SAINTS FANS INVITED

February 6, 2010
4:00 pm	to	6:00 pm

Put on your Saints’ gear, grab some friends,  and head to Old Town Bay St. Louis on Saturday, February 6th from 4 to 6 p.m. for a BLACK AND GOLD BLOCK PARTY. Old Town merchants will provide food and drink, music, and “black and gold shopping specials”. You provide the WHO DAT spirit to get ready for Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Current Economy Requires Tough Talk

April 17, 2010
12:00 am	to	11:00 am

No matter what your current financial situation Dr.Nancy Lottridge Anderson says it’s time to get serious about managing money and controlling debt. Dr. Anderson, co-host of MPB radio call- in show Money Talks will speak at Bay Books at 10 am on Saturday, April 17th on the fundamentals of money management from credit cards, mortgages, and spending plans to investments, retirement accounts and insurance. She will later sign copies of her book, Tough Talk for Tough Times: Real Conversations for Real People about Money and Finance.

“I wanted to take the fear and mystery out of finance because that is what keeps people from educating themselves and making smart decisions,”said Anderson. “My book explains the world of finance, including how Wall Street works in language that Main Street understands.”

Anderson begins Tough Talk for Tough Times by stressing the importance of having an open and ongoing dialogue about money issues with spouses and children from an early age.” These discussions are essential for achieving family goals and for raising children who can handle money responsibly. Our relationship with money affects every other relationship we have,” states Anderson. “When writing Tough Talk I thought particularly of women who are widowed, divorced or never married, who are solely responsible for their own well-being” .  Anderson was widowed at age 32 with a nine-year-old daughter to support. “Today everyone needs a basic understanding of money management.”

Erin Akey and After the Rain Feb 13th

February 13, 2010
3:00 pm	to	5:00 pm

Erin Akey’s trials and tribulations will strike a familiar chord with readers along the Gulf Coast. A divorced mother of three, Erin had to learn to navigate the brueaucracies of government and insurance companies after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her Bay St. Louis home.  Erin’s story is one of hope and conquest. Despite setbacks and heartache, After The Rain has a wonderful conclusion and the anticipation of a wonderful future filled with happiness and service to those who find themselves in similar circumstances.

Carolyn Haines wins Harper Lee award

Carolyn Haines named 2010 Harper Lee Award recipient

Carolyn Haines of Semmes has been named the 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year.  Haines will receive the award at the Alabama Writers Symposium in Monroeville on April 30 at the annual luncheon.  The conference will meet April 29-May 1.

The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, coordinates the process to select the Harper Lee Award recipient annually from nominations from the field. The honor is presented annually by Alabama Southern Community College at the Symposium. It is made possible through a generous grant from George F. Landegger.

“We are delighted with the selection of Carolyn Haines for the 2010 Harper Lee Award,” said James A. Buford Jr., president of the Alabama Writers’ Forum Board of Directors. “On April 30, she will join twelve other distinguished writers whose contributions to the literary arts follow in the tradition of Harper Lee.”

“I’m deeply honored to be the recipient of the 2010 Harper Lee Award,” said Haines. “To Kill a Mockingbird had a tremendous impact on me as a young reader and helped shape my destiny to become a writer. Fine writing is part of the Alabama heritage, and I am proud to be included among the winners of this award, which bears the name of an author I so greatly admire.”

“Great congratulations to Carolyn Haines on being named the 2010 Harper Lee Award recipient, and on adding this wonderful award to her string of writing honors and accomplishments,” said Rick Bragg, last year’s recipient.  “The award was one of the nicer moments of my writing life, and I hope it is that for her as well.”

Haines is the author of ten books in the popular Sarah Booth Delaney Bones mystery series. Her latest, Bone Appétit, will be released in July by Minotaur Books.

She has received critical acclaim for her mystery series as well as for her stand-alone titles. Fever Moon, an historical thriller released in 2007, was a Book Sense notable book, and Penumbra, set in 1952 Mississippi, was named one of the top five mysteries of 2006 by Library Journal, a distinction given to Hallowed Bones in 2004.

Her first anthology of short fiction, Delta Blues, will be released by Tyrus Books on May 1. The book includes a foreword by Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman and short stories by some of the finest writers working today, including John Grisham, James Lee Burke, and Charlaine Harris. The stories focus on the Mississippi Delta blues, a unique musical form that originated in that region, and a crime or noir element.

Her first non-fiction book, My Mother’s Witness: The Peggy Morgan Story, tells the story of a woman who testified against Byron Dela Beckwith, a white supremacist who murdered civil rights worker Medgar Evers.

Along with Rebecca Barrett, Haines edited a collection of memories about Mobile author Eugene Walter, titled Moments with Eugene.  Touched and Summer of the Redeemers, two general fiction novels, have been reissued in trade paperback. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

She received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1974 and an M.A. in English from the University of South Alabama in 1985.

Haines, a native of Lucedale, Mississippi, makes her home in Semmes, Alabama. She teaches the graduate and undergraduate fiction writing classes at the University of South Alabama, where she is an assistant professor and Fiction Coordinator. An animal activist, she works to help educate the public about the need to spay and neuter pets.

Haines was in Bay St. Louis for Barktoberfest in October 2009 to support the Friends of the Animal Shelter in Hancock County.

Sillybandz now at Bay Books!

Bay Books now has Sillybandz, the hot new collectible for kids. Collect and trade dozens of different styles and colors! $5.95 per package, available now at Bay Books.

Hancock Chamber Women’s Roundtable

January 26, 2010
5:00 pm	to	7:00 pm

Business women in Hancock County are invited to join us for the Hancock Chamber Women’s Business Roundtable here at Bay Books from 5 to 7 p.m. We’ll be talking about ways to build business in Bay St. Louis,and changes in Old Town. We’ll also introduce an effort to urge Mississippi legislators to give our businesses a competitive boost by collecting taxes on on-line businesses selling in Mississippi.

Nursing in the Storm

January 23, 2010
1:00 pm	to	3:00 pm

Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina takes you inside six New Orleans hospitals-cut off from help for days by flooding-where nurses cared for patients around the clock. In this book, nurses from Hurricane Katrina share what they did, how they coped, what they lost, and what they are doing now in a city and health care infrastructure still rebuilding, still in jeopardy.

In their own words, the nurses tell what happened in each hospital just before, during, and after the storm. Danna and Cordray provide an intimate portrait of the experience of Katrina, which they and their colleagues endured.

The book also discusses how to plan and prepare for future disasters, with a closing chapter documenting the “lessons learned” from Katrina, including day-to-day health care delivery in a city of crisis. This groundbreaking work serves as a testament to nurses’ professionalism, perseverance, and unwavering dedication.

Authors are: Denise Danna, DNS, RN, is Associate Dean for Professional Services, Community Activities and Advanced Nursing Practice Education, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, School of Nursing, New Orleans. and Sandra Cordray.

Mardi Gras Posters Booksigning

February 6, 2010
12:00 pm	to	1:31 pm

Andrea Mistretta’s air-brushed series of Mardi Gras posters has become a time-honored annual tradition in the course of their twenty-five year presence in New Orleans. Published and distributed every year in the Crescent City the Mardi GrasParade of Posters is a brillant collection for lovers of New Orleans, art collectors, and Mardi Gras aficionados.