Author, journalist Sam Irwin takes on state's uniqueness in 'It Happens in Louisiana'

            Sam Irwin writes regularly about Louisiana culture as a freelance writer — blogging at www.LaNote.org and www.CrawfishReport.com, in addition to print publications — and as author of several books, including “Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean.” A native of Acadiana, his latest book looks at the weird and wonderful side of our state in “It Happens in Louisiana: Peculiar Tales, Traditions and Recipes from the Bayou.” Stories are more cultural than strange, more pride-inspiring than freakish, making each one a wonderful yet entertaining read. There’s unique nicknames, the tragic end of Bonnie and Clyde, medieval jousting in Ville Platte, the Easter tradition of egg pocking, Acadiana’s music and much more. The stories are accented by 100 photos from Irwin’s travels around Louisiana plus from established Louisiana photographers like Greg Guirard, Ron Berard, Philip Gould and David Gallent. National columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author of “Poor Man’s Provence; Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana,” writes the foreword and sprinkled throughout are recipes for everything from Marcelle Bienvenu’s gumbo to Uncle Earl’s Pea Patch Peas.

New releases

            Alys Arden of New Orleans launches her New Orleans-based young adult series, “The Casquette Girls,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Boutique du Vampyre, 709 St Ann St. in New Orleans. Set in a storm-ravaged New Orleans, 16-year-old Adele Le Moyne unravels an intricate web of 18th century magic, myths and monsters that links her ancestors to an assemblage of murders. Publishers Weekly wrote of the book, “In this Southern Gothic love letter to the spookier side of New Orleans’s storied past, Arden spins out a moody tale of magic and mystery . . . A thoroughly satisfying page-turner and a strong debut.” For more information, visit www.alysarden.com. To view a trailer of the book, visit www.thecasquettegirls.com.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Author-historians honored for their work

            This past weekend the Foundation for a Historical Louisiana gave out its annual awards to eight preservationists, including authors/historians Carl Brasseaux and the late Sue Eakin.

Carl Brasseaux

            Brasseaux is the a history professor at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, was director of the Center for Louisiana Studies and is the author of more than 30 books, many on Cajun culture and history. The French government honored him with the title of Chevalier in l’Order des Palmes Académiques, an award reserved for those whose scholarly pursuits are deemed to contribute significantly to French culture.

            Eakin, a scholar, educator, preservationist and storyteller is credited with securing the republication of “Twelve Years a Slave,” the 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup that was made into an Academy Award-winning movie in 2013. She first found the book at age 12, and it was the subject of her master's thesis at LSU. After years of research she published an authenticated version of the book in 1968 and two years before her death published an updated version with maps and photos of the area around Cheneyville where the book was set.

Sue Eakin

            Eakin also earned a master’s degree in journalism at LSU and taught history at LSU-Alexandria. She earned a doctorate from UL-Lafayette at age 60.

            Brasseaux received the Cultural Preservationist Award and Eakin, who died in 2009, received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.

            Other awards went to Vincent Caire Sr. of LaPlace, an historian, author and advocate for the restoration of the Art Deco Shushan Airport, now Lakefront Airport in New Orleans; The Historic New Orleans Foundation and its director, Priscilla Lawrence; and to Nancy Vinci of St. Francisville for her efforts to preserve architectural treasures of “Audubon Country” and the historic district of St. Francisville.

New releases

            On June 24, 1973, an arsonist set fire to a New Orleans gay bar called the Up Stairs Lounge, killing 32 people. The event stands as the deadliest fire in the history of New Orleans and is said to be the largest mass murder of gay men in America. Clayton Delery-Edwards, a graduate of USL, now UL-Lafayette, recalls this tragedy, the news coverage that followed and the lack of outrage from city officials in his book, “The Up Stairs Lounge Arson: Thirty-Two Deaths in a New Orleans Gay Bar, June 24, 1973.” The case was never solved. 

            Tulane professor Thomas Beller has published a biography on author J.D. Salinger (“The Catcher in the Rye”) titled “J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist.” Publisher’s Weekly calls the book, “an exceptionally well-researched, deeply felt, and thoughtful exploration of the elusive author’s history.”

            The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press has just published “African American Home Remedies: A Practical Guide with Usage and Application Data” by Eddie L. Boyd and Leslie A. Shimp. The book includes information obtained from two studies conducted in affiliation with the University of Michigan to demonstrate the use of more than 100 home remedies and herbs and their relation to socio-demographic characteristics in the African American community.

