September always catches this editor off guard. After a low key, easygoing summer – interrupted only by that fleeting burst of hysteria we call Water Festival – my inbox suddenly erupts with a flood of exuberant press releases vying for my immediate attention. Once summer passes, Beaufort’s the most happening small town on earth, and all those happenings start happening at once.

The inaugural Short Story America Festival and Conference starts Friday, September 21st in Beaufort. Authors from all over the country – and right here at home – will converge on our fair city for a host of workshops, readings and other exciting literary pursuits. The event will also be the "coming out party" for the Short Story America Anthology, Volume Two, which will be available for purchase.

A gentleman from California once asked a group of us Southerners gathered at a cocktail party why we were so much fun to be with. “There must be something in the water,” he figured. “Yes,” I said. “Bourbon.”

It’s definitely Vive le France! for the opening of the USCB Lunch With Author Series on Thursday, October 11, 2012 when Joanne Harris takes us to the village of Lansquenet, France for the sequel to the international bestseller Chocolat. The new book is Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé (American version, Peaches for Father Francis) and Harris is making Hilton Head Island part of her whirlwind tour of England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.