Despite the closing of schools and libraries today and the voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas (they don't call this the Lowcountry for nothing) yesterday, a small bunch of brave souls still attended my book event last night. They asked lots of questions and bought a couple of books, and their eyes didn't glaze over too much when I told them my in-a-nutshell life story.

My last signing clashed with an American Idol audition; this time an approaching tropical storm had Charlestionians' attention. I wonder if all authors have these kind of problems.

Having said that, I'm not complaining; as long-time readers of this blog know, I'm happy if I sell a few books and meet some interesting (and interested) people. That makes all the preparation and publicizing of an event worthwhile.

It's been quite some time now since I trumpeted the well-attended US launch of Milk Treading at Millennium Books & Music, back in Winter 2003. I've recently dug out some pix from that event (there's one above of myself and my chaperone, Sam) and you can catch them all on my Flickr page.

Okay, so pix of Jack have done the rounds a lot since he chased a bear up a tree and became a celbricat. But I like the blowups here and wanted to share them with you. Plus there's something blowing up and scaring us around here at the moment... a little tropical storm called Ernesto.

I'd love to evacuate from Charleston and go relax in the mountains until the potential hurricane blows through. But I have a story to write for the City Paper, actors' showreels to edit and a little book signing tomorrow night.

Other than that, nothing's stopping me - there's a voluntary evacuation in effect. Time to find a tall, strong tree to climb up.

Tips was barred from Barnes & Noble yesterday, and the sun shone bright so the afternoon was a relatively quiet one for me. That makes me want to do an even better job at the Main Library in downtown Charleston, where I'll be appearing on August 30th.

The Library staff have picked a Wednesday evening as a prime time for an author visit - I hope they're as smart as they look. (They're librarians, they've got to look smart to get hired in the first place, right? Isn't it on the job description, to wear glasses and look brainy?)

While I'm on the catwagon, I'd like to draw your attention to a Cats in the News webpage. Included in this gallery of heroes are Jack (who scared a bear up a tree), Benji the year's top slimmer, (who went from 11 kg to 8 kg) complete with before & after pix, and one of cats' greatest human pawns, Yuri Kuklachev. He thinks he's getting them to do tricks to make him money, but they've actually trained him to give them lots of treats...

Just a couple of days to go until my Kitty Killer Cult signing at Barnes & Noble in Mount Pleasant, and the jury's still out on whether Tips the cat will attend (pictured above - she's the short, furry one).

I've been letting a few people know about the event, and I asked B&N if there was anything else I could do to drum up some interest. "Pray for rain," they told me, "then people will come into the store." Which plants in my brain the gloomy image of booksellers across the country wishing for precipitation, the miserable gits.

For a sun worshiper like me, rain's a pain. So I'm praying for sunshine on Saturday at 3 p.m., whether it's good for business or not.

I was in a hit and run incident this morning. Some joker bumped into the back of me then drove off as quick as his little wheels could carry him.

My car was undamaged, but I'm left with a deep-set wariness of electric blue Ford flatbeds.

After that inauspicious start to the a.m., an internet find cheered me up. My next novel, Undead on Arrival, is now available for preorder on the UK version on Amazon.

While it's not due for publication until February '07, it's still great to see this tale of skullduggery up and running on the web. It doesn't seem all that long since The Kitty Killer Cult first appeared as a cheeky twinkle in Amazon's eye...

Keep an eye on this blog for more details about Undead on Arrival soon...

Last week meant a tough slog through summer camp at Creative Spark, where I taught audition techniques for a week. Okay, I was only working an hour and a half per day, but the kids still kept me very busy and wore me out.

Based in one of the wealthier parts of town (Mt. Pleasant), Creative Spark runs all kinds of activities for children and I felt a little trepidatious getting involved. After all, one my first experiences of working with children back in the late '80s involved some sullen punk on rollerskates giving me a fat lip. How would I respond these days to such unpleasantness?

Fortunately I had a great bunch of students who were well-behaved and engaged. I was tough on them (Nick quote: "I don't think the lion would be smiling when it got shot, Katie,") and I tried not to talk down to them. Despite the hard work entailed, it was a 99% pleasant experience.

There was only one mar: I used a scene from Labyrinth for a few of our on-camera sessions where some of the children portrayed goblins. These are cute, snaggly Jim Henson muppet-type goblins, mind.

One of the parents complained about said content because of his/her religious convictions. Apparently, goblins are an existing threat in that family's chosen theology. My own conviction is that the goblins are fictional characters, which begs the question: why send a child to an acting course if they're not allowed to fantasize?

With Charlestonians dribbling back from their Summer vacations, local book stores are starting to invite me to do more events.

Next up is a signing at Barnes & Noble Mt. Pleasant, East of the Chucktown peninsula.

The visit will take place on Saturday August 26th at 3 p.m. - the big question at the moment is, will Tips the cat be there? The placid animal gets far more attention than me when she accompanies me on these jaunts.

The B&N media relations honchos are concerned that customers will complain about an animal being in the store. What's she going to do, malt them to death?

Those same honchos also tell me that readers often bring their own pets in (I hope they're store trained).

I'm sure Tips would prefer to remain lying in her sun patch rather than being dragged out to Mt. P. At this point in time, the outcome is far from certain...

Aw, a fancy little exhibition of Edward Hopper's art closes on August 13th, so Charlestonians only have a couple of days left to catch it at the Gibbes Museum of Art.

The show was smaller than the hype or expectation might have suggested, but any kind of Hopper art's not to be sneezed at and it was great to see his take on the quaint Holy City, inviting comparisons with his better-known, later work like "Nighthawks."

Here's what I had to say about the show in the City Paper back in May, when the exhibition was a glowing, newborn thing:


While a roomful of china makes the Main Gallery the most interactive in the Gibbes, the Renaissance Gallery will be the most visited.

That's where Edward Hopper's watercolors have been plunked beside the work of other artists of the period, including his wife Josephine Nivison Hopper. But it's Ed's 12 pieces that people will come to see.

During his three weeks in Charleston, he depicted cabins, houses, rural and coastal landscapes.

Don't go expecting anything similar to his well-known noirish urban art — back in 1929, Hopper's palette was lighter and his composition less rigid. He effortlessly captures the city's intense sunlight and expansive greenery, helping this show live up to its hype.

Just overheard: my neighbor Tony, talking to his family loud enough for the whole street to hear:

"I've got half of Folly Beach on my clothes and the other half in my ass crack."

Thanks for sharing, Tony. That's a hell of a lot of sand.

Rough Crossings, Cross Reader

More controversy, this time over a book review I wrote for Charleston's Post & Courier newspaper.

The book's Rough Crossings by Simon Schama, an in-depth look at the African American experience during the Revolutionary War.

The 1780s saw the first mass freeing of slaves in the Americas—an emancipation not by the revolutionaries but by their enemies. The Brits weren't always nice to their allies, but they still freed some of the men and women who'd fought beside them before the Redcoats went home with their heads bowed low.

Stan Barnett didn't like Schama's general statements, which I paraphrased in my brief review. Barnett especially didn't like the idea that one of the reasons the South got involved in the war was to protect slaving interests. So he wrote a letter titled "Absurd Statement," printed in the August 7th issue of the P&C. (He thought Schama's words were absurd, not mine, thank goodness).

Of course, nothing is cut and dried about this period in history - but some aspects have been covered in more depth than others. According to Publishers Weekly, "The Library of Congress catalogue lists 271 books or other items to do with George Washington's death and burial alone."

Rough Crossings tackles a thornier subject, and one which I commend Schama for sticking with. Any academically important book that gets some debate going in a lettercol has obviously hit its mark.