So I’m in Nashville, staying at my usual spot in East Nashville, house-sitting for Sue and Walt, who, along with half the other population of the south, are at the Key West Literary Seminar.

And, by the way, I am writing this post on Sue’s Mac and it is a whole different world, a world I am not sure I like, to be frank. Ah, but I am grateful that I can use her computer and get on the internet since everyone in this neighborhood has their wireless locked and so I will say nothing about the fact that even though everyone says Macs are more intuitive, I’m not sure what planet that is true on.

Back to the travelogue. I arrived on Friday and was picked up by the wonderful Keith and Nate, who are the husband and son, respectively, of the wonderful Candace. And none of these wonderful people have websites so I can’t link you to them. But Candace is a wonderful writer, Keith a wonderful wood craftsman and Nate is a wonderful French major. They took me to their home in Murfreesboro (and yes, it was wonderful, but y’all are tired of that adjective now I’m sure) and fed me the best damn rib-eye steak I have ever in the world had.

And then there was the famous coconut cake, which, to give credit where credit is due, was actually made by Candace since Keith had to work (damn pesky jobs). It was beyond words. Amazing, complete with buttercream and sweet custard filling and light fluffy cake layers.

By the way, I have photographic evidence of the cake and the adorable dogs that reside at Candace and Keith’s, but I will have to wait until I get home to download them onto my own computer.

On Saturday night at Sue and Walt’s, Melinda came over and Sue and Walt plied us–there is no other way to describe it, we were just innocent visitors–with drinks that are called bicyclettes. They are named after the way old French men wobble on their bicycles after drinking a couple and there might have been some wobbling going on in Nashville that evening, too. I think they have Campari and white wine in them, but I could be wrong on that. I at least got to sleep in. Sue and Walt had to rise at 4 AM to get their plane to Key West. Ah, but they are enjoying 80 degree temperatures and it is flippin’ freezing here in Nashville so it all evens out in the end.

On Sunday the wonderful Trista AnneMichaels picked me up, and we headed out toward Opryland, to have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.I especially enjoyed the gorillas swinging from the ceiling above us and the waiters running around yelling, “Volcano! Volcano! Volcano!” whenever anybody ordered a sundae called, yes, a Volcano. Trista is one of “my” authors at Loose Id and you should read her work if you like erotic romance.

Okay, these are just the highlights, mind you, as I am not fixin’ to write down every single thing I did on an hour by hour basis since I’ve been here. Since I am in the south I can officially use terms like fixin’ without sounding like an idiot. Well, since I say it without a southern accent I probably do sound like an idiot, but never mind.

Speaking of southern accents, Candace and I have been trying to figure out how to phonetically write the way they say, “bye” down here. Baye? Bi? It is as if they say Bai but then drop off that last vowel. I can’t even say it let alone write it.

But one of the highlights was dinner with Suzanne and a visit to a new used bookstore here that had us doubling over with laughter at the categories they chose for their books–such as Nonfiction Novels, Oversized Novels (no, they are not now making novels in coffee-table book size, these were simply the hardbacks and trade papers) and then my own personal favorite–Stapled Crafts. It is the newest thing, don’t cha know?

Yesterday my student Cathy and I ate lunch at Bongo Java, which is my favorite coffeeshop in East Nashville, and probably in all of Nashville.

Last night, after much pondering and looking up on Google, we ordered pizza from Italia. Which was quite good by the way. “We” included Terry Price, Janelle Rogers, and moi, and we discussed starting a literary journal. And, the good news is that we have decided to go ahead with it. So sharpen your pencils and get your submissions ready. Guidelines will be available soon. We’re accepting submissions for fiction, creative non-fiction, and writing for children. I am the creative non-fiction editor, so if you have an essay or excerpt from a memoir, or really, anything non-fiction you’d like to have considered, for now just sent it to me at the address you can find on the front page of this blog.

Okay, this is getting a bit long and the announcement about the literary journal is the denouement anyway, so I will end for now. Which means I get to publish this as Part One. And force you to read Part Two tomorrow. Or even later today. Heeheehee.