Enough about my work for a while. Over Labor Day weekend, our friend George is coming to town with his amazing photography. Lucky Georgia! A well known Southern artist, this will be his very first showing in our fair city. He'll exhibit at the 23rd Annual "Art in the Park Festival" around the square in Marietta on Saturday, September 5, also on Sunday, AND again on Labor Day from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm each day.
"George B. Elliott Photography" will be in booth #153 on the east side of Marietta Square. Jamey and I will drop by along with George's wife, Jerrie, and our friends Judy and Bill Ekiss, who are coming all the way from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
To view George's work, please go to his website: Crazy Starfish.

"The Further Adventures of Ociee Nash" is now out there for everyone to read. I truly hope BelleBooks.com is being inundated with orders for our Ociee girl's latest experiences!
Having a book published is not unlike birthing a baby, there's excitement, anxiety and worry, a bit of pain and finally absolute elation as the baby snuggles in mommy's arms.
I'm a mom with three grown children, two grandsons, and five books with another on the way. And like any mother, I don't want to neglect the older children because of the new baby's birth. I well remember our Amanda and William when we brought home baby Jay. Amanda thought Jay was a gift for her, while William was anxious to show his baby brother his own brand new cowboy boots, a gift from his grandparents, Softie and Mary.
So, not wanting to neglect my other books, I'd like to single out just one, my first Belle Book novel, "Creola's Moonbeam." Like a big sister, she needs some attention, too. Besides, Deb Smith did the most darling promo for the novel. Easy as pie. Simply type these words: Youtube Creola's Moonbeam and get ready to dance. Part of the storyline describes the title character as a successful author of children's books. Surely this will prove true with "The Further Adventures of Ociee Nash"!
*It's also interesting to compare Deb's different approaches to the two very different books, Ociee's for girls of all ages while Creola appeals more to grown girls.
Youtube Creola's Moonbeam
Youtube The Further Adventures of Ociee Nash
More later . . .

Soooo a couple of friends have suggested I blog about more personal tidbits. For example, Deb Smith said readers might be interested in some of my grandmother's recipes. My grandmother Ociee was as fine a cook as am I . . . . . NOT! We "Nash girls" don't like to cook. A Home Ec major at the University of Alabama, I once started a fire in the home management house while trying to fry chicken. Got an "A" for the report I wrote because it made the professor laugh. My best "recipe" is to get in the car and drive to Taxco for Mexican cheese dip and chips.

Nonetheless, I DID most certainly enjoy many, many delightful dinners with my grandmother, dinners she happily prepared for me. Always, the choices included two types of sandwiches. The first was peanut butter with mayonnaise and tomato. *Don't knock it until you try it. My all time favorite was her peanut butter with pickle relish and mayo stirred together into a paste and slathered open-faced onto fresh Wonder Bread. I swear by this taste treat.
Gotta close now and fix myself a peanut butter sandwich and remember how much more fun it was to talk with my beloved Ociee than most people might have watching somebody slave over a hot stove. MMP

Here's the deal. Below is a way scary witch looking lady who is NOT, I repeat, is not me. She appears on a slide show about "The New Adventures of Ociee Nash." Whatcha need to do is push the triangle button in the middle of her chest and a bunch of cool pictures about the 1900 world of Ociee Nash will come onto your screen. Give it a try.

It's Monday, only six days to go until the publication date for "The Adventures of Ociee Nash." My friend Mary Alyce told me she's already ordered three copies. Sounds like a rush to purchase to me . . . everyone best hurry before we're completely sold out!
Even more exciting news has come onto my computer screen this day. Deb Smith e-mailed from Belle Books to announce my first book "A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street" is now #25 on the EBOOK Bestseller List for young readers.
My dear author friend Jerry Lee says this is truly amazing. I, for one, am amazed, and stunned, and pleased as can be.
*By the way, the hold-in-your hand "Charlotte Street" book remains available from Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org. Same is true for "Ociee on Her Own" the second in the series.
ALSO, it seems some precious people are blogging about all three Ociee books. Who'd thunk it?
A couple of months ago, I didn't know what blogging meant, now my grandmother Ociee is being blogged and so's this author.
That's my blog for today. MMP

