Re-publishing your older titles as ebooks is a satisfying experience, in no small part because it opens up a past you thought was dead and, well, published. In fact it was all just waiting there to be re-discovered, not just the novel itself, but also the inspiration, the place, the people, and the paper trail leading to its creation…World's End (William Morrow) may have appeared long enough ago to be a Book of the Month Club Alternate Selection but it still accurately reflects much of south Louisiana. And it recently afforded me, when I re-opened that file in my desk, beaucoup memories in the form of notes, photos, and letters like the one from my friend, Pani Kolb. A Louisiana native and a long-time resident of New Orleans, she was responding to my question about what one might find at an all-out, deep-pockets, deep-delta wedding reception:
"… remoulade sauce from Arnaud's… a dance floor built under a canopy… a jazz group from New Orleans, Cajun group from Mamou, amplified concertina… long tables with linen tablecloths.. two pirogues on stands filled with ice… shrimp creole, redfish courtboullion to go over headrice, crabmeat au gratin, turtle sauce piquant… hollowed out loaves of french bread filled with pieces of steak on toothpicks and butter to dip them in, strawberries filled with cream cheese, vol au vents filled with creamed oysters… satsumas, orange wine… oyster and crayfish pies, cochon au lair, cabrito, lots of chicken and spareribs, fry wagons with big vats for catfish… C'est la vie!"
And then there was the problem of properly arming the combatant forces working for the O'Neills, traditional patriarchs of World's End Parish, and the Cinques, mafiosi-esque re-dos of Louisiana's more traditionally organized criminals.
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