News!

I've been away a while - the 2006 HBCU National Newspaper Conference at N.C. A&T was a massive undertaking. We had a three-day national event with some 80 presenters, all of whom volunteered to come out and help young journalists with their careers. But arranging for speakers, panelists, rooms, meals and activities for 162 students plus advisers and professionals took a big chunk out of my life until Feb. 11.
Since then, things have been busy.
The nice folks at

Press53

gave me a wonderful Valentine in the form of a contract for my first full-length poetry collection. Since I'm now in the age range when you start to get letters from AARP, I was starting to give up hope - but the book is now in process for a fall publication date. More on that later!
I'm also lining up a trip to the far west of North Carolina in late September, when I'll present a pair of fiction sessions at the Western North Carolina Writers annual Light in the Mountains Conference, Sept. 30 in Hayesville.