Megan Paquette, book lover, artist, art conservator, and curator of the art gallery at Seminole State College, showed up at my door today with her version of Honey’s memory apron from Sewing Holes.

Her hand-stitched aprons are beautifully crafted and sold at art shows, so she had to work extra hard to make this one look like a school-kid’s clumsy first attempt.  When I saw “a wrinkled scrap of cool cotton fabric, robin’s egg blue and light as a butterfly’s wing … lightly stained,” I couldn’t believe how perfect it was.

Megan can be reached at maiblue3@gmail.com.

Julie Compton has it all: Brains, beauty, a law degree, and writing talent to spare. She lives in a house on the ocean with a husband who adores her. Plus two talented, accomplished daughters. Can we at least hope she can’t cook?

I first heard Julie Compton read from her work at a workshop given by Jamie Morris that we were both attending. Compton gets nervous when she reads, so her voice drops down to a raspy register like Bonnie Tyler’s singing Total Eclipse of the Heart – which made the excerpt she read all the more riveting.

Like a female John Grisham, Compton writes about the legal profession in a way that humanizes the lawyers, their clients, the judges, and juries, and takes a personal approach to their difficult jobs and the effect on their families. She owes me several hours of sleep, as I can never put her books down until I’ve turned the last page, and I’m still thinking about her characters days later.

Here is what Compton has to say about Sewing Holes:

With alternating doses of heartbreak and humor, Darlyn Finch Kuhn’s debut coming-of-age novel, Sewing Holes, is a Southern charmer.  Set in the 70s, the novel tells the tale of spunky Tupelo “Honey” Lee as she learns about love, loss, family, and compassion. Grab your coffee and find a comfortable chair, because Sewing Holes will suck you in and keep you reading to the last line.

~Julie Compton

Author of Tell No Lies, Keep No Secrets, and Rescuing Olivia

Bob Kealing is the author of three books about “pop culture” figures in Central Florida who have enriched its literary, musical, and business history. Kealing slows down long enough to really study the places he passes on his way to work and play, and through diligent study unearths gems of history hidden in the crumbling buildings all around us.

The first time I met Bob was at a signing at the old Chapters Bookstore on Park Avenue in Winter Park for Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends, about Jack Kerouac’s time in Orlando and Tampa. His research for that book led to the creation of the Jack Kerouac House Project of Orlando, where I would later serve as writer-in-residence and compile my first poetry and short-story collection.

Bob hasn’t neglected our musical heritage, either; his book Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock has led to a resurgence of interest in the rocker and the future preservation of an important historical landmark seminal to Parson’s early development.

But the Emmy-winning news reporter for WESH’s biggest coup yet may be his historical piece about a ubiquitous plastic storage empire called Tupperware Unsealed: Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper and the Home Party Pioneers. The rights to the book have been purchased by Sony Pictures, to be directed by Tate Taylor and starring Sandra Bullock.

Anyone who knows Bob Kealing will tell you that preserving history is his calling, that his success is due to relentless hard work and diligent research, and that it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Here is what Kealing has to say about Sewing Holes:

“In the tradition of Carson McCullers and Rick Bragg, Darlyn Finch Kuhn writes with an acute sense of romanticism, confusion and heartache that is childhood and family life in the American South.  Her flair for detail helps the reader understand why it is such a definitive place.”