            Michael Lewis of New Orleans, author of the bestseller “The Big Short” and “Moneyball,” follows with “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.” Flash Boys concerns a small group of Wall Street men “who figure out that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and that, post–financial crisis, the markets have become not more free but less, and more controlled by the big Wall Street banks,” according to the book’s promotion. 

            Joseph Boyden, who divides his time between Northern Ontario and New Orleans, sets his latest novel “The Orenda” in the Canadian wilderness 400 years ago when Native Americans and Europeans first meet. “The Orenda illuminates the shadowy moment of our inception as a country,” the National Post said of the book. “It forces us to bravely consider who we are. ‘The Orenda’ is much more than a timely novel. It is a timeless one; born a classic.”

Summer reading

            Sam Irwin is a freelance writer and the author of “Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean.” He’s also a reader and he offers a great summer reading list at LANote, Irwin’s blog. To view Irwin’s “Summer Reading List — Heavy Books and Light Reading,” visit www.LANote.org.

Writing events

            Festival of Words is hosting a 12-hour Word Crawl on Sept. 13 throughout downtown Lafayette, to coincide with that month’s Second Saturday ArtWalk. Area writers will seek sponsors for their public readings at venues throughout town during the 12 hours and money raised will be used to support the 2014 Festival of Words literary celebration held annually the first weekend of November. For more information, visit festivalofwords.org or call Clare Martin at (337) 962-5886.

            The Creative Minds Writers 2014 Conference will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug, 9, at Woodland Park Baptist Church, 1909 J W Davis Drive in Hammond. The keynote speaker is New York Times best-selling author Erica Spindler of New Orleans. Other authors will conduct break-out sessions on a variety of genres. For more information and to register, plus to check out the “Page-Turner Contest,” visit http://www.creativemindswriters.com/. 

           

Writing contests

            The deadline was the ninth Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Contest, sponsored by the Southern Louisiana Romance Writers of America, has been extended until July 31. The entry fee is $15 and the top prize is a guaranteed read by editors at The Wild Rose Press. For information, visit http://solawriters.org/the-dixie-kane-memorial-contest/. 

            Heartla, the Baton Rouge chapter of RWA, is also hosting a contest for romance novels of all subgenres. The contest is open to published and unpublished authors ages 18 and up with the deadline to enter Aug 1. Awards include certificates and lapel pins to first three finalists and the winner receives $25. For more information, visit the chapter’s web site at http://www.heartla.com/heartbeat-2014-contest/.

            Writing contests not only support local writing organizations as fund-raisers but they provide chances to be critiqued by qualified judges and sometimes prize money or the opportunity to have work submitted to national publishers.

Book events

            An Evening of Comedy with author Christee Gabour Atwood will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Westside Regional Library in Alexandria. The event is free.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

New Orleans hotel hosts book event for Renee Harris, author of 'Royal and St. Louis'

            Lafayette native and LSU Law School graduate Renée Harris Austell and Robin Gohsman have co-authored a thriller set in New Orleans titled “Royal and St. Louis.” To celebrate the book’s release, the Omni Royal Orleans in the French Quarter (621 St. Louis St.) will offer a meet and greet with Austell at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, followed by a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the hotel.

            Austelle, whose family is of French descent, received a post-graduate scholarship from CODOFIL to study French in Belgium, and later advised the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Human Rights, Democracy and United Nation Issues. The book launch will coincide with New Orleans’ Bastille Day celebrations.

             In the book a main character, Tucker Hamlin, stays in a balcony suite overlooking the Louisiana Supreme Court building, experiencing the sights and scents of the French Quarter. “Royal and St. Louis” takes readers from the streets of Paris to New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans, with pivotal scenes at the Omni Royal Orleans and nearby landmarks.

            The book is available for download at www.amazon.com and at www.royalandstlouis.com. For information on the hotel, visit omnihotels.com.

New releases

            Out this week from James Lee Burke is “Wayfaring Stranger,” the New Iberia native’s 35th book. The Denver Post calls the novel, “A sprawling thriller drenched with atmosphere and intrigue that takes a young boy from a chance encounter with Bonnie and Clyde to the trenches of World War II and the oil fields along the Texas-Louisiana coast.”

