ANNOUNCEMENT-Short Story News

My short fiction “Anatomy of a Waterfall” was chosen as the third place winner of the Tishomingo Arts Council 2022 Fall Writing Competition. As a result of this, the piece will be published in the next edition of THE VIEW FROM WOODALL.

I cannot begin to explain how honored I am to have this piece chosen for this. My life has been strange the past couple of years, and all of that came together to create this piece. I lost my grandmother to an aggressive cancer in 2020, had my first child this year, and have been busy trying to make something of my writing. So I’m happy TAC has given me this chance. I’ll always be grateful.

If you’re interested in the story, keep a watch and I’ll be sure to share once its published!

Thanks for reading-Billy Don.

An Update about Me and this Website

This website was created to serve as my digital portfolio during the job hunt that consumed my final semesters of graduate school, and after I found and secured a job this website was abandoned in the absolute whirlwind that was finishing my thesis, moving, and getting settled into my new life. On top of all that, my first child was born in March of this year, creating a new layer of chaos in my life that has slowed down any external efforts I have. So I wanted to share an update about what this website will be going forward, as well as what I am working on and what can be expected in the months going forward.

To begin with, I won’t be as active in the academic history space going forward. My career has taken a different turn, and its not something I am interested in working on outside of a 9-5, so there won’t be as much academic research and writing going forward. That said, I am working with the Covington County Genealogical and Historical society on a number of projects, and I’ll be posting updates about that work and what I’m doing within the local/community history space here in Mississippi. Be sure to follow along for those updates.

Most recently, I gave a presentation on community history research that can be seen here.

Beyond these public history efforts, I am actively pursuing my lifelong passion of creative writing. I can’t say that it will go anywhere and that I’ll be published anytime soon, but I can say that this is the first time I have had time to really pursue these efforts. I will be updating with any news in that area here.

Outside of all of these (I swear this is the last time I say that), I am planning to start (trying) to do regular blog posts here. These posts might be book reviews, general musings, or cultural/historical tidbits. I hope to keep them light hearted and easy to produce, so if that sounds like something your interested in, keep a check in here.

Thanks for reading.

-Billy Don.

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