Literary Friday, Edition 125

The Carl Hiaasen Interview

With his first book for young adults out last month, Florida author Carl Hiaasen is adding to his wacky canon of work. Skink — No Surrender combines an Internet dating mishap with a hungry gator and one-eyed, ex-governor of Florida in a wild ride that only Hiaasen can take us on. That one-eyed governor is Skink, one of the author’s most beloved characters, who first appeared 25 years ago in Double Whammy. Hiaasen pairs him up with teenager Richard, whose attempt to rescue his cousin from a creepy guy she met online results in a road trip through Florida. We talked to Hiaasen about his foret into a new genre, why Skink keeps reappearing, the current state of Florida and plans for his work to reach cable TV in this week’s interview.

Silent Sister Readalong, Part Two 

Our readalong of Diane Chamberlain’s The Silent Sister continues over at Traveling With T. Read the discussion on part one before moving on to our synopsis and thoughts about part two, which reveals a big bombshell about presumed dead sister Lisa and lots more secrets to come.

Literary News 

Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law have started filming “Genius,” based on the biography of editor Max Perkins by Andrew Scott Berg, in England. Perkins worked with both Fitzgerald and Hemingway, but the film will tell the true story of the complex relationship between Perkins and North Carolina-born author Thomas Wolfe.

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Truman Capote’s “Miriam” made Flavorwire’s list of 50 of the Scariest Short Stories of All Time.

The Huffington Post has 6 Rare Images of Mark Twain.

And Rien Fertel’s interview with Fives And Twenty-Fives author Michael Pitre explains why Pitre made one of his characters a Twain fan.

Literary Events 

The Texas Book Festival in Austin will take place this weekend with the largest lineup of authors in its 19-year history, including Martin Amis, Ziggy Marley, Joyce Carol Oates and Hector Tobar.

Save the date for the Louisiana Book Festival November 1 in Baton Rouge with authors Jill McCorkle, Natalie Baszile, Rick Bragg, James Carville, Laura Lane McNeal (pictured), Ernest Gaines and lots more. Five writing workshops will be held in conjunction with the festival October 31 with author-instructors Jill McCorkle, Mark Dunn, Ava Leavell Haymon, Barbara Slate and Earl Swift.

The Festival of Words will take place in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, November 6-8 with literary readings by nationally recognized authors, creative writing workshops, a community stage for open mics, drive-by poetry and more.

Save the date for signings at Square Books in Oxford in November, including Rick Bragg on November 17 and Ron Rash on November 20.

Wiley Cash visits Foxtale Book Shoppe in Woodstock, Georgia, November 17 for the paperback release ofThis Dark Road to Mercy.

New in Southern Voice 

Thou Shalt Not Kill, a story about Clarissa, who’s pregnant with dead soldier Johnny Carr’s baby, by Cappy Hall Rearick.

To find out more about your favorite Southern authors’ haunts and hangouts, download the Deep South Literary Trail App, available direct from iTunes and for Android and perfect for those fall road trips.