            Edward Reed of Fenton, who attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now UL-Lafayette) and worked for NASA leading up to John Glenn’s first space voyage, has written a memoir titled “I Remember When.” The book is available through Tate Publishing, Kjuntales Bookstore in Abbeville and at Barnes & Noble Lafayette. For more information, visit http://edwardreed.tateauthor.com.

            Another Louisiana memoire out now is Robin Roberts’ “Everybody’s Got Something: A Memoir.” The anchor on “Good Morning America” grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi, but attended Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.

            Joseph Boyden, who divides his time between Northern Ontario and New Orleans, sets his latest novel “The Orenda” in the Canadian wilderness 400 years ago when Native Americans and Europeans first meet. “The Orenda illuminates the shadowy moment of our inception as a country,” the National Post said of the book. “It forces us to bravely consider who we are. ‘The Orenda’ is much more than a timely novel. It is a timeless one; born a classic.”

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Aspiring writers and photographers, take notice!

            The 9th Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Contest is now underway through the South Louisiana Romance Writers of America chapter in New Orleans. There are eight categories with winners receiving critiques by four trained judges and published authors, the highest overall score in all categories receives $50 cash and a certificate and first place winning entries will be sent to an editor/reader at The Wild Rose Press with the prospect that the editor/reader may request a full or partial manuscript and possible publication of the completed manuscript.

            Last year, the contest awarded 39 entries with certificates and nine first place entries were submitted to the editors of The Wild Rose Press with more than 50 percent of them receiving requests to see more of the manuscript for possible publication, said contest coordinator Nicholas Genovese. For more information, visit solawriters.org or email Genovese at ngenovese@gmail.com.

            Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin is hosting its annual Spring Photo Contest. Participants may submit up to three photographs (no larger than 800 ppi at the longer end to photojoet@charter.net) that showcase the plants, wildlife and culture of the Cypress Island Preserve. The deadline for submission is June 14. Voting will be conducted by volunteers and staff of The Nature Conservancy and the top 10 winners will be asked to submit a framed photo to be shown in the Visitor’s Center. For more information, contact Kacy King at kking@tnc.org or Joe Todd at fotojoet@charter.net.

This week's book events

            Sam Irwin will sign “Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at Louisiana’s Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge.

            “Staging Matters:
 How Home Staging Can Help You Sell Your Home Faster and for a Higher Price” will be offered by realtor Chantal Saucier and home staging expert Michelle Molinari at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, May 21, 
at South Regional Library in Lafayette. For information, call 981-1028.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Irwin pens history of crawfish in Louisiana

            I vividly remember the first time I visited the Crawfish Festival. I owned a tin box of a Datsun and piled a group of my friends inside for the ride from LSU to Breaux Bridge. In addition to the great music and dancing, we ate boiled crawfish from plastic tubular bags while sitting on a curb, the juice dripping down our arms. On the way home we stopped at Pat’s in Henderson for more crawfish and libations, ending one of the most enjoyable days I had in college.

            Sam Irwin brought back those fun memories in his new book which tackles the history of our state’s mudbugs, “Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the CajunCrustacean,” published by The History Press. The book details how our love affair with crawfish began and really took off with the advent of the industry, its trials and heydays and enjoying crawfish today. There’s also plenty on that now famous Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, designated the “Crawfish Capital of the World” at the town’s 1959 centennial.

            The book is full of great photos and includes some wonderful recipes, some from historic places such as the original étouffée recipe of Mrs. Charles Hebert and Aline Guidry. It’s a great tribute to those who started it all, making the current crawfish fisheries a $210 million industry.

            Irwin is the product of a “mixed marriage,” his father being a north Louisiana native and his mother from Cajun Country. The Baton Rouge freelance journalist has worked for the Louisiana Market Bulletin and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

            Upcoming book events for “Louisiana Crawfish” include a talk and signing at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Octavia Books in New Orleans, 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Barnes & Noble Baton Rouge, 7 p.m. March 27 at the Thensted Center in Grand Coteau, titled “Stories of Crawfish and The Way Things Used to Be” as part of the Festival of Words, and at noon March 28 at LSU-Eunice.

Heart Wide Open

            Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is known for her distinctive Southern-style humor in books such as “Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On” and “Sue Ellen’s GirlAin’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy!” She also pens the popular blog, “All Things Southern” and is the host of the weekly radio broadcast, “All Things Southern LIVE.”

