That's me signing a copy of NEWS!

An Eventful Launch for NEWS!

The launch of my new novel, NEWS!, went swimmingly (almost literally) last night at Hollins University. We had a nice crowd, some of which paddled through heavy rain to get there and I signed quite a few books. 

I was especially delighted to see old friends, some writers, some not, all supremely talented in one way or another. At times, it felt like a reunion of the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference, which I founded about 15 years ago.

Linda Kay Simmons and Susan (who doesn't like her whole name used publicly) did yeoman's work setting up the food table and organizing everything. Linda--for the second straight year--brought out a photo/cake with a likeness of the cover of NEWS! (last year, it was me shirtless) that brought quite a laugh.

Sherry Payne and her lovely husband Jim Canody provided the music, including Sherry's "He Just Called It NEWS!," which she wrote for the event. 

A good evening. One I'll remember. Here's some of what it looked like.

Publisher Susannah Smith and trubador Greg Trafidlo examine NEWS!

Rhinda North makes a point. 

Greg Trafidlo with Roanoke Regional Chamber President Joyce Waugh. 

Some of the ladies of this evening.

Some of the gentlemen of the evening.

My former business partner in FRONT magazine gets his book autographed.

I signed books on whatever surface I could find.

That's Roland Lazenby, author of more than 60 books, getting his copy of NEWS! signed.

Signing Nancy Harvey's book.

Readers lined up to get their books signed.

I liked the clusters of people all over the room, chatting eagerly. 

That's my son's mother-in-law, Judy Dickerson, reading her book.

Amanda Cockrell, whose recent book is about Vietnam, awaits her book. 

Successful--and relatively new--writer Leah Weiss and I chat.

Tom Field and me again.

Listening to Jim and Sherry.

Love this shot: looks like Susannah is scolding me for something I might have done to Emily Carter.

My favorite publisher and I.

Jim and Sherry singin' in the rain (it's pouring outside).

Roland Lazenby holds court. 

Introducing Jim and Sherry.

Signing for one of the sweetest people god ever put on earth: Getra Selph.

Linda Kay Simmons with her good friends Jim and Sherry.

Round-table discussion, one of many. 

These friends, Becky Hepler and Rick Teague, go back 40 years.

Leah Weiss with one of the region's real heroes, Mr. Habitat for Humanity, Tom Gerdy.

Linda Kay and Sherry, two talented women who appreciate each other.

Linda Kay set this table. Plenty of goodies for all.

Betsy Ashton and her husband examine NEWS!

Betsy and Linda Kay anchor Lake Writers.

Joe Dashiel, veteran WDBJ7 reporter, interviews the author.

John Ketwig, who wrote the definitive Vietnam memoir, and his lovely wife.

Authors extraordinaire: Leah Weiss and Linda Kay Simmons.

My best bud, Susan, and I (Susan took every photo here, except this one, which I took).

A woman I greatly admire, Trish White-Boyd, Roanoke's vice mayor.

Linda Kay organized so much of this event. And she did it with style and grace, as usual.

Meg Hibbert poses Emily Brady and me (as I put a book on Em's head).

Roland Lazenby and his extraordinary wife, Karen.

Bert Boyd with Trish and their grandson, Ryan.

The stylish Tom Gerdy and me.

Reporter and friend Meg Hibbert with Leah Weiss and me.

An animated publisher, Susannah Smith.

Signing Meg's book.

Roland wants his book signed ... now.

Signing for long-time pals, Becky Hepler and Greg Trafidlo.

The lyrics to Sherry's "We Just Call It News."

Linda Kay and that marvelous book/cake.

The cake of the day.

Blow them out, bub!

Presenting a photo I shot of Jim and Sherry.

 

It's NEWS!-Release Day

I have been eagerly awaiting today--the release date of my new novel, NEWS!, for a year and a few days, since signing a publishing contract with Propertius Press and Susannah Smith. It doubles as my birthday, so the party is on at Hollins. 

Publisher Susannah Smith and me.

This book is a joyful celebration of my career, journalism, which has held me captive for 58 years. In it, I take a fictional look at the creation of a journalist at a time when honest journalism was the rule, not the exception, and when most people got their daily news from mid-sized daily publications. 

Journalists have always topped my list of heroes and in NEWS! that shows without reservation. It is an unapologetically uplifting book, a celebration of journalism as a keystone of our now-fading culture. One of the important reasons it is facing is because journalism has faded.

Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we get back to reality. 

 

Writer Megan Gogerty gave me a peach of a role as an Evangelical judge.

TheWelcome  Return of Overnight Sensations

The Overnight Sensations crew got back on state at Hollins University last night and, even though we didn't have a full house, we had a full belly of fun. Wonderful writing, directing and acting throughout and the place was alive with laughter and warmth. 

It is always such a good time that even those of us can't act and who blow the hell out of lines have a good time. 

On the night before the plays, we met and planned what we were doing (the writers went off overnight and wrote the plays), I suggested to Megan Gogerty that she cast me as an evangelical nutjob and she came up with an overblown Southern judge who thought he was a god-like figure. He was also a redneck and an overt misogynist. 

I loved the part and think maybe it's the best I've had (and I've had some damn good ones) in all the years I've worked Overnight Sensations. Even though I blew a line or two.

I thought Lauren Brooke Ellis' direction was inspired and despite a judge who couldn't remember his name, our cast was inspired with Mark Johnson, Mary Jean Levin, Katie Stueckle and the estimable Gwyneth Strope doing the heavy lifting. 

Here's some of what our play "Interregnum? I Hardly Know 'Em!" (no, I have no idea what that means) looked like. My friend Susan took these photos and did a dang good job of it. 

Bringing out the judge in me. 

Mary Jean Levin and Gwyneth Strope. 

Mark Johnson and Katie Stueckle. 

 

Alphonso Caal on my roof.

If There Is a God, She Is Smiling on Me

Mom Ana Patricia and Ana Violeta.

When the mini-Doratio came through my neighborhood yesterday, it left some of my roof tiles spread across the yard. I found them and the mess on the roof this morning. I have put a roof on a house before, but I was 40 years younger than I am now and in much more flexible condition.

I decided to give repairing the roof a try anyway. I went to Lowe's and got some tiles (a really nice guy who works there gave me four tiles that had come out of a package) and a box of roofing nails. I got home and went at it.

I was hammering away when a car stopped in front of my house and a Guatemalan family got out of the car and approached me, speaking Spanish, which I don't speak beyond gracias or hola. He went to the translator on his phone and I got a vague idea why he stopped. He wanted to do the roofing. I told him he was hired. But he shook his head.

I called my daughter-in-law Kara in Texas, who is fluent in Spanish. She got to the heart of it. Alphonso Maaz Caal is a professional roofer, newly arrived from Guatemala with his wife, Ana Patricia and daughter, Ana Violeta. He was offering to fix the roof for me. No charge. Just a friendly neighbor.

They went home and got his work truck and gear and he was on the roof in a jiffy, finishing a fine repair job in 10 to 15 minutes. I gave his daughter, Ana Violeta, who is about 6, a copy of my children's book "Saving Homer" and a stuffed Homer animal. She seemed pleased.

These are truly nice people. Good neighbors. The kind of neighbors I want.

 

Publisher Susannah Smith of Propertius Press with me and NEWS! (This, of course, is a backward selfie.)

First Copy of NEWS! Arrives

Here is the book as it looks (not reversed).

My eighth book and second novel, NEWS!, arrived yesterday and I'm thrilled. The advance reader copy was hand-delivered by Propertius Press' president Susannah Smith.

This copy, of course, is not the final word. In fact, I spotted a couple of changes that need to be made almost immediately (including the type on the back of the book not being large enough), but the thrill remains in seeing an actual print copy of NEWS! That thrill never gets old and it doesn't diminish.

We still have work to do because marketing is vital in a book's success. Advance sales have already begun with NEWS! and we've made some pre-publication sales already. The release will be official on July 31 (my birthday) when we have a signing at Hollins University in Moody Center's basement Rathskeller. That will be a lovely party and you are all invited. Officially.

Order NEWS! here: 

https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore/NEWS-by-Dan-Smith-p435663561

 

This is Susan's watercolor version of the old editor paddling.

Sunday on the Pond with Susan

My good friend Susan and I haven't paddling for more than a year and today was the day to fix that. We loaded the kayaks and headed out to Carvins Cove (which is not far from my house) and put into a warm lake with a slight breeze and an overcast sky. Just about perfect weather.

