(A version of this essay first appeared in October of 2011. Hopefully, you won’t remember it any better than I did.­ ­– Margaret)

So, last week I’m on my back deck, beating a rug into submission with a broom. It’s another splendid fall afternoon, but I hardly notice.

A conversation with Patti Callahan, author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis

By Margaret Evans, Editor

Like so many of my favorite people, Patti Callahan Henry entered my life thanks to Pat Conroy. Though her reputation as a New York Times bestselling novelist preceded her, we met at Pat’s 70^th birthday celebration a few years ago, quickly learned we had some things in common – Alabama, for one – and just sort of clicked, like women sometimes (but not always) do. I interviewed Patti for the Conroy Center’s Porch Talk blog when she published her 12^th novel, The Bookshop at Water’s End, and our friendship grew, but it wasn’t until I heard about her latest project that I knew we were truly kindred spirits.

USCB Chamber Music is about to begin its 39th season. Five Sunday concerts with five different instrumental combinations will feature 14 performers playing the music of 22 composers ranging across a period of 250 years. Strings and piano predominate with clarinet and guitar being featured on one concert each.

Are you a fan of classical music? I am, and I love piano and violin duos. So I am looking forward to this season’s first concert on Fripp Island on Sunday, October 21, when the fabulous Kobayashi/Gray Duo will perform three outstanding pieces: A Beethoven sonata (No. 4 in A minor, if you must know), followed by “D’un matin de Printemps” by Lili Boulanger (yes, a French composer who wrote the composition in 1918, the year she turned 25 and, sadly, the last year of her life; and yes, Boulanger was a female, one of the few notable composers at that time).