Um, in which we lie in bed and discuss the books we are reading, Christopher making a political commercial, alarms, and my new book, The Spirits, which comes out October 13 (pre-order now from your favorite bookstore).

Shirley Clay Scott is a scholar of literary romanticism, and she was the former head of the Western Michigan University English Department--that is where I knew her. She later became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University and then Hunter College. She kindly joined a group of us at H House to share some stories about loving and living with literature and its writers.

Shirley read us a Ruth Stone poem called "Emily Dickinson."

In attendance at the recording were some of Shirley's students and former WMU faculty and graduates, whom you will hear asking her questions or making comments. including: Prof. Lisa Durose, Prof. Thomas Bailey, Prof. Katherine Joslin, and fiction writers Lisa Lenzo and Tamara Skidmore. Also on the recording are fiction writer Andy Mozina and naturalist Sass Havilar.

Shirley was born in 1939, and she currently lives with her son near Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Michigan Author Joe Heywood is the author of 28 books of fiction, including the Woods Cop Mystery series, and he is full of curiosity, wisdom, and plain good advice for writers. Unfortunately I started taping in the middle of his 5-minute master class in writing, so you only get half of it plus the thirty second summary. Listen to the end to hear his harrowing tale of going through a culvert and paying a price for it while "researching" with conservation officers in the U.P. I could talk with this guy all day!