We decided some years ago that this was church for us. On holidays--secular or religious--it is our celebration. This paddle on this cove is our soul-soothing respite and it never fails, even the day when we both nearly got washed away with a sudden storm. We laughed then; we laugh now.

It is a lovely way to celebrate a friendship.

 

(Susan Shot all the photos that look like watercolor paintings. I shot the others.)

 

'Fun Home' Is One of MMT's Very Best

Mill Mountain Theatre's latest offering, "Fun Home," ranks among its most powerful in recent memory. The Tony Award-winning play is adapted from Alison Bechdel's six-year-old graphic novel and runs weekends until July 3 on the Waldron stage at MMT. 

The shows are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 and $15 and can be bought at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36191/production/1078748.

"Fun Home" is part of the theatre's Fringe Series, which produces plays that are more challenging than most of its main stage offerings. "Fun Home," the story of a lesbian daughter and a closeted gay father who dies suddenly as they both face their "queerness," certainly fits that definition.

The show, a celebration of Pride Month, is directed by Katharine Quinn, based on the graphic memoir by Bechdel, played here in the 30-year-old version by New York actress Hayley Palmer. The play looks at Bechdel's relationship with her father as an often-confused child, who adores her dad but is often hurt by his actions, and a college student denying, then realizing she is a lesbian.

The story is Bechdel's look back at the impact her father's hidden gayness and her own latent lesbianism affected both of them, as well as the rest of her family, especially her mother, who had lived with a marriage that was a sham.

Quinn's direction of sparkling material is spot-on and the singing and acting from a relatively large cast (especially for the small Waldron Stage) is extraordinary. The singing voices are uniformly big and powerful--even the voice of the child Alison, played by young Roanoker Riley Whisnant--and the music ranges from celebratory to deep sadness. It is all affecting, powerful and important in the quest for us all to understand each other. Stephanie Berger plays the college-age Alison.

Others in the case include Carlyn Connolly as Mrs. Bechdel, Michael Hunsaker as the big-voiced dad and Alexandra Rivers as Joan, Alison's lover.

This is one of those plays that makes me especially appreciative of the courage so frequently shown by Mill Mountain Theatre in its selection of material. 

(Note: Strong language and sexual references, as well as a relatively tame love scene between Alison and her lover might give some people pause.)

 

This is the cover of the paperback version of NEWS!

NEWS! Out on My Birthday, July 31

My new novel, NEWS!, will be released by publisher Propertius Press on my birthday in a few weeks and I'm excited. 

The novel is based loosely on my coming of age in the newsroom of a mid-sized daily newspaper in a small Southern city (Asheville). It is set in 1969, a time when journalism and the world in general were experiencing dramatic change. NEWS! is a fast read, full of historical events (changed for the sake of the novel) and everyday coverage that a young reporter experienced at that time.

It iwill give you a good idea what journalism was at this crucial juncture.

This is the ebook cover of NEWS!

I give you the two covers for the paperback and ebook version here because I think each is striking and it took a while to come up with the look we wanted.

Those wishing to order NEWS! ahead of the release date may scan the QR code to the left here or go to 

https://www.propertiuspress.com/our-bookstore 

and scan halfway down the list of books available to find mine. 

 

Dan Casey (left) interviewed me about NEWS! at his kitchen table Wednesday.

We have a Release Date for NEWS!

I met with my publisher (Propertius Press' Susannah Smith) yesterday and she determined that my new novel, NEWS!, will have a July 31 release date. That's my birthday and I'm just delighted. What a present! 

Now, I have to set up a release signing on that day (Sunday) and see if we can get all those pre-release orders signed. Pre-release can be ordered at visitourbookstore.com. Paper copies from Propertius are $18.99 with no postage charge, or $7.99 for an ebook. Susannah tells me it's best if you order from Propertius directly (less expensive than retail), or from Barnes & Noble, Apple or Bookshop.org.

Let me also mention that the cover, which I previously wrote about, will be revised because the image came from the internet and we didn't have permission to use it. Our new cover is ours and it will be dynamite. My pal, Stephanie the graphics director, will assure that.

On Thursday of last week, The Roanoke Times' lead columnist wrote a column about NEWS! and I am delighted by his assessment and the coverage. Dan's an old friend, but more important, he is a veteran journalist and if anybody could understand all I was getting at in NEWS!, he could.

This is an exciting time for me. Truly exciting.