girl.

Welcome to "From Inside My Book Fort" - Segment #1: Pat Conroy's "Beach Music"

Welcome to my book fort!

I'd invite you in, but there's hardly enough room in here for me once Annabelle decides she wants to visit.

Sorry.

I had not intended to post my first segment this soon.  I thought I'd do some recording and have several audio files on hand for future posts.


Then I realized that yesterday was March 4th.

Pat Conroy died two years ago  and I decided to honor his memory by reading a passage of his work to kick off my "From Inside My Book Fort."

No, I don't normally remember the dates writers die - even writers I love.  But I do keep up with activities taking place at The Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina, and they commemorate the anniversary of Mr. Conroy's death with March Forth literary events on March 4th.


Originally, this was going to be a mysteries feature.


Obviously, that's changed.


It's probably going to be a hodge podge of book passages from an eclectic mix of genres, including poetry.  But heavy on mysteries, for sure.


You know how when you're reading something and you run across a passage that moves you so much you put the book down and just breathe those words, and then re-read them?


Or, you follow your partner around the house saying, "Oh!  I have to share this with you.  Listen to this!"


You know - like that.


That's exactly what I'll be doing here.


If it happens that you discover something that moves you enough to buy a book, or try a new author, or a new genre, then I'm accomplishing exactly what I hope.


This passage from Beach Music is more to me than a favorite passage from a favorite novel written by a favorite author.  It is that and so much more.


It may be one of my favorite passages ever written.

By anyone.

Ever.


It speaks loudly to the pride I feel regarding women and what we've accomplished; what we're capable of accomplishing now and in the future.  I don't take kindly to those things being criticized, disparaged or denigrated.



So.

Here we go.


Today's reading is from "Beach Music."  The link at the bottom of the page.

By the way.


Any odd noises you might hear in the background?

Let's just say Annabelle not only tries to drink my coffee, she's not above trying to eat my book . . .  Ignore them if you can.)

David Lauderdale writes about Pat Conroy

David Lauderdale's  (dlauderdale@islandpacket.com) wonderfully powerful, emotional piece about Pat Conroy from The Island Packet

http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-lauderdale/article65666537.html

Pat Conroy died the way he lived, and the way he wrote.

That’s how friends closest to the best-selling author describe the emotional blur between the Feb. 15 announcement that he had pancreatic cancer and his burial March 8 in a Gullah cemetery on St. Helena Island.

“What a loss,” his wife, Cassandra King Conroy, said Friday.

“What a loss.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I guess, but it will.”

IN THIS QUIET, INLAND CEMETERY BENEATH TALL PINES, PAT CONROY CONTINUES TO SPEAK TO THE WORLD.

Conroy’s death was larger than life, with 4 million people clicking on his website in recent days just to be close.

It was dramatic, with Conroy and loved ones exchanging emotional goodbyes three different times before the Irish eyes they say never lost their sparkle were closed for good at his creekside home in Beaufort on March 4.

Conroy’s bold fight showed as he was moved about from the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville, Fla., to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and the Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

A sign of the well-chronicled Conroy family strife (his sister Carol did not attend the funeral Mass) was overcome by waves of redemption. His formerly “lost daughter” Susannah was by his side. In 2010 he had dedicated “My Reading Life” to her, writing: “Know this, I love you with my heart and always will. Your return to my life would be one of the happiest moments I could imagine.”

All four of his daughters and other surviving siblings — Jim, Tim and Mike Conroy and Kathy Harvey — were there with their children and grandchildren.


Read the rest of the David Lauderdale's piece here - http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-lauderdale/article65666537.html

David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/david-lauderdale/article65666537.html#storylink=cpy