Hi everyone,

The good news is my book "The Adventures of Ociee Nash" is coming out SOON-- September 1st, to be exact! You can order today directly from: Belle Books at Bellebooks@bellebooks.com
I also invite you to check out their website by simply googling Belle Books. It's a marvelous place to visit and, of course, to purchase books.
Deb Smith has done two remarkable slide shows with music to promote both Ociee AND my first book with Belle Books, "Creola's Moonbeam." The Ociee video made me cry; Creola had me up dancing around the room! What a surprise . . . thank you, Deb.

Unfortunately, after numerous attempts to "embed" these gems on my blog and on my website, I QUIT! I'm taking our dog Bella for a long walk now. Poor girl, she needs running shoes to keep up with my angst. I'm also going swimming and perhaps have Jamey take me to a movie.

Hope you're having a nice weekend . . . Milam

After seeing the film "Julie and Julia" I began to think about all the people I know who have leapt into new fields, like Julia Childs, perhaps "a tiny bit" later in their lives. A favorite example of mine is an artist friend who lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Diane Shepherd and I didn't launch our creative lives until our children left home. Just a few years ago, I was in town for Alabama Bound and visited my old friend. Diane said, "Think these are any good?" With that, bunches of gorgeous watercolors tumbled from her closet! Diane needed encouragement and she certainly got some from me. She's truly amazing and many, many more people now know that, too. I have several of her lovely works hanging in my home.
Another example is Jerry Lee Davis. This fabulous man simply quit his job at Co-Cola in June of this year and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his writing career. Another friend, J. Kershaw Cooper quit his lawyering and jumped in feet first to writing. He's doing super with a newspaper column and numerous books. Jackie White hung up her law enforcement uniform and turned on her computer, too. How many books, Jackie? Are you at eight now? I think so.
I also want to mention my friends Marilynn Winston Ph.D. and Susanne Katz who have published "A Woman's Guide to Managing a Mid-life Divorce", AND Ed Putnam whose page-turning novel about a championship Cobb County Georgia highshool baseball team will be out in a few months, AND Frank Cox who has penned his incredible story of serving as a Marine in Vietnam. We're looking for that, I believe, after the first of the year.
George Elliott is one last fellow who springs to mind. George is a FABULOUS photographer. Come to our house if you don't believe me. His website is CrazyStarfish.
These are but a few of the people I admire in the arts, all people who've stepped boldly into new careers because they listened to their creative spirits.
The point is we need to pursue our passions, age matters not.

Milam Writes Books

Hello, I'm Milam McGraw Propst, an author and the creator of a series of family focused books about my beloved grandmother, Ociee Nash. This is perhaps my second or third attempt to BLOG . . . I think I likely erased my first few efforts. As Ociee would say, "DRAT!"

Soooo I'm here blogging away and happy to say my new book "The Further Adventures of Ociee Nash" will be released by Belle Books on September 1, 2009. www.bellebooks.com

The first two books based on the childhood of my beloved grandmother, "A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street" and "Ociee on Her Own" will always be available from Mercer Press at www.mupress.org.
AND the charming film written and produced by Amy McGary and Kristen McGary, "The Adventures of Ociee Nash" starring Skyler Day, Keith Carradine, Mare Winningham and featuring Tom Key, Anthony Rodriguez and Ty Pennington can be gotten wherever you buy or rent DVDs.
***The premiere of the film at Atlanta's Fox Theater remains the best day of my life! It's lovely to see one's characters come to life on a great big movie screen!

I'm super excited about the new book which is set in Marshall County, Mississippi AND in Memphis, Tennessee. The storyline includes Ociee, her family, a snake, the Milam Madstone, a WITCH and a Dominican nun. Just an ordinary cast of characters who lived in 1900.

My publisher tells me folks may want to ask questions so let's get started. I'm waiting! Milam