The Twig
200 E. Grayson St.#124
San Antonio, Texas
Saturday, Sep 11
11:30 to 1:30
There will be live blues during the signing.

Mangia Pizza
8012 Mesa Dr.
Austin, TX
Saturday, Sep 18
4 pm till ?

A good time was had by all as we traveled north by car for book signings in Clarksdale, MS. Ground Zero, Cat Head, and the public library were gracious hosts and new friends were made at all venues. Couple of pics from the festival…

Super Chikan playing the Chicken Chopper Axe

Big Jack Johnson at Reds

New Ike Turner Blues Trail Marker

See the Book Tour tab for 3 new signings next week in Clarksdale, MS (where the book is set) during the Sunflower Festival. Lots of great music and activities including train rides to Hopson.

Austin’s debut book signing was held at Antone’s blues club on Monday July 19. The Austin Blues Society organized the Monday jam session, and it was a great evening. Of particular note, 3 unexpected guests showed: Bob Margolin, Hubert Sumlin, and the inestimable, Pinetop Perkins, one of my endorsers. They all played and brought the house down.

The author and national treasure, Pinetop Perkins.

Some fans at the Antone's signing.

Book signing at Dockside Dave’s Restaurant on St. Pete Beach – July 15, 5 pm.

7141 Gulf Boulevard
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
Phone: 727-360-4200

See the June 29 blog for the entire Top 20 Countdown.

http://www.pulpwoodqueen.com/

Another article on the signing…see page 20.

http://issuu.com/rhondaevans/docs/louisiana-road-trips-july-2010

Where Southern Cross the Dog
Allen Whitley
2010 – Emerald Book Company-Austin

Set in Coahoma County Mississippi’s dusty and sweltering heat, is this summer’s great new novel, Where Southern Cross the Dog. Author Allen Whitley smoothly sets the mood for his story with an accompanying CD of field worker and prisoner “hollers” and blues artist and writers’ epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. All serve as reminders of the social and cultural circumstance of the time, and the source of birthing pangs that will eventually be recognized as the Delta Blues.
Travis Montgomery arrives back in Clarksdale in August 1938 after graduating from Millsaps College in Jackson. Running errands for his father, the county coroner, proves a dull reprieve from school for young Montgomery until mystery, murder, international intrigue and even romance unfolds shortly after returning to his ordinarily quiet hometown.
Crossing racial lines, tensions and taboos of the time, young Montgomery quickly finds himself enamored of a young black woman, Hannah Morgan. Together, Travis and Hannah become “involved” not only with each other, but in the mystery surrounding the deaths of several black men and the white man who has confessed to the murders.
The atmosphere of the rural south in the early 20th century and its accepted mores are spotlighted in the book. Atticus Finch goes against Post-Reconstruction thinking by defending a black man in To Kill a Mockingbird. Where Southern Cross the Dog depicts this situation in reverse as local authorities of Coahoma County find themselves in the almost unheard of position of trying a white man for the killing of negroes.
In Where Southern Cross the Dog you will travel along highways 49 and 61, made well known by blues singer Robert Johnson, and the Yellow Dog railroad line turned into song by the “father of the blues”, W.C. Handy. As gandy dancers and sharecropper chants echo, Travis and Hannah discover that the human condition and the diversity of love can cause one to follow the footsteps of bluesman Johnson, and indeed, make a deal with the devil.

Olivia Wright King
Heart of Dixie Chapter
Pulpwood Queens Book Club

Quick update on the recent signing in Jefferson…

http://rrpulpwood.blogspot.com/2010/06/author-allen-whitley-at-beauty-and-book.html?spref=fb

Signings went great in East Texas …people really like the inclusion of music from the region and time period.

Here is the link…

www.pulpwoodqueen.com

And Music Maker’s News…

www.musicmaker.org