MISTER JANUARY: ED WILLIAMS

Rie: First off, let me say thank you, thank you, thank you for being Mister January, Ed. If anyone can pull Mister January, it's you! Ed and I are old friends but we haven't spoken much lately. As with everyone, we get busy, we have our families and lives and then the holidays showed up again…whew! Anyway, Ed, as always, is the epitome of the southern gentleman and he always makes me laugh.

Ed, I recently read that your book Sex, Dead Dogs, and Me is being revived at Champagne Books. What's that all about?

Ed: Rie, first off, thanks for havin' me, it's always fun to play online with you! Sex, Dead Dogs, and Me, it's funny. It's my very first book and was published in hardback back in 1998. First thing I've ever written in my life, and it ended up being published through a series of fluke-type events that can only be described as Forrest Gump-like. After it was published, it actually starting selling. After initially appearing in three bookstores in Macon, Georgia, it ended up being stocked nationally in the Books A Million stores and all over the southeast in the Barnes and Nobles. It literally, and literarily, got me out there, all the speaking gigs and articles and subsequent books came from it.

Fast forward to the present. SDDAM has been officially out of print for years as the small Texas publisher who initially put it out closed up shop. Even at that, copies still sell on Amazon and other outlets sometimes for fairly significant bucks. Seeing that, Ellen and I talked about potentially offering it again in the current digital formats, so that's what we've decided to do. I'm pleased to announce that Sex, Dead Dogs, and Me will be released by Champagne Books in January of 2011!

Rie: Last year you wrote a book called ChristmaSin and the reviews were varied. What do reviews mean to you?

Ed: I think they express one person's opinion about your work, and that's fine. I knew ChristmaSin' was going to be interpreted differently by the people who've read it. It's written in the first person - I'm actually narrating it as a sixteen year old boy back in my hometown of Juliette, Georgia (its one claim to fame is it's where the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed). I took actual events that happened there years ago and weaved them into a pretty real rural Southern Christmas story. Since the book was written using the dialect and slang of the time and featured some adult language and events like cockfights, I knew it wasn't the typical Christmas story. As a result, I expected the reviews to be mixed and I'm glad they were, I really don't want to be everyone's cup of homogenized tea.

Rie: I read you have been the guest speaker at the Kiwanis International, Rotary International, and the American Advertising Federation. How did that come about?

Ed: After SDDAM got popular, I was asked to appear on the Georgia Public Radio program Cover to Cover. I didn't realize it at the time, but that program is really popular, has been for years. My hour long stint on it garnered lots of call-in interest, I was told afterwards we drew more callers and listeners than they'd ever enjoyed before. A few days after the program aired I got a call from the Georgia Kiwanis Organization, and they invited me to speak to a luncheon meeting they were having at their upcoming statewide conference on Jekyll Island. I agreed to do it, thinking I'd get a night or two of free lodging on Jekyll in exchange for a talk in front of maybe forty or fifty people. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I was going to be speaking to a group of almost five hundred people! I just about crapped in my pants when I learned that, but I somehow managed to survive it. After that, I began getting invites from other groups, and my speaking activities just kinda went from there.

Rie: Is public speaking difficult for you, or do you imagine everyone in their underwear and just go for it?

Ed: I always get a little nervous, but I have a bit that I do that sets the tone and is kinda in line with my wild literary persona. I always get up there and tell the audience that there's always one woman in every crowd that I wish I could do the mattress tango with, and that I'm looking at her right now! For some reason everyone laughs, and afterwards I usually get one or two questions from folks wanting to know who it is!

Rie: You've been called the "literary Hank Williams, Jr." What a compliment! How do you feel about that title?

Ed: I love it! Bocephus is an all-time favorite of mine, and to be compared in any way with him is a total honor. I could listen to him for hours, and I love how he separates his public persona from his personal life, there's an art to doing that.

Rie: You refer to yourself as a Southern Outlaw. What does this mean?

Ed: I write kinda wild material, Southern humor but humor as it actually happened. I don't clean up the language and situations much, and I'm not trying to be everyone's favorite writer. I'm one of those types who'd rather stay true to the story than bland them down for more general consumption. I guess that pretty well sums up what I mean when I call myself a Southern Outlaw writer.

Rie: You and your friends, Ray and Hugh are members of The Brotherhood. Can anyone join? Is there an application? Are there dues?

Ed: Ray Pippin and Hugh Foskey are my two best friends. Ray and I literally grew up together, Hugh we met at Georgia College and State University back in 1976. Collectively we're known as "The Brotherhood." We've had some helluva good times and some wild fun together - believe me, I haven't written about half of it yet! Since Hugh was our last member and was inducted back in 1976, I guess you could say that we have a very tight membership, we joke about being the most exclusive social organization in the world!

Rie: You are one of the biggest flirts I've ever known. How does your SO feel about that? (I personally love it!)

Ed: I love women, appreciate women, and have always been that way. I guess I've never seen what was wrong with telling a pretty lady she's a pretty lady, and no one is pointing a gun telling anyone that they have to flirt back. So darlin', I am what I am, and those close to me recognize that. They also recognize that there's a difference in my public and private personas, too.

Rie: Christmas 2010 is over (and 2011 will be here in a flash). How did your family celebrate the holidays? And what will you be doing for New Year's Eve?

Ed: Just low keying it. Ray, Hugh, and met over at the IHOP (our lake home on Lake Sinclair in Milledgeville, we're only about four miles from Flannery O'Connor's Andulusia, imagine that) for our annual Christmas celebration, and I enjoyed the usual one with my family.

New Year's Eve, I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, but there are already a couple of wonderful possibilities! Ask me this question again in about a week!

Rie: This will post on New Year's Day, are you hung over?

Ed: Glisrae asada aeaagwrjhbkbwasd  badklajrfea.

Rie: Ha! Ha! Ed, thank you so much for being here. I look forward to interviewing you again when that new book comes out! Please, tell everyone where they can find you on the web.

Ed: Rie, you know I love ya to death, and anyone wanting to find out more about me can do so by clicking these links:

www.ed-williams.com 

www.christmasinthebook.com

www.twitter.com/ELW3 

                                                             

                       

Author Bio:
Ed was born June 19, 1956, to Ed and Barbara Williams in Forsyth, Georgia. He was raised in Juliette and is a proud product of the Monroe County public school system. He graduated from Mary Persons High School in 1974, obtained an Associate's degree from Gordon College in 1976, a BBA from Georgia College and State University in 1978, and an MBA in 1991 from the same university. Ed is married to Debbie, his wife of 29 years, and has two children, Alison (26) and Will (Ed IV - 23). He and his family currently reside in Macon, Georgia.