Shown are some of my most recent articles and blog postings.
How do you consume books?
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. They’ll help me plan out the distribution of my upcoming novel, “Bend In The River,” which should be released in September 2025.
From Kentucky to North Carolina: A Personal Reflection
When I’m asked “Where you from?”, these are the people and places that come to mind.
Waiting at the Depot
The waiting game at The Depot Tavern would often set a mind to wandering about the future.
Once a Brave, always a Brave
These 2024 Braves are a special bunch who are carrying the hopes of a school, an entire county and all those who have gone before them.
Ghosts of Baker Field
Ask a former football player what’s their one wish and often the answer is: One more game. Just give me one more game.
Reel Life
Anastasia Patterson, a rising star in the US angling scene, finds her bliss in the serene waters of Lake Marion at sunset.
57 birthday candles can light a fire
Looking ahead as to what awaits after 57 years can be both terrifying and thrilling. I have absolutely no idea how this story is going to end.
South Carolina’s Best in Show
Patty Wentworth has won more than 300 ribbons from the South Carolina State Fair for her cooking and crafts.
Writing about the dark and bloody ground known as Kentucky
Western Kentucky author Lee Cole’s debut novel Groundskeeping details a love-hate relationship with his home state.
Coletta Shouse
Coletta Shouse was a fighter all the way to the end, even when her final breath passed from her lips on Jan. 7, 2023, in a Henderson hospital room surrounded by her loved ones. She was 81 years old.
History’s music man
Zach Lemhouse is not only a talented musician, but he’s also a teacher of history, who’s bringing alive stories of SC’s past through music.
Preacher man preachin’
Everybody talkin’. Preacher man preachin’. Let’s talk ekphrasis, a written response to a work of art, and my take on Romare Bearden’s “Carolina Shout.”
‘Someone saved my life tonight’ at an Elton John concert
Elton John’s songs, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” and “Daniel” hold special meaning for two.
Brenda Robinson
Nov. 7, 1949-March 12, 2022 MORGANFIELD, Ky. — In Cat Alley, when the flood waters recede and the sun comes again, a bouquet of daisies and lilies erupt from the black soil – fertile ground tended by the river bottom farmers and their families. It was in that dark dirt where Brenda Diane Babbs Robinson…
Healer of bodies, minds and souls
John Glenn Creel is a family doctor that runs his own practice, Walterboro Adult & Pediatric Medicine, and is chief of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of SC and pastor of his own church, Little Rock Holiness Church. “I try to use my time wisely. When I’m sitting, I just can’t sit.”
The blank page and Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda writes like he’s running out of time and I’m staring at a blank page.
South Carolina’s model for fans of model trains
The Model Trains Station in South Carolina’s Upstate is regarded as one of the best in the Southeast. What makes it so?
South Carolina’s top dog? It’s Cliff Daley and his tasty treats
He’s the King of Corn Dogs and his dogs are known at festivals throughout the Southeast.
Preacher man since he was a boy
He preached his first sermon when he was 9 years old. Now, some 60 years later, he’s still at the pulpit of his home church in West Columbia, SC.
Where do we go from here, Major Tom?
A tiny love story from a night when the rain fell in Charlotte, NC, on a late June night in 2014.
Sharing the story
Read of one woman’s push to chart a path for those wishing to discover their heritage in South Carolina.
I dreamed of you and your biscuits
Seeing Carl was not unusual. Hearing from Carl was quite unusual.
Why, how and when do I write? Now you know
Best writing advice? Well, there is a Hemingway quote that hangs on my wall: “Write drunk. Edit sober.”
Obsessed with RC Cola and baseball, and how it all went wrong
It was the summer of 1978 and I discovered RC Cola and baseball. My daddy? Well, he found Billy Beer.
The Call of the Crow
What do you see when presented with Van Gogh’s “Wheatfield With Crows”? I thought of a man’s impending death.
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Michael Banks 360 