            The latest book from the Lake Providence author comes after she questioned the depth of her relationship with God, discovering that she was a good church-going Christian but lacked the deep feeling that others were experiencing. The result is an interesting new book, “Heart Wide Open: Trading Mundane Faith for anExuberant Life with Jesus,” that not only encourages readers to find God but to develop an intimate experience. As with her other books, the style is friendly, engaging and all things Southern.

            For more information on Tomlinson’s books and to check out her blog, hear podcasts, watch videos and other fun offerings from this versatile woman, visit http://www.belleofallthingssouthern.com/

             Tomlinson signs “Heart Wide Open” from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Every Occasion, 703 Prairie St. in Winnsboro and on March 25 at the Barnes & Noble
in Shreveport.

New releases

            Clifton Taulbert, author of the bestseller “Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored,” has published a memoir, “The Invitation,” chronicling the transformative experience Taulbert had in accepting an invitation to supper in Allendale, South Carolina. At a former plantation house the author confronts his childhood memories and wrestles with legacies of slavery and segregation that return to haunt him. Seeing cotton fields and shotgun shacks that remind him of his growing up years in racially segregated Mississippi, Taulbert realizes that he is now asked to cross racial barriers that no “colored” man could previously have crossed without dire consequences. Taulbert is the author of five other books and president and CEO of Roots Java Coffee and the founder and president of the Building Community Institute.

            C.S. Harris of Baton Rouge has just published the ninth book in her Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series, “Why Kings Confess.”

            New York Times-bestselling series author Nevada Barr has sold an untitled Anna Pigeon novel, which features a National Park Service Ranger who solves mysteries in her job. The book will be published in the winter of 2016, a sequel to her 2014 novel “Destroyer Angel.” Barr lives in New Orleans.

Gueydan Bookstore

            A couple of weeks ago we wrote about a new bookstore in Abbeville named Kjuntales. This week we got the following letter: “Were you aware that our little bookstore in Vermilion Parish has been open and at the same location for 12 years?” asked Sean Gayle, who owns Patti’s Book Nook in Gueydan with James Gayle. “We sell new, used, rare, signed and local author’s works. We also sell art, original and limited prints of local artists.” The bookstore has more than 10,000 books in stock and online from four different independent bookstores at the website www.pattisbooknook.net. “We also have a presence on Amazon at www.amazon.com/shops/pattisbooknook,” Gayle added. “We are hidden in Gueydan, but we have a large reach since we ship around the world.

Library Book Sale

            The Friends of the Lafayette Public Library Spring Book Sale is this week, with the members’ preview sale from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and the public sale from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Heymann Convention Center Ballroom. Gently used hardcover and paperback books will be sold by the inch and proceeds benefit the library. For information, call 501-9209.

Book events

            Native Irishman Brian O’Nuanain will offer Irish humor, storytelling, folklore, songs and literature from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. today, March 16, at South Regional Library.

            The Lafayette libraries will host a “Divergent” pin craft for teens from March Tuesday, March 18 through Thursday, March 20, 
at the Jefferson Street, North Regional and South Regional
 branches.

            Riders on the Orphan Train Performance will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at the
Opelousas Public Library, 212 E. Grolee St, Opelousas. The Riders will present a 60-minute show through original storytelling, songwriting and video montage performance followed by 30 minutes of audience discussion. For more information, call (337) 948-3693 or visit http://www.ridersontheorphantrain.org.

            The Center for Louisiana Studies is hosting a screening and roundtable discussion on documentary filmmaking at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, in the Oliver Hall Auditorium, Room 112, on the UL campus in Lafayette. A second screening will be at 6 p.m. at the South Regional Library. The screenings will be of “McCrea 1971: The Story of Louisiana’s Forgotten Rock Festival” and “Louisiana During World War II” with filmmakers Jerry Sanson, Scott Caro and Bill Robison. Both events are free and open to the public.

            Judy Gentry, retired UL-Lafayette History Department faculty member will discuss “General Kirby-Smith's Leadership in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1863” at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the Gaines Center Hallway, third floor of UL Dupré Library in Lafayette. A Q and A will follow the talk.

            Angela Carll, author of “Where Writers Wrote in New Orleans” will talk about the book and sign copies from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, March 21, at Tulane University Bookstore in New Orleans.

            Ragin’ Cajun Boxing Club coach Deirdre Gogarty, the first Irishwoman to become a world champion, will speak about her book, “My Call to the Ring,” and talk about how she came to Acadiana to live out her dream at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 22 at North Regional Library in Lafayette. A book sale and signing will follow the discussion.

