Storybelly Digest #3

Good Monday morning, y’all. It was 35 degrees last night, will be 31 tonight, and then the almanac says we’re climbing out of winter, here in the American South, and maybe we’re done with freezing temperatures that will surely, once again, kill the blossoms on my nectarine trees that have burst into bloom since the last killing frost. Every year, it’s a dance with the weather.

Each Little Bird That Sings is 20 years old this week! Happy Birthday! Let there be cake! This book was first published in March 2005 — we’ll celebrate Little Bird all year. Watch for posts about this book’s genesis later this week, both in the Writer’s Lab, for those of you who have Lab subscriptions, and in Notes (you can find “Notes” on the top ribbon of Storybelly’s home page at Substack).

This is Comfort, sitting on top of Listening Rock with her dog, Dismay. I named her Comfort because I needed a lot of comfort when I wrote this book. This is the paperback cover, art by the fabulous Marla Frazee.

I’m wrestling with scheduling the Writer’s Lab posts far enough in advance to tell you what they’ll be about. My soliloquy to my ops-guru, aka He Who Rolls His Eyes, about having to feel my way into these things so maybe I’m finishing them on the day of, or a day late, I’m sure YOU would appreciate, yes? All to say, trust me, it will be phenomenal, maybe even life changing, hahaha. If you’re interested in writing with me, or delving deeper into personal narrative writing techniques and the stories you have to tell, the Storybelly Writer’s Lab is open, if you want to join us there… this is the only paid area of Storybelly. Writer’s Lab posts will be going behind the paywall this week, and will be archived at “The Lab” at the top ribbon on the Storybelly home page.

This is last night’s late supper: Breyer’s butter pecan and the last square of “spicy ginger applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting”(NYT, unlocked) that I made this past week when we welcomed friends from Maryland, who had never been to Atlanta. The cake is worth making! Don’t be afraid of all the ginger in it —dried, fresh, and candied (instead of crystalized) — alongside the cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, and orange zest — it’s a flavor burst but subtle, if you can believe it. I left the lemon zest out of the cream cheese frosting; the cake was zesty enough. Tell me what you cooked this week! How was it?

When I published A Long Line of Cakes, the 4th book in the Aurora County Series (Ruby, Little Bird, All-Stars being 1, 2, and 3, respectively), Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi organized a Cake Walk when I visited on tour, and here are some of those cakes — we had fun! And CAKE. Many who showed up didn’t know what a cake walk was (do you?), but they figured it out quickly. We need more cake walks in this world.

Me’n’cake: I wrote an entire novel about a family with the last name of Cake. My grandmother, the original Miss Eula, always made a yellow cake with white coconut icing every summer, when we visited. You can imagine that icing sliding off the cake, in non-air-conditioned June in Mississippi, but I never noticed that. I only knew I wanted a second piece. When we’d visit Aunt Mitt (who becomes Miss Mattie in Love, Ruby Lavender), she would parade out slices of *her* yellow cake with a white icing, too. No coconut. But no matter, two cakes by two kinfolks in one day… it invited comparison. :> “If I knew you were comin’ I’d’ve baked a cake” is a real Southern thing… or was. Maybe it’s more than Southern?

So we had company for the first part of the week, and then attended the 7th and 8th grade orchestra concert at A’s middle school. The 7th grade orchestra played “Be Thou My Vision” one of my favorite hymns.

Every time I hear this hymn, I tear up. I am touched by how ancient both the tune and the lyrics are, and how they both, working together, speak to something ancient in us, to our common humanity, so I went in search of a sung version I could share with you this morning… I love this one, below. Get yer tissues ready.

I want to compile a list here at the ‘belly of what I’m calling “Hymns to Humanity.” They don’t have to be hymns, and they can span any creed or culture (as is fitting!) —will you list some of yours, please, in comments?

That’s some of what I’m listening to this week. I’d love to hear what your week was like, what you’ve been listening to, watching, reading, making. And what are you writing??? Hoping to write? Please do tell!

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is on March 4 this year. I have two memories of Mardi Gras: one is standing on a corner in Mobile, Alabama, when I was five years old and watching the parade. My mother always said, with a rather Superior Southern Sniff in her voice (to which I gave an Appreciative Nod), that Mobile was the site of the original Mardi Gras. My second memory is of my friend Coleen Salley (pictured here with Jim), Queen Coleen, always in my heart. When my mother died in 2003, Coleen called me and said, “Oh, honey. *I’ll* be your mother!” (Use your most Southern drawl for this.)

Some history that relates to the books I’ve written, either directly or in context:

On March 1, 1961 JFK established the Peace Corp. (Countdown)

March 2, 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder authorized by LBJ - America begins saturation bombing of selected targets in North Vietnam. (Anthem)

March 2, 1963 “Twist and Shout” by the Beatles released as a US single (Revolution)

March 6, 1857 The Dred Scott decision is handed down by the Supreme Court (Revolution)

March 7, 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches begin, Bloody Sunday (Revolution)

March 8, 1965 the first US combat troops arrive in Vietnam (Anthem)

I’m proud of the publishing partners who helped give birth to these books, to the teams that have helped them find readers, and I am grateful for every reader who opens these books and sees a bit of history and home, community and compassion. I hope readers connect to their own place in history and home when they read my books. You can find out more about each book, and you can buy them, too, at my website.

Rebellious writer (and human) that I am, I have always loathed “writing prompts.” I know some people really LOVE them, love them! I am happy for you, I am! It is in that spirit that I offer up this week’s Oh-So-Optional, I’d-Turn-Back-If-I-Were-You Writing Prompt (of sorts), to share, to keep for yourself, or to not do at all:

you know you want to tackle this one…

And that’s a wrap for Digest #3. Here’s to a good week for everyone, a vision for an “us together, indivisible” instead of an “us vs them” and the grace to make that vision a reality. Long game, but possible. That’s my vision.

xoxo Debbie