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Saturday, February 23, 2019

Mardi Gras Season in Mobile


cj Sez: It’s Mardi Gras season in Mobile, AL, and the Mobile Writers Guild has launched a new anthology . . . 

"Everyone from Mobile, Alabama, has a Mardi Gras story. In this second installment of the Mobile Writers Guild Pieces anthology series, the guild members share their stories—some true and some fictional, some funny, some touching, and some downright chilling. So don your beads and deck yourself out in purple, gold, and green, grab a Moon Pie and relax while you experience a little bit of the Mobile Mardi Gras tradition."

   Kindle version is now available. Paperback coming soon.

Now here’s my Mardi Gras story:  “A Transplanted Yankee’s Unfortunate Mardi Gras Faux Pas.”


   I booked the writing room at The Haunted Bookshop Saturday morning (Feb. 23) and was thrilled when I found a free parking space just around the corner from the store. I happily spent almost two hours working on story outlines. 

   Just before noon I thought, “I can leave now,” but instead I hung around looking at all the reference books on the shelves. I left the Bookshop at 12:30, very proud of myself for being so successful in my attempts at outlining—I am historically a pathfinder when I write. But, gasp, when I turned the street corner, my minivan was nowhere in sight.

   Seems a Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to roll down that street at 2 p.m., and the parking spaces had to be cleared two hours before it began.

   I explained to a friendly, motorcycle police officer (looking handsome in his uniform astride that Harley) that I had apparently overstayed my welcome at the parking space and wondered if he knew where my van was. He said it had been towed to a temporary impound lot, but then he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where on the documents he was carrying. Finally another motorcycle cop rumbled up (I do love the sound of a Harley) and pointed. My vehicle was, “That way. Just go straight. You can’t miss it.” I spent the next twenty or so minutes weaving through increasing crowds and around barriers as I walked 80,467 centimeters “That way.”

   I paid $125 to be reunited with my vehicle. So much for free parking. I guess I should have taken the time to squint at and read the yellow paper sign that was fluttering under the big sign listing the parking hours.

   In the seventeen years I’ve lived in Mobile, I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras parade. I’m quite sure I won’t be catching any Moon Pies or beads in the future either. Sigh.

   By the by, in case you didn’t know, Mardi Gras, the actual day, also known as Shrove Tuesday, is March 5 in 2019. The parades in Mobile, however—each of which has a story—start in January.
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Upcoming book launches by authors I know, and available for preorder now:

BONE-A-FIED TROUBLE  March 4, 2019…Familiar Legacy Book 9

   CATS, COTTON, AND…MURDER—The worlds of Sarah Booth Delaney’s Zinnia, Mississippi and Trouble, the black cat detective, collide in this fast-paced tale of high stakes cotton research, abduction, and murder.

   Trouble, the Sherlockian feline, falls in with Pluto, another cat with a yin for detective work.

FORTITUDE  March 5, 2019…A re-launch of a lovely story with a spectacular new cover.

   Fortitude will see you through the darkest times— It was in April 1898 when I, Claire O'Farrell, made a decision that ultimately changed my life forever.

I had never been one to follow society’s “rules”. 

FORTITUDE’s publisher, Bienvenue Press, is hosting a Facebook pre-launch party Feb 24 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Stop by Bienvenue Press Readers and Writers and join the party! I’ll be chatting online from 2 to 3 p.m.
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In last week’s post, I mentioned literary estates/executors. I found helpful information here:

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   That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

   See you next week?

cj
P.S. Eighty thousand centimeters seems so much more impressive than half a mile.

5-Star Review:  "Tight writing with a plot that flows like a river channeled through high cliffs." Carolyn Haines, Alabama's 2010 Distinguished Writer of the Year.

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