            Kjuntales, Etc. bookstore will feature its second “Meet the Artist” night with Bryant Benoit from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at 309 Pere Megret St. in Abbeville. For information on monthly activities, email owners Sheila Hebert Friedland and Mark Friedland at kjuntale66@yahoo.com or call (337) 740-0889.

Cheré Coen is the author of “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana,” both from The History Press, and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She teaches writing at UL-Lafayette’s Continuing Education. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Duplechain's 'Bayou' a haunting tale

            Leigh Benoit left Louisiana without a look in her rearview mirror but her brother’s death brings her home. Benoit wants only to return to California and away from hurtful family memories but her grandmother insists she now take care of her orphaned niece, Lyla, in the page-turning thriller “Dark Bayou” by Nancy K. Duplechain, published by Lulu.com.

There’s evil lurking in the woods, threatening her family and possibly the reason for her brother’s death. Benoit must protect Lyla, and with the help of her childhood friend, Detective Lucas Castille, uncover the dark secrets hiding in her Cajun Country origins.

            Duplechain hails from Ville Platte and is a graduate of ULL with concentrations in creative writing and literature. She moved to Los Angeles to work on screenplays but, like her character, may be coming home soon. We hope so because “Dark Bayou” is a worthy debut novel and we hope to see more.

You can purchase this book in a variety of ways, from downloads to hardback, at www.lulu.com.

In other new releases:

Robert Williams of Smart has published a memoir titled “The Addiction,” with an emphasis on a love for deer hunting, by Dorrance Publishing. For information or to obtain a copy, visit rosedogbookstore.com.

Westlake author Rodney Hennigan has published a heartfelt book about his outdoors adventures with his sons titled, “My Father’s Gift: A Louisiana Outdoor Legacy.”

            Chuck Hustmyre’s “House of the Rising Sun,” a suspense novel involving the mafia in New Orleans, has been made into a movie by Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Rick Bragg now writes “The Southern Journal” on the last page of Southern Living each month. You can view Bragg narrating his articles (which really makes it fun), at www.southernliving.com.

Mary Harris of Sunset now living in Houston has published a book dedicated to those struggling with feelings of abandonment titled “The Children That Nobody Wanted,” published through iUniverse.  

Morena Caleb of Fenton has published a new book titled “Woman, Are You Sure God Called You to Preach?,” addressing the Bible’s answer to women preachers. “I did a thorough study of the Bible, examining almost all of the women of the Bible,” she wrote by email. “It expresses my desire to be a preacher until I spent five years in Boulden Seminary.”

            Sam Irwin of Baton Rouge has been selected as the “Featured Writer of the Month” by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Writers Association. He submitted a short piece of fiction for their Web site titled “Run, Redneck, Run,” a short story inspired by his football career. For more on Irwin, visit his blog at www.LaNote.org.

Kima Lucille Richard of St. Bernard Parish has published a children’s book titled “Possibilities,” available at www.yourtimepublishing.com. The boy features  History and Heritage Hanks, a brother and sister duo from New Orleans who teach readers lessons through their own self discovery and explorations.

Southeastern professor Norman German has published a tome on the origins of words in “The Word on Words: The Play of Language” (CreateSpace) and David M. Sever, head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Southeastern, has co-edited “Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes” with Robert D. Aldridge of St. Louis University, the ninth volume in a series on reproductive biology.

Book events

Barnes & Noble at 2590 CitiPlace Court in Baton Rouge will host a book signing with former Gov Edwin W. Edwards & Leo Honeycutt at 2 p.m. Saturday. They will be signing "Edwin Edwards: Governor of Louisiana."

            Cara Hoffman will sign “So Much Pretty” at 6 p.m. Thursday at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans. Fifty percent of the proceeds of this sale will benefit the Advocacy Center of New Orleans.

The Acadiana Writing Project in collaboration with LSU-Eunice Continuing Education is sponsoring the third annual Word Up! youth writer’s camp from 9 a.m. to noon daily July 25-29. Camp directors are consultants for the Acadiana Writing Project and are experienced teachers who love writing. The camp is open to students in fourth to 12th grade. The cost is $89 and includes tuition, T-shirt and an anthology of student writing. For information, call (888) FOR LSUE, Ext. 390, or (337) 550-1390.