Our Lady of the Spiral Notebook

Old Bunch of Keys: A Documentary on Old-Time Fiddler Kelsey Wells

Proud mama alert: Kelsey Wells is the subject of a new short documentary from folklorist Caitlin Coad. Old Bunch of Keys, named for an old-time tune, as well as Kelsey’s latest CD and thesis project as a Buchanan Fellow at Middle Tennessee State University, is a fifteen minute film available here on Vimeo. Yes, yes, [...]

An Interview with Former Astronaut Rhea Seddon

Rhea Seddon, M.D., has a history of strapping herself into rockets and orbiting the earth in the name of medical science. As I write in She’s Such a Geek and allude to in my poetry collection Heaven Was the Moon, astronauts have been my heroes since Neil Armstrong took those first small steps on the moon, so I’m [...]

Celebrate Tennessee Poets for National Poetry Month

Yes, it’s National Poetry Month, but I’m celebrating closer to home with three delightful Tennessee poets in this article I wrote for April’s issue of The Murfreesboro Pulse. Since my space in the article was limited, I wanted to add a bit more here to share how you can learn more about these poets and their [...]

The Next Big Thing: Is There Still a Novel in This Poet’s Future?

When my writing friend Candace White of aintgotenoughgravy blog fame asked if she could tag me for “The Next Big Thing” blog hop, of course I said yes. After all, 2012 was a good year for my writing life. Decent Pan of Cornbread, my spoken word and old-time music CD with Kelsey Wells, came out, and [...]

Southern literature fan? You need this app!

It’s February, and while it’s possible we could still get a good snowfall here in middle Tennessee, the worst of winter is probably over. Today was a beautiful spring-like day – the kind that reminds me that vacation and travel season will be here soon. And that makes me think of an app you need [...]