Pat Conroy's Blog, page 2

Vietnam still haunting me…

Hey, out there… When I was in New York two weeks ago, I received word that my Citadel classmate Ted Bridis had died. The news of his death shocked me on several levels. While we were at The Citadel, Ted and I were both “jocks,” a despised underworld in the Corps of Cadets at that [...]

A Long Lasting Friendship: Charlie Gibson of Good Morning America

Hey, Out There… It is a day before my 68th birthday and I ready myself for life on the road that I’m too edgy and tired-blooded to do as I did with pleasure in my misspent youth. When I was in New York, I taped an interview with Charlie Gibson for Good Morning America. Charlie [...]

On The Road Again… Airports, Editors, Publicists and my writing life

Hey, out there, I flew to New York on October 1 for the opening shots of my upcoming tour for The Death of Santini. The book comes out on October 29, when I’ll be running my mouth and signing my books until I’m mercifully released to return to my writing desk to continue the writing [...]

A Room Of Her Own… and the birth of Moonrise

Hey, Out There… To write about your own wife’s novel should cause shame to any serious writer, but in this case I find that I can do it with pleasure and a strong sense of pride. Since I met Cassandra King at the Hoover Library’s Writer Conference and we decided to spend the rest of [...]

The man who inspired MY LOSING SEASON left us too soon…

Hey, out there, My basketball teammate John DeBrosse died September 25, 2013 in Dayton, Ohio. He was the shooting guard on the Citadel team I wrote about in my book My Losing Season. It was John’s surprising and unexpected arrival at a book signing for Beach Music that reignited a friendship I’d lost when I [...]

The Night the Band Played the Tennessee Waltz

Hey, out there, I was flipping through some old journals of mine.  It has caused me much grief that I’ve never been completely seduced by the craft of journal keeping.  A laziness of soul takes over, and I abandon most of them over the course of a summer.  But I sometimes find that I’ve forgotten [...]

Hitch 22: A great memoir

On December 15th, 2011, Christopher Hitchens died in Houston Texas from pneumonia, a complication of his battle with cancer. Sadly, this review written by Pat Conroy weeks ago, is being placed posthumously today in honor of Hitchens and his contribution to the world of letters. Hey, out there, Last night, I finished a splendid memoir [...]

The Boo’s Lambs Gather in Charleston

Hey, out there, My classmates in Romeo Company at The Citadel are beginning to stir and gather.  As the country paused to remember the firing on Fort Sumter, it made me remember that I went to the college whose cadets fired the first shots in the Civil War and that two of my classmates in [...]

My Blogging Life

Hey, out there, I’ve published two books since I first wrote a letter of introduction to my newly-hatched website.  For me, this is a starting out-point caused mostly by the passage of time and the possibility of my sudden or protracted death.  Now, I’m halfway through a new book I’m calling The Death of Santini [...]