For years, I had wanted to visit William Faulkner's house in Oxford, Miss.
I actually got an assignment from Travel & Leisure magazine to do a story on it in the '80s, but due to a mix-up in the editorial chain of command (let's just call it "cronyism"), my article got assigned to someone else. True story. Details available if interested. (Note: I had a little cronyism going on myself with a couple of T&L editors, but the editor-in-chief trumped 'em!)
Anyway, I finally got to visit Rowen Oak this year during the Southeast Journalism Conference that several representatives from the Louisiana Tech journalism department attended. Here I am in front of it.
My colleague, Judith Roberts, and I drank it all in, trying to imagine THE William Faulkner walking these grounds, climbing these stairs, using that typewriter, telling ghost stories in that bedroom to his grandchildren, probably smoking his pipe on that balcony ....
OK, that's it. I'm going to submit another query to another publication. What the heck? I already have one written, and it already got the go-ahead from one of the best editors in New York City! Hmmmm. Nobody out there steal my story within the next three months before I retire!
