Louisiana's Song

I just finished Louisiana's Song by my Smoky Mountain Soul Sister, Kerry Madden.

I have one word:

Disappointment.











Ha! Got ya!

Why am I disappointed?

Because there's only one more book in this beautiful trilogy about the Weems family.

I loved this book. I loved the characters. I loved the setting. I loved the voice. I loved the humor.

I've gotten to know Kerry a little bit online - and I can tell that her spirit shines right through in her writing. Also evident is her love of the beautiful Smoky Mountains that I consider my heart's home, her deep respect for the mountain traditions of family and music, and her admiration of her husband's Tennessee family who inspired these stories.

The main character, Livy Two, is just a great big bundle of spunk. How can you not love a girl who says things like: "I do not sleep when critical eavesdropping needs doing."

Or who tells the teacher that her sister is not at school because of "a sparkly migraine", "dragon flu", or a "close encounter with a water moccasin."

Or who calls someone a "know-nothing flap-jaw."

Louisiana's Song continues the story started in Gentle's Holler.

I can't wait till the third book, Jessie's Mountain, comes out in 2008.

And then....disappointment.

No more stories about the Weems.

But then again - you never know....

Smoky Mountain Kitsch

Because I love the Smoky Mountains so much, I collect Smoky Mountain kitsch. (eBay, eBay, how I love thee, eBay...)

I have a Smoky Mountains toothpick holder:















A Smoky Mountain thermometer:










A large collection of Smoky Mountain plates of all colors and sizes (enough to have a smokin' Smoky Mountain dinner party):










But my favorite is this Smoky Mountain musicbox. The song it plays is, what else...On Top of Old Smoky.









I got into a bidding war on eBay for that musicbox...and LOST! I was so devastated, I contacted
the winner and begged, pleaded, threatened, stalked and, finally, paid an obscene amount of money to force her to sell it to me.

Anybody got any Smoky Mountain kitsch you wanna give me? What I want more than anything is a vintage Smoky Mountain tablecloth. (I have a collection of vintage state map tablecloths, but the Smokies would be the bomb....)

Smoky Mountain High

The Smoky Mountains = My Heart's Home.

I recently met my Smoky Mountain Soul Sister, Kerry Madden, online. We realized we have a lot in common, particularly our love of the beautiful Smoky Mountains. We both write books for children set there.

Her latest is Louisiana's Song, which is the second of a trilogy. I haven't read it yet because I'm currently reading the first in the trilogy, Gentle's Holler. I'm loving loving loving reading about those places I'm so familiar with. She captures the setting to a tee. Her love of the mountains comes right through the pages of that book. (And you gotta love a dog named Uncle Hazard!)




I can't wait to read the others.

(My book, Me and Rupert Goody, and my upcoming novel, Greetings from Nowhere, May 2008, are also set in the Smoky Mountains.)

I grew up at the base of those mountains and have many wonderful childhood memories about my time in them. I went to summer camp there. I've sat in the backseat of my family car as it zigzagged back and forth and around and around those mountain roads. I've hiked along those mossy, fern-lined trails. I've had picnics beside the flowing mountain creeks.

I've jumped from rock to rock in those creeks and waded in the clear, icy water.




















My parents loved those mountains, too. My mother spent the vacations of her youth there.













Even my grandparents spent many happy times there. Here they are in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (with an unknown person):













In the background of the above photo is one of those little mountain motels. Greetings from Nowhere is about one of those motels.